Kasia Urbaniak claims that she was one of the highest paid dominatrices in Manhattan ten years ago. But she decided to hang up her whip in order to focus on female empowerment. She started an online discussion group, but now, in part thanks to Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein and the #MeToo movement, it is a booming business. Urbaniak told The Guardian, “I don’t teach anything related to BDSM or sex, just the application of power dynamics. It’s about the communications that women carry that either make them go speechless, or afraid of coming across as too bossy or too needy.” When she was a professional dominatrix, Urbaniak mastered the dominant position with men and is now a master at unpicking power dynamics. She says that women are too often taught to acquiesce and shut down. According to Urbaniak, “There are consequences to that shutdown.” The solution is to turn the attention back outwards. Women can learn to change the power dynamic at play. Urbaniak, 39, and partner Ruben Flores, a former project coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières, started their program, called The Academy, in 2012, according to The Guardian. “The #MeToo movement is huge for us, of course, but what was devastating for me was the presidential election,” Urbaniak told The Guardian. “That was the signal that now is the time we really have to step up.”
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