Universal Dependencies - English - GUM

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BDSM as business: An interview with the owners of a dungeon

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Sunday, October 21, 2007

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Operating the business

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The costs

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Clothing supply closet.

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There's a misconception in this industry.

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Your exposure to this is probably primarily what you see in movies, scanning magazines, scanning the Internet, just snippets everywhere.

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It's portrayed as though it's dark, black and evil.

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And --

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Oh man, well?

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What's up?

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I do wear a lot of black.

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It's anything but that.

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If you look at the rooms, there's all the accouterments you'd find in these types of places -- but more than anything, there's a lot of good feeling around here.

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We hire the opposite of what you'd think we would hire, what the average person would think we would hire.

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We hire educated, nice people.

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I remember one of our ads that I had put in said, 'If you think nice girls don't do S&M,' -- I forgot what the rest of it said --

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'-- think again.'

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Yeah, 'think again' or something like that.

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And that ad had pulled so many girls, because they -- I think they all thought that nice girls don't do this.

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And a bunch of them had called and they said, 'Wow.'

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And I think I remember, a bunch of guys called because of that also.

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Do you remember?

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I sure do, I sure do.

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What are the startup costs involved?

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It varies; look around Manhattan, look around rents, look around build-outs, look around hiring, look around advertising ...

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What's your greatest non-fixed cost?

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The single most costly thing we spend on is rent and advertising, those two together make up the bulk of what we spend.

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There's supplies, and there's wear and tear and maintenance, and bookkeeping and things like that that you have to do.

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That's about it.

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The hardest thing in running this business, which is why people can't do it, is the relationship that my wife has with the gals and with the customers.

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Where do you advertise?

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A lot on the web, we've used most of the local city papers, New York Press, things like that, L Magazine.

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In the back of the paper?

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Typically in the back of the paper.

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Magazines constantly change their policy on it; they want it, they don't want it ...

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Depending on the election year --

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Who's buying the paper, who's selling the paper.

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So it changes, so one year we got to be in the Press, but they have now stopped adult ads.

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Completely.

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So now we'll be in the Voice for a while.

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We're moving more towards the Internet at this point, because the Internet is a much easier, safer way for a person to look at sensitive material and not get caught with it.

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Hiring employees

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Personality test questions given to prospective mistresses.

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Pursuant to your business question: we only hire nice people.

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I don't care if a girl is absolutely exquisite looking --

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My husband has met beautiful, beautiful girls --

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-- beautiful girls --

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-- and he's in the end, he would say, 'Well, I won't hire them.'

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I'm like, ‘Are you insane?

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I won't hire them.

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I hire --

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Why not?

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Because I want someone who's going to treat people nicely and well.

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We have --

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How can you tell whether they will or will not?

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Just by talking to them?

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Having been a psychologist for a number of years gives me a leg up on it.

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And he's been right.

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And I have made him hire these girls, and ultimately he's been right

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They've been complete pain in the asses!

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I also have a profile they fill out for me, a mini-MMPI that I developed, so that I have an idea -- Rebecca and I put it together

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I don't know if you'd like to see one.

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No, no, no. Just --

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I could show you.

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So I have a mini-MMPI that I --

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Could I have a sample, not necessarily one that's filled out, but just one that you --

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I'll show you.

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The questions are --

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Be careful.

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He'll make you fill one out.

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You'd be scared.

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You wouldn't hire me.

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Is it only girls you hire?

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Yeah.

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What would a question like 'the greatest woman in the world' reveal to you?

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No question would reveal anything independently of all the questions together --

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Sure.

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-- but I have a chart that I'll go through; the MMPI.

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The baseline data that I use to --

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How did you originate these questions?

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Where did I make them?

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You get a baseline from asking girls and refining profiles --

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And it's an amalgamation of questions.

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Of many, many questions --

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What's your favorite question?

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I don't know, the O.J. Simpson ….

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Yeah, I see O.J. Simpson.

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What would that be an indicator of?

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I'm not sure which one you gave him, but there's a brief, brief, brief IQ test there.

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Very brief.

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Do you ask for references?

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No, because I really can't call and tell them I'm yeah, so-and-so's applying here for a position.