When it comes to dating and relationships, 62-year-old Artie Freeman of Nashville, Tennessee, makes a point of treating others as he would have them treat him, but, as a practitioner of BDSM and particular aficionado of sado-masochism, he finds that his approach to living the Golden Rule sometimes doesn't work out so well.
"If I were a woman, I'd really like someone to pull out all the stops for me on a first date," said Artie. "But a lot of ladies these days just don't seem to appreciate the effort I put in. I even orchestrated this elaborate rape role-play for this one gal who I thought was really special, and not only did she not thank me, she ended up calling the cops on me."
Artie chuckled wryly. "I'm not saying the tight blue uniforms and handcuffs weren't a total turn-on. I just wish she'd given me a heads-up that she wanted to incorporate other men. Call me old-school, but I tend to prefer to keep things a little more intimate on a first date. That's just me."
While another of Artie's favorite thoughtful gestures, hair-pulling, is almost never reciprocated by the women he dates, he does understand he logistical difficulties of that particular expression of affection.
"Not much for them to old onto," he said, running his hands over his almost entirely bald head. "I get it."
Despite the fact that his efforts to live by the Golden Rule with the women he meets both online and in person haven't yet yielded the responses he'd hoped for, Artie says that he intends to stick to his principles and treat women in the same sexually aggressive, dominant, and bondage-heavy way that he would have them treat him.
"I just try to be the best person can be," he said. "I have a lot of respect for women. I owe them that much."
