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New York | When the Dominatrix Moved In Next Door
When the Dominatrix Moved In Next Door
A “kink collective“ in a residential area of Brooklyn has upset longtime residents and resulted in a culture clash and gentrification struggle all wrapped up into one fight.
Charlotte Taillor began The Taillor Group in 2016 to serve as a kind of kink community center that could help educate women about B.D.S.M. practices. Credit... Elizabeth D. Herman for The New York Times
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It’s a classic New York gentrification story with a morality twist. Think “Fifty Shades of NIMBY.”
On one side, longtime residents of a block in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, led by Laurie Miller, who lives in the same narrow house on Quincy Street that she moved into as a child in 1974.
On the other, a queer feminist, Charlotte Taillor, who moved her business next door to Ms. Miller, from a more expensive space in Crown Heights.
And in the middle: Ms. Taillor’s business.
Now about that business. It’s what’s known as a kink collective, where Ms. Taillor runs bondage workshops and other fetish events for the B.D.S.M. ( bondage, dominance, sadism and masochism ) community.
It’s perfectly legal, she said, but that does not necessarily make it welcome.
The dispute began in January when Ms. Miller began noticing men, some of whom she called “weird-looking,” coming and going from the house next door.
“It was like a heavy, continuous pattern of these guys that aren’t in the neighborhood,” she said. Because she lived alone, the foot traffic made her uneasy.
“Some of them were questionable people,” Ms. Miller said. “You know, your Spidey senses started tingling.”
When she asked around, neighbors told her that Ms. Taillor was up to no good.
Perturbed, she quickly put up fliers calling for a meeting with the block association and urging local residents to call the community board and the police about “a gentlemen’s sex club” that had “no business” being on the block.
Now after weeks of outcry and several community meetings, Ms. Taillor is planning to move her custom-built kinky clubhouse, where folks play with the boundaries of trust and consent, under pressure from Ms. Miller, who says the dominatrices did not have her consent to be there.
“It’s her block,” Ms. Taillor said in an interview. “I respect her. I want her to be the Beyoncé of her block. I want her to be the queen of the block. I have no qualms with it.”
The clash, which was first reported online by Patch , was splashed across the front of The Daily News with the headline “Kinky Booted” and an image of fishnets and red, thigh-high boots.
But the battle on Quincy Street is about more than just sex. For Ms. Miller, it’s about trust and safety; for Ms. Taillor, it’s about respect and kink-shaming. As both women fought to protect their communities, what resulted was a culture clash and gentrification struggle all wrapped up into one fight.
Like many blocks in Bedford-Stuyvesant, that part of Quincy Street is a collection of well-kept rowhouses where residents nurse plants next to their stoops. The locals are a mix typical of many changing Brooklyn neighborhoods: young single people lured by affordable rent, families looking for a nurturing environment and older residents who helped turn their block into a tight-knit community.
During a recent block association meeting in a church basement, Ms. Taillor, 30, and Ms. Miller, 58, sat across from one another, in front of about 20 people who appeared evenly split.
With her lawyer beside her, Ms. Taillor announced to the neighbors that she planned to move her business, the Taillor Group. Despite that, she and Ms. Miller clashed repeatedly, forcing a local police officer to intervene several times to call for order and keep tempers in check.
One of Ms. Taillor’s supporters said critics just objected to the nature of her work and wouldn’t care if she were teaching knitting.
Ms. Miller said afterward that neighbors were able to hear “things like whips and chains and moans and stuff like that.”
“These brownstones are old and hollow,” she said.
Another block neighbor, Mary Patrick, said at one point about Ms. Taillor: “She should leave. She should take that to 42nd Street.”
Ms. Taillor told her critics in the room: “You don’t have to kink-shame or say that people are creepy because of what they enjoy doing.”
She added that her hope when she moved to Bedford-Stuyvesant was “to have a nice relationship with a nice community of woke people.”
“Oh, ‘woke’!” Ms. Miller fired back. “Bye, Felicia!”
The other day, Ms. Taillor, who does not live in the neighborhood but rents an apartment in the Ditmas Park section of Brooklyn, said she was most upset about what she says is a misrepresentation of her business.
“We’re not a sex club,” she said. “Nobody is allowed to have sex on the premises. Even me.”
