Should 'Scalia' became the new universal BDSM safeword?

Hours before a taping of the podcast Savage Love, news broke that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had passed away at the age of 79. What better a way to pay homage to one of the Court’s most hardcore conservatives than to immortalize his name as a neologism that could potentially better the lives of countless people?

“The audience suggested that we make ‘Scalia’ the universal BDSM safe word by way of honoring his legacy,” host Dan Savage explained to me. “For many queer people and people in the kink community, Scalia was a very negative presence.”

For many bottoms and submissives, safewords are useful tools that can be spoken aloud what a particular scene becomes too intense. Flogging, for example might be cool, but slapping may be out of the question. Rather than pulling everyone entirely out of the sexual moment, a safeword can let a top or dominant know to ease up at a moment’s notice.

By the time they become actively involved in a community, most kinksters have taken the time to come up with safewords of their own, usually words that don’t come up in casual (or sexual) conversation like “lugubrious” or “kumquat.” But what if, Savage told me, there were a standard word that everyone understood as the need to halt sex?

Back in 2003, Savage floated a similar idea (also suggested by a fan) for Rick Santorum’s last name, which has since taken on the additional meaning of “that frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex.”

“Santorum stuck, because it’s a thing that people actively try to avoid,” Savage said. “In the same way if you’re doing BDSM right, there typically won’t be a need for the bottoms to use their safe word.”

The irony that Savage and his audience are bringing to the table isn’t exactly underserved. During his time as a Justice, Scalia was noted for his frank opposition to the sexual freedoms of queer people. In his dissent to the Court’s 2003 decision that made it legal for gay couples to have sex in every U.S. state, Scalia compared gay people consensually having sex to incest and bestiality. In that same dissent, Scalia also (accurately) predicted that Lawrence v. Texas was another step towards making LGBT marriage equality a reality, but meant it as more of a threat than a promise.

“It’s an entirely proportionate sign of disrespect,” Savage said when I asked him about people who might find associating Scalia with BDSM offensive. “When Scalia compared homosexuality to murder or cruelty to animals or referred to the the life partner of a homosexual as their ‘long time roommate,’ that was disrespectful. Scalia wanted the public condemnation of LGBT people to remain the law and and now that’s passed away.”