THE other panel in de Veyra’s A Gingerbread Man’s/Woman’s World triptych, which could be the to-the-right-of-the-viewer panel of the series, is titled Leda/Leather and the Swan (or, BDSM Religions). While supposedly depicting the mythological story of Leda and the Swan, other elements in the painting transform that story into a BDSM scene.

    First, remember that the story of the mythological rape of Leda by Zeus, who appeared to Leda as a swan, has, through its history, swung from being a story of divine rape to one about a rape that later turned consensual (forced seduction) and, later, to one not quite a rape. Whichever is the more original version, the story has been acknowledged as a religious story (now called “mythological” through the lexicon of still-existing religions).

    De Veyra’s Leda and the Swan painting panel hints, by the piece’s parenthetical title, that connection between this religious rape story (and, by extension, other similar religious “rape” stories, like the dove-represented Holy Spirit’s “choosing” of the Virgin Mary for an Immaculate Conception) and BDSM arrangements. Through this title for the piece, de Veyra is implying that, even in the age of feminism, perpetuated gender hierarchies or inequalities in religions continue to display a product of consensual power play no different from the consensual power play in BDSM activity where everyone derives pleasure and/or contentment from the consent and trust.

    Corollary to this allegorical statement, if one accepts that religions are also political, just as political stands are often also religious stands, then the context of the consensual arrangement is necessarily extended into the political arena, consciously or subconsciously.

    Again, crucially the viewer/reader must note that in his title de Veyra is using the acronym “BDSM” to highlight a consensual sort of arrangement, an arrangement also present in rape fantasy. This is to put de Veyra’s allegory in a plane different from one with a biastophilic (or raptophilic) or forced seduction context, both of which latter would presume a non-consenting prey dominated through force by a predator.

    However, it must also be noted by the painting’s viewer that the work may actually allow sometimes the non-consensual reading (say, the forced seduction one) on the painting as well as on the religions or political institutions the painting is alluding to.