She said she began The Taillor Group in 2016 to serve as a kind of kink community center that could help educate women in particular about B.D.S.M. practices. That included classes for aspiring dominatrices on the finer points of spanking, flogging and rope bondage, as well as events catering to those more experienced with fetish play.
The business relied on a group of submissive men for the women to practice with. But Ms. Taillor disputed Ms. Miller’s description of them. Because of the nature of The Taillor Group, she said, the clients tended to be respectful and docile.
“It’s great to have them around,” she said. “Because they’re — they’ll do anything from hanging your picture to defending you in your front yard.”
Ms. Taillor said she also tried to foster a body-positive, sex-positive, queer-friendly and inclusive environment.
In a separate interview on Friday, Ms. Miller complained about the unfamiliar men coming onto her block. “I don’t like the transient nature of the guys that come there, that have no vested interest in our community,” she said. “We don’t know what their backgrounds are or what they’re capable of. It’s just a scary thing.”
She wasn’t the only one with concerns. At the community meeting, neighbors asked why Ms. Taillor wasn’t running her business out of a storefront on a commercial block. And Ms. Patrick, 35, shared her concerns that children on the residential street might be exposed to adult sexual behavior.
The Department of Buildings has received several complaints about Ms. Taillor’s business, and Ms. Taillor has said she has spoken with them but that her lawyer told her she was not violating any zoning codes.
Still, after hearing Ms. Miller’s objections in person, Ms. Taillor said, she decided not to stay on the block.
“It’s definitely her block.” Ms. Taillor said. “I’m a feminist, I’m all about her rights.”
She also wanted to make sure her group of femme-identifying dommes felt safe and valued.
“I want to be cherished,” Ms. Taillor said. “We deserve to be recognized in the community that we are in.”
Ms. Taillor is raising money for a new space and moving costs — none of The Taillor Group’s submissives are professional movers — but she said she wouldn’t be able to move until April. In the meantime, she said, Ms. Miller has been harassing The Taillor Group’s clients and employees, shouting insults at them on the street.
Ms. Miller denied any harassment and said the only time she confronted Ms. Taillor’s clients was after they started “cursing me out.” But she said she tells neighbors exactly what she thinks happens in the house next to hers.
Ms. Miller said she would feel unsafe as long as The Taillor Group was next door.
“Not until she’s out,” Ms. Miller said. “That’s when I’ll breathe a sigh of relief.”

Mistress Morrigan Hel is among the dominatrixes that photograhper Max Eicke captured in his Dominas project
8 stunning dominatrix portraits that will change how you think about BDSM
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After spending three years documenting dominatrixes, photographer Max Eicke shares what he learned about BDSM and sex work
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After spending three years documenting dominatrixes, photographer Max Eicke shares what he learned about BDSM and sex work
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“Once I met up with a dominatrix in her dungeon to talk about the project and she told her ‘slave’, who only wore a loincloth, to bring me a Coke,” says photographer Max Eicke , who spent three years documenting dominatrixes. “I had no idea how to react,” he admits.
“A bit later she asked him to join our conversation. It turned out he was an art historian and he added quite interesting thoughts to our discussion,” says Eicke.
The Berlin-based photographer first considered capturing women who make a living by taking control of their clients in BDSM role play scenarios when struck up a conversation with a stranger on a plane who revealed herself to be a dominatrix . He became fascinated by the scene, but merely found "cliched" takes on the hidden world and decided to approach the hidden world in a "documentary" and "humane" way in his project 'Dominas'.
Being handed a bottle of pop by a BDSM slave, with whom he went on to unpick theories of sexual liberation, and other encounters like it, helped to shift Eicke’s perceptions of sex work , he says.
“Situations like that really changed my mind and surprised me in positive ways. For me it's really about the people and not their masks or roles."
Owing to the underground nature of their work and the fact that Eicke had never contacted a dominatrix before, he had to resort to a cold-calling women to find subjects for his project.
“Their reactions ranged from confusion over curiosity to helpfulness or even aggressiveness,” he says. “Most of them were highly suspicious at the beginning since they had bad experiences in the past, ranging from private weirdos stalking them to reputable media representatives wanting to present them as perverts. At first I was looking for open conversations.
"Often I first had to explain that I was not a potential client looking for a free session in exchange of photographs. Sometimes it was quite tricky to get beyond the stereotypes and also the women's expectations.”
