Thank you for raising this topic. I just had a very vivid and explicit dream. The subject matter seemed very fitting for this site. Then it dawned on me that it's really pretty absurd to be posting such thing online. But the content of the dream was so intense it would also seem strange not to tell it.

What are these stories we tell?

Sex is such a loaded subject, with a strong emotional, gut-level component to it, it's hard to discuss it anywhere without making some waves.
I think we've done better than most on this site to discuss this charged topic with openness and sensitivity.
I am not a recovering porn or masturbation addict, but I have not ever been offended, triggered or titillated by anything posted here.
Having said that, I have to applaud Lancer for understanding his own process well enough to know where his boundaries are, and to take care of himself around them.
Cariad

I respectfully disagree.
My brain is bendy and complicated enough to sort out....how on earth am I supposed to know what is going to trigger you or anyone else? I mean, if you're into fetishes, a mention of my new red shoes might do it.
Speaking ONLY for myself, I think we have to trust each other here. I am willing to take the risk of reading or even posting something that might make someone else or me a bit uncomfortable....I've done that already, and it has been a huge learning experience I am grateful for. If I read something here that tweaked me, or that I felt odd about, I'd be willing to look at it more closely and see why, see if I could learn something.
If we are too careful, we run the risk of missing the grand benefits of this sanctuary Marnia and the rest of us have created. I, for one, don't want to do that.
And, thank you Ms. M, for opening the dialogue. I wouldn't have wanted to miss that, either.
C

I guess I have posted enough suspicious content that I need to relabel. Of course, some of the articles on the site which had some pictures of couples embracing (yeah, even cartoonish/anime ones) had me aroused (since I first wasn't expecting any such "explicit" content on the site; if I'm expecting it I'm better able to handle it)

But in terms of marking something as explicit or not, there's really no tangible boundary we can draw. I mean, even talking of something like "breast cancer" can arouse some people (yes, I'm one of them too), although it's something very serious. So if we really want to draw such a boundary of arousing versus safe, then we're going to have to rethink changing the headers of Reuniting pages too ("sexual relationships" can get people like me wandering into fantasies unless they're not fully conscious of what they're reading).

Besides, I think that such "explicit" content is something we all have to get used to. If you just observe a street of any major city of any democracy (even "backward" places like India), you'll see enough triggering stuff. How are you going to avoid that? By looking down at your toes and walking away trying to avoid it? I've tried that and let me tell you it's not very comfortable doing that. Eventually now I've just come to accept that such things are going to be around for a much longer time from now, and I'm going to have to control my own self against it.

Of course, this doesn't mean we start hosting pictures of nude models up here. It just means that if it's a part of healthy discussion here, we shouldn't bother too much about whether it will trigger a few people or not.

Well, I don't actually have any strong feelings about it, but I thought it was worth discussing anyway.