Welcome to Bator Sex. This kink issue aims to inflame new passions. Having laid the groundwork in our edging issue, it’s time to heat things up! By showcasing the different ways bators interact with kink we hope to kindle curiosity in exploring new pathways to pleasure.
Some might ask, can bating even be considered kink? The word “kink” is associated with BDSM practices. Developing in the backdrop of post-World War II, these practices center around power dynamics and hierarchies. In contrast to conventional or “vanilla” sexual practices, Dominant/submissive roleplay and the fetishisation of leather and uniform became synonymous with kink.
Fast forward to 2025; 80 years after World War II. The paradigm has shifted greatly, our lives are ruled by technology. Today’s battle is for our attention —every second of our lives potential ad-money. Oligarchs and tech giants, now more powerful than governments, profit from keeping us hooked. Late-stage capitalism has commoditised every aspect of our lives and identities: we’re expected to be everything all the time, always addicted to something new.
Confronted by these pressures, we turn to escapism. We create alter-egos and explore facets of ourselves, opening us up to more possibilities than any previous generation. But happening through screens, these explorations of our sexuality are purely virtual.
Porn, an endless stream of beautifully lit ideal bodies engaged in every kinky practice, is how we learn about sex and how we explore it. Under the porn paradigm, we treat sex as if browsing porn. Consuming “what we’re into”, trying to tailor sexual encounters before they even happen like they were McDonald’s Happy Meals with little consideration for the other person’s experience.
Porn itself is the product of technological limitation. It responds to our need for a convenient source of bate fuel when we don’t have the time, energy or capacity to sexually connect with others. We no longer have that limitation, we can connect with other tired and/or isolated horny webcam users, from the convenient comfort of our homes. Webcam bating is a post-porn paradigm.
What does kink look like in a post-porn paradigm? What does sexual exploration look like outside a BDSM context? With mainstream culture’s assimilation of BDSM, it’s time to redefine which practices sit outside “the norm”. It’s time to recontextualize kink.
In this webcam paradigm, we are not confronted with perfect images or a made to order experience, we cam with whoever’s online. Sharing hot intimate moments with all sorts of people opens up our appreciation for all kinds of bodies, including our own. We bond over these experiences and start navigating our sexual exploration through relationships, learning from each other.
It doesn’t remain virtual. Bators, and those akin, can bridge the gap every time we get together. The Bator Bro community brings these practices to physical spaces monthly; all these things are happening at the party. With this series we’re advocating for more physical spaces that foster building sexual intimacy in a communal and non-transactional way.
This issue honors the way bators deeply enjoy their bodies and find new creative ways to pleasure, even traditionally neglected, body parts. We cover our approach to fascination and fetish and the ways we share them, as we haven’t seen them integrated into mainstream discussions. As part of this issue, we’ve facilitated two community radio discussions; they’re available online.
We invite you to keep an open mind. You might not be into smell, but discover yourself turned on by someone enjoying yours. Maybe it’s the tactile sensation of their breath on your pits, or the visual aspect or the fact they’re so deeply into your body. There is always something new to discover.
We hope you keep the heat going until we come soaring back in September to cover themes like gooning and hypno as we explore the ways bators traverse trance states and energy transfer in our fifth and final Bator Sex Issue: “Ecstatic”. Until then. Happy bating!
— DoubleA & Nick Woof