The BDSM sub-culture can be exceedingly narrow and insular. Sub-cultures tend to be like this because it is how they define themselves. In the case of BDSM, it tends to breed a culture of erotic snobs who sneer at outsiders and routinely dismiss them as merely "vanilla." Vanilla is the worst thing you can be. It means that you are not part of the scene.
Critics of Code d' Odalisque throw the vanilla slur around in a predictable way. As soon as they hear that Code d' Odalisque is non-sadomasochistic, the word 'Vanilla' lights up in their mind like a neon sign. This is because, for many people, the issue that determines whether you are vanilla or not is your attitude to power and pain. Since Code d' Ode is not about power and pain, it must therefore be "vanilla". It is on the basis of this reasoning that some critics and bloggers see fit to heap abuse upon Code and Coders and ridicule the whole thing as a vanilla role playing game with no relation to "real" BDSM.
These on-line tantrums by defenders of the non-vanilla are very tedious and we have answered such criticism many times in posts on this blog and elsewhere. 'Vanilla', of course, is in the eye of the beholder, but we vigorously contest the idea that an aversion to sadomasochism is what puts someone in that category. In fact, one way to see Code d' Odalisque is precisely as a method for the (non-vanilla) exploration of extremes of non-SM play. Odalisque slave play involves finding alternatives to SM as a means of exploring sexual extremes. This is implicit in the very idea of a 'slave'. If your tastes in sex are vanilla and ordinary (bland, mild, mediocre, pedestrian, average, common) then why would a man need a sex slave and why would a woman want to be one? Slavery, in itself, is an extreme state: an extreme state of obedience and submission. Slavery, in itself, is non-vanilla. And you only become involved in it in order to pursue sexual needs and sexual desires that go well beyond the ordinary. It is an arena for the extreme. You don't need an odalisque for ordinary sex.
But at the same time, the extremes explored in Code d' Ode are not those of violence, power and pain. There are other dimensions to explore. The fact is that there are plenty of over-sexed, kinky, debauched perverts who do not respond to either giving or receiving pain. If such people wander into the BDSM sub-culture they encounter small-minded purists who think of them as "vanilla" just because they are not into whips and leather and the whole dungeon aesthetic. Code d' Odalisque offers such people an alternative. Don't be misled by the polite and cultured vaneer: its purpose, its only purpose, is the pursuit of pleasures well beyond the borders of "vanilla".
Like what? you ask. A local Code d' Ode player of our acquaintance describes play as what he calls a "mind fuck." The extra dimension, he means, is the mind. There's the physical sex, of course, but the extension of play into extremes is essentially mental. Physical pleasure has natural limits in and of itself. If you fail to appreciate this then you are liable to become jaded and insensitive. Some people address this by adding pain into play: pain is their way around the limits of pleasure. The other way is the mind, the imagination.
But isn't that just role playing? you ask. Not at all. By "mind fuck" we mean such themes of obsession, monomania, addiction, Critics seem to think Code d' Odalisque is just a nude version of 'I Dream of Jeannie'. No - it explores a certain dimension of eroticism (namely phallicism) in depth. The play consists of taking the (willing) woman on a journey into the depths of phallic obsession. She is a cockslave. Her purpose is cockworship. Some people might like to play-act this role, but there are others who take it far more seriously and places they take this mode of slave-play is anything but "vanilla".
Consider it like this: you take a (willing) woman and keep her as a captive. You control her - without active violence - but with an array of other powerful techniques. You control her physically but you control her mentally as well. Building on her natural instincts, you cultivate in her an obsession for cock, an obsessive lust, an addiction, a monomania, like an induced craziness. This goes well beyond a role playing game.
As any psychologist will tell you, "mind fucking" like this can be as dangerous as physical harm and torture. This is why Code d' Odalisque has packaged this type of exploration of extremes in a web of rules and etiquette and why it includes numerous devices to ensure the welfare and well-being of the consenting woman. Odalisque slavery is not a walk in the park. As "games" go, it is a very serious one., or it can be. Where "mind fucking" is concerned, proceed with caution - as much caution as would be proper when stretching a (willing) slavewoman on the wrack. There are other ways beyond the border of pleasure than sadomasochism. Code d' Ode uses various techniques - which are basically psychological in nature ("brainwashing" techniques, if you like) - in order to explore the deeper dimensions of lust. It's not for the vanilla.
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