On the homepage of the New York Times today: a profile of Mollena Williams, a frequent "Savage Lovecast" guest expert, and her husband/dominant Georg Friedrich Haas:

The Austrian-born Mr. Haas, 62, a music professor at Columbia University since 2013, has recently been increasingly open about the unusual nature of his marriage, which he says has dramatically improved his productivity and reshaped his artistic outlook. He will be the subject of a two-concert American Immersion series on Wednesday and Friday presented by the Austrian Cultural Forum, which includes the American premiere of his “I can’t breathe,” a dirgelike solo trumpet memorial to Eric Garner.

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In a joint appearance with his wife, who now goes by Mollena Williams-Haas, late last year at the Playground sexuality conference in Toronto, then in an interview this month in the online music magazine VAN, he has “come out,” as he put it, as the dominant figure in a dominant-submissive power dynamic. Mr. Haas has chosen to speak up, both because Ms. Williams-Haas’s sexual interests are widely known (her blog, The Perverted Negress, is not shy about kink and bondage) and because he hopes to embolden younger people, particularly composers, not to smother untraditional urges, as he did....

Their marriage can seem, in this regard, distinctly old-fashioned, and not in a Marquis de Sade way. While the terms they negotiated at the start of their relationship do not prevent her from pursuing her own professional and personal life, Ms. Williams-Haas devotes much of her time to supporting the work of a man—“Herr Meister,” she has nicknamed him—for whom a “good day” is one in which he composes for 14 or 15 hours. “She makes my life as comfortable as possible,” Mr. Haas said.

Ms. Williams-Haas, who described the situation as feminist because it is her choice, said, “I find intense fulfillment in being able to serve in this way.”

This piece, which focuses on the couples' marriage and Mr. Haas' creative process, is notable for what it's not: sneering, salacious, or sensationalistic. It's not about how kink is a problem or a perversion, it's about how kink brought two people together, and how and why it works for them—and not just sexually.

It's a breakthrough—and not for kinksters, who know from personal experience that a relationship with a D/s dynamic can be loving and supportive. It's a breakthrough for mainstream media.

"This feels to me like first time @nytimes published articles openly IDing gay relationships," says Alice Dreger. "I honestly thought it would be many more years before @nytimes featured the word/idea of 'kink' positively in a headline/article."

Mollena told the story of how she met Georg for Bawdy Storytelling in 2014. She included lots of details that somehow didn't make it into the New York Times. It's after the jump...