As I see it, the quicksand-oriented idea of the damsel in distress is most closely derived from the ancient motif of the princess and the dragon, wherein a virginal young woman is chosen to be sacrificed to appease the wrath of a monster or dragon. She is saved from her fate by the timely arrival of the hero, who slays the monster and wins the young woman's hand in marriage. In Greek myth, Perseus rescues Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus, while Heracles saves Hesione of Troy from a similar creature. In other forms of this kind of story, the creature kidnaps the young woman either to devour her or to control and possess her for its own pleasure. Traditional artistic renderings of such scenes frequently depict the woman in her vulnerability as being either partially or completely nude, threatened by a writhing, twisting, serpentine monster or dragon. One need not be a Freudian to recognize the underlying symbolism here. The snake-like creature represents a form of sexual menace or threat against the woman, who in this scenario is helpless to defend or save herself. She is indeed a damsel in distress, whose only hope for salvation lies in the appearance of the hero, who saves her either from death or sexual violation by pacifying or outright killing the monster. In her gratitude the woman marries the hero, reinforcing traditional beliefs and understandings of the "proper" place for a woman's sexuality in the larger culture. (In no ancient form of these stories does the woman have the right or opportunity to make her own choices about her own sexuality or to have any kind of real control in her life).
How does this background relate to the idea of the damsel in distress in quicksand? In the fantasy of the helpless young woman sinking to her doom, the quicksand, although not physically conforming to the image of a serpentine dragon, takes on the role of the sexual monster, seeking to possess and devour the woman, "pulling" her in and "sucking" her under. Sometimes the woman is imagined as responding sexually to the quicksand, torn between passion and peril as the mire slowly claims her as its own. In some depictions, the quicksand is even imagined as supernaturally "coming alive," actively and willfully taking its horrified victim into its clutches, feeding off her emotional terror as it drags her down. In real life, of course, real quicksand is notoriously passive and uncooperative when it comes to "pulling" its victims under, as many models and actresses in fetish videos discover that it's far more of a struggle to go completely under than it is simply to float at a given level (caused by factors of positive buoyancy and relative density). But we're talking about the fantasy of the damsel in distress sinking in what amounts to fantasy quicksand, so pesky little details like scientific reality won't concern us here.
So how do all these considerations relate to how the idea of the damsel in distress sinking in quicksand resonates with me? I can't speak for others, of course, nor will I pretend to do so; I'm privy only to my own motivations regarding this theme, both positive and negative, and so my thoughts here are relevant only to myself. Your mileage may vary. As I mentioned in my introductory post last month, I knew from a very young age (like around four) that I "liked" girls in a way that I didn't like boys (although at that time I had no idea why) and that I had a nascent fascination with quicksand (thank you, Tarzan movies and syndicated reruns of "Gilligan's Island"). When puberty hit at around age twelve these two fascinations merged into one and my earliest sexual fantasies centered around young girls and women sinking helplessly in quicksand. At that time I was the dictionary definition of the ninety-pound weakling: skinny, awkward, not athletic, nerdy, geeky, bookish, and sporting Coke-bottle-thick lenses in my horn-rimmed eyeglasses, and so as you can imagine I was not among the popular kids in school, nor did I command the attention of the pretty girls in class. (Incidentally, I thought that all of them were pretty). And so in my private fantasies I dealt with this feeling of social inadequacy and personal rejection by imagining whichever young girl had captured my eye at a given time but who didn't know or care that I existed as being trapped in quicksand, either sinking to her doom or, more frequently, being rescued at the last possible moment by a dashing young Coke-bottle-thick-horn-rimmed-eyeglasses-wearing hero, whom she would at last recognize as her shining knight and then reward both emotionally and sexually. Ahh, youth.
