Dogs Don't Wear Pants - The Depiction of BDSM.

The Finnish director Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää is one of Finlands most interesting filmmakers. His debut movie Muukalainen (Stranger) was awarded the main price at Gothenburg Film Festival 2009. Valkeapää has stated that he was inspired in Muukalainen by silent movie directors. In Dogs Don’t Wear Pants Valkeapää has a similar atmosphere where spoken dialogue isn’t in the center of the movie. 

Dogs Don’t Wear Pants is about the world of BDSM and the relationship between two people. The main character Juhas wife dies in a drowning incident and he falls into a long period of grief. By a mere accident Juha meets Mona, a dominatrix, who strangles him and it wakens in him a deep desire to be strangled which is when he also has visions of his dead wife. The movie portrays the relationship between two people with their respective fetishes and desires at the same time as it looks at BDSM as a form of therapy for Juha in processing his grief. 

BDSM as a subject has been portrayed in movies before, some taking a more realistic approach and others less realistic ones.  In Valkeapääs movie the tone is dark, but the movie still portrays the BDSM community in a positive light even if the visual aspect is dark. The world of BDSM is for many an unknown territory and often filled with prejudice and negative associations. To shed light on the subject matter and the world that the movie depicts we contacted a local representitive of the BDSM community to give insight into the BDSM community in Hungary and his thoughts on the movie. 

 

 

I am Daniel/RisleyAddix, kinkster and BDSM event organizer. I have been organizing BDSM play parties for almost 6 years, and the Hungarian BDSM Conference (HunCon) for 5 years (hunbdsm-con.eu). 

 BDSM stands for: BD = bondage. Ds= dominance-submission, D = discipline,  SM = sadism-masochism. If you would like to get longer definitions and obtain more insight to these experssions, I can strongly recommend you to visit: https://kinkly.com 

 

BDSM by definition is consensual, this is the major difference between any sort of abuse and BDSM. If you slap my face it is a sort of abuse, if I did not consent to it, but if you kick my balls, or use me as a human ashtray, or spank me and I consented to this it is not abuse, but BDSM.

Regarding safety:  in order for BDSM to be as safe as possible, all the participants have to be sane and sober. However BDSM, just like horse back riding, skiing or other activites has potential risks. This is why I stress the importance of RACK: Risk-Aware Consensual Kink (www.kinkly.com/definition/313/risk-aware-consensual-kink-rack) 

 

Indeed, he has. However in my experience people rarely turn to BDSM because of traumas. However BDSM can be a good therapy for treating traumas, or treating mental issues like panic attacks, anxiety and depression. There is also a controversial topic: Can we say, that Pro Dommes/Mistress -or at least some of them- are therapists? There are several articles about the topic of BDSM as therapy, but let me share my favourite:  (lourdesviado.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/BDSM-as-therapy.pdf) 

 

Let's start with the murky side. In my experience in Hungary most of the people think of BDSM as something deviant, sick and even evil. However there are fortunately open-minded people, who are accepting BDSM, or even try it.  In my opinion we should learn that accepting something does not mean, that we have to love that certain phenomenon. It means, that we do not hate it, and we do not hate and blame those fellow humans, who like that particular thing. In my opinion this is not merely about BDSM, but should be a universal rule, regarding the consensual preferences of others.

 

Tough question, because a book could be filled with the answers.  BDSM is consensual and very diverse. In the world of BDSM you can be basically anything, or anyone who you would like to be from a unicorn, to a fox, from a doctor, to a police officer, from a footstool to a chair. Many people believe that BDSM is only about pain. It is true, that sadism and masochism are parts of BDSM. And there is nothing wrong with inflicting pain, if it's consensual. On the other hand BDSM can often be sensual, beautiful and artistic.

 

First of all, we should note, that Dogs Don't Wear Pants is not a documentary, it is a rather artistic movie.  In that sense it sometimes reminded me of another BDSM themed movie, of Peter Strickland's Duke of Burgundy 

For example, when the male main character reaches sub space (the euphoric mental state of the submissive during a BDSM scene) his dream like visions are something what many kinksters are experiencing during an intense seeen.

On the other hand some scenes are unrealistic, regarding the fact, that the Dominatrix (Mona) in the movie seems like she is very experienced. However since Dogs Don't Wear Pants is fiction, hopefully the audience will not percieve it as a depcition of reality.

Returning to the bright side: I would say, that the BDSM dynamics going on between the two main characters is amazing and superb emotional and realistic. To support this idea, let me quote a friend of mine, who said these words based only on watching the trailerof the movie: