In the nineties, as a Ph.D. candidate in finance at Columbia University in New York, Peter Acworth saw a newspaper story about a fireman who made a quick quarter of a million pounds on the side peddling porn on the internet, and decided he could do just as well. It turned out he could do much, much better - he's now the CEO of Kink.com and a member of the board of the Free Speech Coalition, and he's one of America's most influential proponents of free, open and honest communication about sexuality
It turns out that Kink.com isn't just a way to make money for Acworth, although it is very successful at that. Over and above its financial function, the company is a way for him to make a point about something dear to his heart - kink itself. It's a way for him to tell people that the things they like but are a little afraid of - submission, ritual, pain, bondage, exhibitionism, fetishes - aren't just okay, aren't just acceptable - they're common and that you can revel in them.
In a 2007 open letter in the San Francisco Chronicle, Kink.com founder Peter Acworth welcomed local residents to visit him and his business, laid out a number of ways that Kink,com would improve the neighborhood rather than harming it, and said "While it is very hard to explain why people choose to partake in the activities portrayed on my company's Web sites, my message is that there is a whole community of people right here in San Francisco who do just that. These activities are enjoyed by many couples in a respectful and positive way, and should not be confused with domestic violence or other foul forms of abuse." The letter was written to the denizens of the Mission, Acworth might as well have been addressing the world at large.
There is a ring of truth to the first tenet of Kink.com's mission statement: "to be the world's most recognized and respected company promoting the acceptance of human sexuality". It's not about bondage, BDSM, transsexuals, or pain. It encompasses all of those things and more, and That's what Peter Acworth is in business for.
Acworth the entrepreneur is almost as driven as Acworth the dreamer. A bondage enthusiast himself, Acworth started off running a site called Hogtied.com, which featured much of the same content that other bondage sites had - material licensed from other producers. When sales at Hogtied started to flag, though, he saw that success on the web would lie in his ability to provide unique experiences for members, and working in a niche market like BDSM provided a unique opportunity both to tap into an underappreciated pool of customers and to forge a special bond with people who, like himself in earlier days, might feel conflicted about their sexuality - to demystify and shine light where little had shone before. In his own words, he wanted to show people that "theyÕre not alone and, in fact, that thereÕs a big world of people that are into this stuff and that it can be done in a safe and respectful way. Loving partners can do this to each other."
Believing that "a product line should come from an individual's actual fantasies," Acworth started filming his own content out of a spare-bedroom studio in San Frncisco, where he moved after dropping out of Columbia to run his site full-time. After a decade of growth, Kink.com is now the most successful and most respected fetish business on the Web. Acworth's commitment to the values laid out in his mission statement - safe, sane and consensual practices, a creative, innovative working environment, and professional, respectful interaction with talent and staff - have made Kink.com a haven for young, excited people who are (also in the words of themission statement) proud of who they are, what they do and how they do it. A job at Acworth's Kink.com is a path to a career, instead of a momentary stopover; full benefits, careful training and a happy, diverse work environment ensure a low turnover and a satisfied work force.
Kink is now housed in the Armory, a turn-of-the-(last)-century fortress in San Francisco's Mission District. From the creepy and atmospheric to the genteel and refined, the subterranean to the panoramic, the Armory offers dozens of environments perfect for making movies set in fantasy worlds. Although the purchase didn't sit too well with the locals when it was announced, Acworth has welcomed visitors in for tours, often personally, becoming involved in community affairs, and creating a forum for the discussion, demystification, and acceptance of a kind of entertainment that until he got his hands on it, had a fairly shabby reputation, even among other porn producers. You know you've done something right when you've turned the thing smut-peddlers shy away from into a respectable business.