Today I have some questions for you. But let’s see the news first.
According to the San Francisco bay guardian, Mrs. Beatrice Stonebanks is a business consultant with a rather unique approach to team leading. Taking a clue from her 16 years of experience as a dominatrix in her private life, she brought the philosophy and ethics of BDSM in her clients’ offices, with a very special management course titled ‘Corporate dominatrix training 101: How to use sex and power to increase sales’.
The seminars are not part of her official business offer, but are organized through theSociety of Janus, one of the oldest kink-positive associations worldwide – where Stonebanks is also the editor of their newsletter. Her lessons are quite removed from the vapid ideas of weird business manuals like The corporate dominatrix (yes, it is a real book): the key concepts are negotiating boundaries and consent, a no-nonsense approach, aftercare and seduction. The latter may be literal, or more business-wise. The method apparently has many enthusiastic followers, and surely has earned her quite a reputation.

But I promised you questions, so here they are. You see, I am trying to decide what this news really means, and I would like to hear your opinion. Is bringing kink in the boardroom an exciting innovation, or a sign of the desperate times the job market is undergoing? Is the “business dominatrix” concept a sensible idea at all? Is it just a gimmick? And what about the female role in all of this? Is using seduction and a bitchy attitude at work empowering, or a last resort to cope with a male-dominated environment?
Again, one of the themes in my latest book is whether turning your erotic preferences into a job can be seen as a personal success, or as selling out in defeat before a hostile working life. What do you think about it, and why? The comments are open…