I have been visiting your message board for a little over a month and I have to say I have found great interest in what seems to be going on here and how it is paralleling what tends to happen in the small little community that I belong to. It has amused me that some posts, if but only a few words were changed, would match almost word for word for some of the post on a few of our message boards. I thought that maybe I would step out of the shadows and let you know that you, who find personal enjoyment out of taking and performing in ballet will be hounded until the end of time by those who, one dislike you because they believe you to be gay and secondly by those who can only see what you do as a sexual/fetish act. The hate mongers you can easily band together and rebuke but the other is going to be a chore. It has come to a great number of the members of the community I belong to that those, who see something that is seen to yourself to be quite normal and the void of any sexual thoughts as sexual in nature, can not see past the physical/sexual aspect of it. To you it is a dancing belt or a pair of tights, just a simple article of clothing but to them they are sadly locked in the belief that its just the means that they can get greater sexual gratification. What first interested me when I came to this board was that I was looking for information about a dancing belt and where to find them. After checking a few past post I found the information I needed and I was "informed". But it was then that I noticed a pattern with a few post that I had remembered seeing before on a couple of boards in my community. First there were the post that were out right fetish post and they got the reactions that the ones did over on our boards, the "We are tired of these types of posts" responses and the "We do not think this way" responses. Then I began to see the "sightings" fetish posts where as someone says "guess what I saw in class today" and the "he must be one of us" type of post. As I said before I just continued to watch and see how this message board would react. I saw a few speak up and voice their opinions that these types of post are not what the board was intended for and about how the board was meant to be a place to share thoughts on the actual act of ballet not the feelings wearing the gear that one preforms in. But, then the anti-censorship post came in and then employed the famous "Lighten up" posts that always amuses me. Its like they want you to just sit down and don't open your mouth about the things going on around you. Those who are willing to settle for anything usually are doomed to fall for anything.
I guess I wanted to say is that those of you who enjoy the exchange of information and thoughts on what you feel about act of ballet and are starting to get weary of the constant fetish post, speak up now or lose your board to those who only see what you do as sexual because of the clothes that you are wearing. Once they get a toehold in here then word will spread in the ballet fetish community and more will come. For a fact I know that there is at least one message board on Sexyboards.com that caters to ballet fetish. What is really sad is that some of them choose to no longer visit and post on those types of message boards because once the porn industry finds out that a group of them are hanging out at a certain location on the internet they come in with their porn advertising posts. Pretty soon every other post is for a porn site and soon the regular people who post are hit with nothing but porn advertising. So they have to leave there and search for a place where they can be again the center of attention. I have found that those in the fetish community are like a cult and constantly want to work their way into other communities because they believe that everyone thinks like them and are interested in the same sexual goal. Remember in their minds they can not fathom the thought that you do not do ballet, then go off into a corner and do your business and no mater how many times you say to them "I do not think of it "that" way" they will say to themselves "sure you do, you just don't want to admit it". This is their arrogance and I offer you my best hopes and wishes that your message board will not forever fall into being a online porn message boards.
Good luck and God Speed.
L.K.M.P.
P.S. before I go back into the shadows, the good people who decide to throw their hands up in the air and say I'm leaving for another messageboard that is G rated because this one has gone to the dogs, know this they will find you at that board one day and then the whole cycle will begin again. Make your stand here. [/i]