First, Eicke would meet his subjects in a cafe or bar to explain his plan, before they met up at his studio for photographs and interviews that could take up to a day to capture.
“I just chatted away with them looking for some moments in between. When shooting with a large format camera you cannot make the sitter forget the camera though, the camera is always present. Regarding the outfits it was important to me that they chose something they felt comfortable with and what they would also wear for their job as I sensed that the outfit really was a big part of their professional personas and identities.”
Over the course of three years, Eicke also learned about how BDSM is mistakenly seen as only violent, leaving little space for romance, emotions or love.
“It is unimaginable for many people that BDSM is based upon mutual consent and that pain with relish requires an enormous amount of honesty and open communication," he says. "Speaking to so many people from the BDSM and fetish community I really got the impression that within this scene there is often more respect for one another, a better knowledge of safer sex and a higher level of openness and trust than in many conventional relationships."
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By Fay Schlesinger Updated: 00:48 BST, 26 June 2010
A British motor racing chief died after a sadomasochistic sex session with a woman claiming to be 'Europe's most perverted dominatrix', police have said.
Robin Mortimer, 58, was found dead at the villa of the self-styled torturer Mistress Lucrezia in a hamlet in Belgium on Tuesday.
The married father of one had paid £600 to be 'punished' by two leather-clad women in a medieval-style 'dungeon', it was claimed.
The racing boss and the dominatrix: Left, Robin Mortimer, who died after a 'torture session' with Mistress Lucrezia, right
He may have choked on a rubber ball or died after taking an anaesthetic designed to prolong sadistic sex sessions, investigators said.
According to police sources, he was found in a shower cubicle, trussed up and wearing a leather 'gimp' mask with a ball on a chain around his neck. But he is understood to have died in another part of the club.
An ambulance had been called after attempts to resuscitate him failed.
He is believed to have visited the venue on more than one occasion, but it is understood his wife of 30 years knew nothing of his penchant for S&M.
Neighbours of their £500,000 gated home in Rugby, Warwickshire, said Bridget Mortimer, 50, has multiple sclerosis. She was too ill to comment, but in a statement the family said Mr Mortimer died of natural causes in his sleep at a hotel in Belgium.
However, the public prosecutor in Antwerp said an initial investigation suggested he did not die of natural causes.
Mistress Lucrezia - in reality, 44-year-old Ira van Damm - and her 'assistant' Mistress Juno, 36, have been arrested on suspicion of assault and battery leading to Mr Mortimer's death, without intent to kill.
Mr Mortimer was a talented motorcycle racer before switching to sports car racing in 1989 and creating the RPM Motorsport team.
'No softie': On her website, Mistress Lucrezia says: 'In my nature, I'm a sadist of the worst kind'
His son Alex, 25, a champion racer, still plans to compete in the International GT Open in Belgium this weekend in memory of his father.
It was while travelling to the venue that Robin Mortimer took a detour to the village of Sint-Job-in-'t-Goor near Antwerp, investigators believe.
He visited the villa named ' Torment Towers', where dominatrixes charge £250 an hour - or £4,000 for three days - to inflict 'extreme pain', 'humiliation' and 'torture' on clients using ropes, leather and rubber.
Police who searched the property said they found some of the most extreme S&M equipment they had ever seen, including a vacuum machine for wrapping men's bodies in air-tight cling film.
Mistress Lucrezia, who has been running S&M sessions at the 'dungeon' for five years, says on her website: 'I am very good with CP (corporal punishment) and bondage with ropes, leather, rubber and cling film . . . and I have lots of tools to help me be creative to make each session one you will never forget.
'Beware, I am not a softie. I'm sadistic, intelligent and perverse. In my nature, I'm a sadist of the worst kind.'
She is a regular visitor to Britain, performing at clubs in London and Warwickshire.
The Antwerp prosecutor said Mr Mortimer could have died after being given nitrous oxide, used as an anaesthetic to make sex sessions last longer. The results of a post-mortem examination are expected within days.
Mr Mortimer's death comes after F1 boss Max Mosley was filmed taking part in an S&M session with prostitutes in which they acted out prison fantasies. He was last year awarded £60,000 in damages against the News of the World over what a court decided were false claims that it was a 'sick Nazi orgy'.
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