Soon after Donald Trump joined the presidential race, a professional dominatrix named Tara Indiana announced her plans to follow suit. If a carnival barker like Donald Trump can run for president, why not a dominatrix? she said during an interview with GQ. Her slogan? Whipping America back into shape, one middle aged white man at a time.

Her platform included decriminalizing all consensual sex acts between adults, funding scientific research to show that S&M is a sexual orientation and adding kink into laws dealing with discrimination. She also favored the idea of the prohibitioning of middle-aged white men from holding office without permission from their Mistress, and requiring men to carry purses so they can look after their own belongings.

The women in my field, we dont live as victims. When we want to make change, we make changes, says professional dominatrix and sex educator Sandra LaMorgese. When we want to influence the world around us, we take action.

Women are feeling a little powerless right now, she notes. And shes right. In the weeks following election, sex therapist Kimberly Resnick Anderson noticed a steady decline in sex drive among her female clients. They appeared irritable and easily annoyed. Often, it was the men in their lives that bore the brunt of these developments. Anderson dubbed the phenomenon The Donald Trump Bedroom Backlash. The misogyny displayed by Trump throughout his entire presidential bid. . . has undermined the hard-fought progress to de-objectify women, she wrote in a think piece on the subject. This general malaise can easily zap libido and ruin your sex drive.

But there are those in the sex-o-sphere who havent abandoned their prowess. Instead, theyre using it to get even.

In an interview with Vice, Indiana explained, Ive noticed being in the scene for over 25 years, that fetishes and kinks come in trends, just like fashion, music, et cetera. And these trends tend to be reactions to the social and political zeitgeist.

When I got into the business in 1989 your garden variety slave was into foot worship, and cross dressing. I see this as a reaction to changing gender roles and a need to work through those issues. Then when AIDS started to affect the straight community, things like heavy medical, blood sports, and scat became popular. People were tired of safe sex they wanted to do things that were dangerous and risky.

In the world of sex, theres only one equal and opposite reaction to an apparent uptick in female devaluation: complete female domination.

Any time that we express empowerment during sex, that will trickle into other areas of our life, says LaMorgese. Its the transmutation of energy. Everything you do influences everything else. If you can be more aggressive, and dominant and powerful, sexually, it gives you a sort of moxie. It gives you some swagger.

And its not just women pushing the trend. After the election results came in, submissive guys started posting ads on Craigslist in search of women looking to relieve some stress. One guy from New York wrote, This is not a solution, but maybe a small, fun, cathartic escape. Take out your anger by putting me over your knee and giving me a hard spanking!

In the week that Trump was elected, I saw such a shift in people reaching out to me for sessions, LaMorgese revealed. Her clients, overwhelmingly male and financially successful, fall on either end of the political spectrum. Still, the requests were more or less the same. These clients were not looking for passive sessions, they were looking corporal punishment. They were looking for very intense sessions.

Its like they were in shock, she says. When youre doing BDSM, you have to be present. You really have to be aware of whats happening. Maybe thats why the clients are asking for more intensity. Its almost like it can get them out of shock.

Donald Trump is not sexy. But sex tends to follow the trends, and for the moment, Trump is it. His unlikely climb to power has given us great porn parodies like Donald Tramp and Make America Gape Again. Its also inspired some terrific pieces of erotic literature, like Humpin Trump and of course, President Trumps Gay Hairpiece and the Revenge of the Were-Water Buffalo. These days, those who chose to take their creativity into the bedroom might just find themselves somewhere between a whip and a hard place.

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Donald and the Dominatrix: How the White House Inspired a BDSM Movement - Salon