Merchandise saddens me sometimes. For example, at the Dollar Store I found the Fabio Fitness Video for a dollar(best $1 I ever wasted). So I can find a Fabio work-out tape, but no swell Amazon Trio merchandise.

I want dolls, god dammit. Are fashion dolls so much to ask for? Well, they'd have to have brushable hair. And Fish-Eye would need to either fit into Barbie clothes or the clothes of my existing Sailor Moon dolls. And they'd have to be poseable because...well, what's the point of dolls if you and your friends can't pose them in obscene positions? And it's not like they'd be lonely...between Pluto and Wicked Lady I've got a decent range of ages. Even if I would use the time key and the little wand Jupiter came with for evil...

But is that really so much to ask for? Where are the SuperS villain dolls, god dammit? Instead of making the Inner Scouts look absolutely frightening, Irwin should've gotten to work on Nehelenia and the Amazons. I mean, we all lose money on customizing, don't we? And Dr. Tomoe got a doll and you couldn't even see his face for half of S!

Yeah, I know this isn't quite a rant and more of a desperate plea for help, but I can't possibly be alone on this. Well, fine, I could be very alone on this, but no one can at least admit to me that they'd want a Nehelenia doll?

Admittedly, my dream Nehelenia doll would probably cost more than I could afford....I'm currently thinking of something in the Holiday Barbie/Disney Princess style--bigger box, Barbie sized, big billowing dress with lots of detail...and all the right accessories since my Pluto doll's skirt and collar are both silver for some reason and Jupiter did come with a Moon Crescent Wand(okay, Jupiter was $2.99 in the KayBee toys bargain bin, so I should stop my bitching).

Well, crap, I just added something else to my impossible wish-list. In the best of all possible worlds Nehelenia would also come with a little Zirconia figure for smacking around(remember My Little Ponies? Remember how the Princess ponies came with little attendant thingies who I've forgotten the names of? The little hairy guys from the MLP movie? Like that. Only Zirconia.)

Yes, my life is sad and meaningless. But am I the only one who finds any of this appealing?

Before moving on, I'd just like to say that Dead Moon shot glasses would rock the house too.

Now, it's time to get serious, buckaroos.(raise your hand if you can tell I wrote the two halves of this editorial weeks apart!)

All right, fellow writers and fan fic readers(but writers especially), repeat after me: rape and bondage are not the same thing. This is a very important thing to remember when writing lemons. Or when reading them as your source of information about the magical world of BDSM.

BDSM(Bondage Discipline Sado-Masochism) is always consensual. Always. There are little things called "safe words" in case the sub enjoys screaming and writhing so that when anyone--sub or dom/me--feels uncomfortable, someone can say the safe word and the scene can stop.

As someone who enjoys both bondage and being a closet dominatrix, it really pisses me off to see people use the term "rape/bondage."

Here's a brief, simply definition.

Tying someone up and taunting/teasing/torturing them when you know they enjoy it=bondage

Tying someone up and forcing them to have sex with you=rape

Big difference. I'm one of those people who finds rape roleplaying/fantasy nearly as disgusting as actual rape.

Meanwhile, anyone who frolicks about happily tying rape and bondage together is basically ruining things for those of us who have at least a vague idea what we're doing. Yeah, BDSM, like many fetishes of mine, isn't widely accepted. Of course, in some parts of the country, you're not even supposed to talk/think about Pilgrim sex. And my mom would cry herself to sleep if she knew her oldest daughter was a closet domme.(I'd probably cry myself to sleep if my mom found out I'm a closet domme...) Anyway, long rambling short, enough people think BDSM is dirty and wrong, and then there's a bunch of twits prancing around linking it to rape.

Am I saying no one should write stories about rape? No. Glorified rape masquerading as bondage is sick and disgusting(the bad kind of sick and disgusting since one can argue that I read a great deal of sick and disgusting things.) Rape/attempted rape in a realistic manner--ie not some "s/he's doing it because he really loves him/her, everything'll be fine later complete with blood, sweat, and tears, and meant to be erotic" crap--is fine.

Go to my friend Ophelia's site if you want to know what I'm talking about. She's generally much more coherent than I am.(And no flames. If you've made it this far through one of my pages, you probably won't, but if you must flame someone, flame me. I like e-mail)

And if you root around there, you'll probably discover that I've toed the line a bit...but I don't think rape is funny. At all. Mistaken identity leading to foreplay is funny.(okay, so manipulating someone isn't exactly a good and decent thing to do, but it's how most things in life happen...)

Yeah, I know some of my bitchery about S&M vs Rape is a snippet from an earlier rant, but just be glad I got it out of my system so March's rant can be about trying to find a new hair color or something.