There seems to have been another issue recently with some fetish teacher/educator being outed as a creepy fuck. Colour me unsurprised. If ever there was a soft target for manipulative egotrippers it’s ‘educating’ people about how to do BDSM.
I tend to regard people who teach kink the same way I regard people who teach writing** (if they call it ‘creative’ writing then I smile blandly and run like fuck). You might be nice, you might be well intentioned, but I’m not sure you’re necessary, let alone helpful. What worries me is that having a teacher, or at least attending some classes, is almost compulsory, in some people’s eyes, if you want to do either kink or writing properly. The result is often that ‘everything basically tastes the same’.
The most any writing class can teach you is a bit of technique – if your issue is poor spelling and grammar skills then you might be better off with some sort of adult literacy class, which will probably be cheaper.
The most any BDSM class can teach you is technique, really. Some kink stuff DOES need to be taught and learned, because it involves some specific technical skills, and because you can do a lot of damage by having a go without the relevant knowledge.
A kink teacher can’t find you the perfect partner, or improve a relationship that’s failing because your partner is sick to death of you, or tell you what will actually turn YOU (or your next playmate) on or off, any more than a writing teacher can guarantee you a bestseller just like all the others, or give you an idea if you have nothing to say in the first place.
Of course there are decent teachers out there, and sometimes a workshop or event class can give you an insight you didn’t have before, but a lot of this stuff seems to be people peddling no-shit-Sherlock ‘advice’ or simply feeding their own egos. Or worse. Take the whole lot with a pinch of salt and remember that writing, like kinky sex, is supposed to be fun more than anything else.
** Yes, I do writing sessions (Dicewriting). I’m not teaching you how to be a writer. I’m giving you some writing toys to play with.