Avid readers will remember that I have an ongoing survey about the possibilities which will come with the needs around creating a BDSM driven school environment. We initially started in surveymoneky but quickly migrated the actual form onto Google Docs. Having had this running for more than four months I took some time to do some very rough analysis on the actual data. The day I did the analysis we had received 192 valid answers. I looked at the main areas of interest and compiled some graphs that I would like to share with you. My intent was to understand whether there is a market and not how to actually attack the market. Some of the key questions where the who, where and what.
Looking and age and gender distribution did not really give me much data to work with, it merely reflects the distribution of individuals which frequent my blog. I did not expect so many answers for those of 17 years of age or younger. It is commendable that so many young people are showing an interest in the lifestyle and I hope that the community can cater to their thirst for information in a sane and safe manner.
Mostly masochistic sub-missives and slaves answered the survey and I will assume that this reflects the choice of activities which made it into the top ten. I did not expect to get so many answers from female readers, something that I am very happy about as I always felt that my writing style might not exactly cater to the style a female reader might actually enjoy. The list of activities was kept very generic on purpose as to find out which topics are of most interest. I think I will build on that for a secondary survey, maybe later in the year.
Observant as I know my readers are you might question what value there is in the answers given for the top ten. Bondage after all encapsulates a multitude of activities, just like collars and discipline does as well. This is merely an indicator of what I believe the people interested in such a school might be wanting to see a curriculum made up from. The direction set by this top ten allows me to create a more focused survey which can then actually develop an in-depth program based on these general topics.
Understanding whether this is actually a business was important to me as well. While I did not include the statistics in willingness to travel it seems clear that the majority of individuals is not opposed to investing 1000 dollars for a three week program in the specific area they might be interested in. There is also a growing trend in the answers coming in now, which indicates that many people are interested in on-line training rather than actually being physically present. That is a little bit of a concern to me as I am not sure that is even possible. Some things you might be able to do so remotely through live sessions, however for the majority of activities the individuals would have to be present. Safety being one of my major concerns.
I will continue to monitor the answers and the more I get the better, so please continue spreading the word to your friends. This is a first, quick update and I hope you enjoy it. As a little side note, more than 60% of all respondents are willing to trade pictures and or videos of their training in exchange for their tuition.
i’m glad that You have been entertaining the thought of a school! i am 17 and have been interested in BDSM(as a general term for all i’m interested in) for about a year and a half now.. hopefully You will be able to find a way to educate those in the younger crowd on how to be safe in this sort of environment, i have had to learn by trial and error as well as the internet.
Master and i are both younger and were always trying to find support from people in the lifestyle and have found it very hard to find some that are willing to talk (seeing as i’m underage and He is barely of age) about their experiences and lessons..
Good vibes to You and Your slave!
becka
Hello becka.
Unfortunately strict regulation and the law are quite unclear on what can potentially happen when providing these kinds of information to a minor. I do believe that there are ways to share this kind of information in a way that all angles are covered. Many people in the community are scared though, sepcially as you are still maturing as a young individual.
I think people choose online training because you are located in Canada, and most (because of current economy) can not afford to travel. Other wise you wouldn’t see this obstacle. A lot of people want and need proper training, maybe if you had a school in the US
the idea is interesting but I do wonder if someone else can actually effectively train a for their (insert whichever words you want). I rather think that the bond created during the training process is essential and having someone else take that role will lessen the value of the training for the Dom.
Hello. Thank you for your comment. As to your concern, I would very much think that it depends on what you are teaching. There is enough room, even in the BDSM world, to teach technique and other related topics where little to no emotional bonding is necessary to either learn a good or a bad behaviour, a good or a bad technique. Where it becomes tricky is how you judge what is good and what is bad. The regular academic body has a wide gamut of checks to ensure that, we are not as lucky in the community so it would be up to the founders to defend what is good or bad in our eyes to the rest of the community.