In the forty-plus years since, these fantasy images of the young woman sinking to her doom in quicksand or being rescued by that guy who stares back at me from the mirror are still my "go to" fetish fantasies and probably always will be, which is one reason why I'm so very glad that a fetish forum such as this and that video production companies such as those represented here exist. However, in light of what I understand as the underlying mythos of the traditional image of the damsel in distress, my admitting out loud (or, at least, in online text postings) that I have such a fetish also means admitting something about myself that I'm not proud of at all (and this is where I emphasize again that I'm speaking only of myself) and that in fact goes against everything that I believe and stand for regarding women in modern society. When I watch a fantasy video or read a fantasy story of a woman sinking in quicksand, I realize that I want to see her go under. I want to see her sink to her doom. If I don't already know how the video or story ends and she doesn't go under, I feel cheated. Not only do I take the side of the quicksand as the sexual monster in my damsel-in-distress fantasy, I end up taking the role of that monster as well. I realize that I want to control the woman, to possess her, and to devour her for my own pleasure. The quicksand is just a proxy. And even when I fantasize about rescuing her at the last minute, it's so that she will reward me sexually. I still want to possess her. It's not my quicksand fetish that I dislike; it's my desire to control women that I dislike. Even though I know it's just a fantasy, I'm not at all proud of it.
This is not at all how I treat women in real life. I was raised to be respectful and considerate of all women, and I embrace that fully both online and in the real world. I am happily married and the father of adult daughters, and not only do I insist that other men treat my wife and daughters with the respect that they deserve as worthwhile human beings in their own right, but I also insist to myself that I treat other women just as respectfully and considerately. In this forum and in other social media contexts I am bend-over-backward respectful to women to the point of sometimes being annoyingly and exasperatingly respectful, and I suspect that that is due not only to my believing that women are deserving of my respect as equals but also to my awareness of this part of myself that wants to control and possess women, this part of myself that I keep at bay and only express in my damsel-in-distress fantasies.
Perhaps it's a function of human evolution, of a male's ability to spread his genes to as many offspring as possible through as many females as possible while seeking to prevent other males from having access to those females. Perhaps it's a function of my own feelings of social awkwardness and inadequacy as a pubescent adolescent. Perhaps it's a function of all the unique events, characteristics, and experiences that make me who I am. Yet as much as I dislike this part of myself, it is still a real part of myself, and I need it just as much as I need the "good" parts of myself in order to be who I truly am. Like that old Star Trek episode where the transporter splits Captain Kirk into opposing "good" and "evil" manifestations of himself, I know that neither my "good" nor my "evil" side can survive and truly live without the other. *I* need all of myself to be who I am. And so while I don't like the "monster" that I recognize in my psyche, I can only live an authentic, self-integrated life by recognizing its presence as a real part of myself. And this is where a forum such as this and the quicksand fetish video production companies that are represented here play a key role.
In quicksand fetish videos where the actress's character sinks to her doom, the actress plays the role of the damsel in distress, acting out a fantasy of her being taken by forces and powers beyond her control and consigned to a horrible fate. In reality, the actress is fully in control of everything that happens, only doing what she is comfortable doing and feels safe doing. The camera crew and production team honor and respect this and in fact bend over backward to ensure her safety and sense of well being in every way, both during the actual shooting of the videos and during the rest of her time at the shooting location. She may play the role of a helpless victim in the video, but she is in fact fully in control... and gets paid for it too, and rightly so. Speaking for myself, such videos allow me the opportunity to give that "monster" in my brain what it needs to feel satisfied and content, which in turn frees me to treat women in real life, both online and offline, in this forum and elsewhere, with the respect and consideration that I both know and affirm that they deserve and that I want to show to them. Fetish videos such as these don't demean the models and actresses who appear in them; instead, they empower them, and in their being empowered the "monster" in my own mind is contented with a fantasy of its own power and control over women by images and videos of women who are in fact exerting and expressing their own real power and control in making the videos. They may play damsels in distress, but they are in fact damsels in control.
Just don't tell my monster.
It was a pleasure to read it. That last long paragraph should be required reading for anyone either uncomfortable with this fetish/interest of ours, or for those harshly critical of it.