In Quentin Tarantino’s 2004 film Kill Bill Volume 2, antagonist Bill (David Carradine) delivers a monologue about alter ego, and the significance of putting on a disguise.
Now, the staple of the superhero mythology is, there is the superhero and there is the alter ego. Batman is actually Bruce Wayne. Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker. When that character wakes up in the morning, he’s Peter Parker. He has to put on a costume to become Spider-Man and it is in that characteristic [that] Superman stands alone. Superman didn’t become Superman, Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he’s Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red ‘S’, that’s the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears – the glasses, the business suit – that’s the costume. That’s the costume that Superman wears to blend in with us.
We started this blog in order to create a risk-free public forum in which to express our sexual selves. As anyone who is reading this should already know, we are and have always been very comfortable not only having but also talking about sex. We wish it were more socially acceptable to articulate this aspect of our personalities, but for various reasons including Jill’s traditional Catholic upbringing and her large, very tight-knit family, we are forced to blog under assumed names, guarding our true identities closely.
The Jack and Jill characters with which we represent ourselves here and on Twitter were developed as alter egos, manifestations of the largely secret sexual sides of ourselves that we weren’t allowed to show off in polite company, i.e. the real world. These identities enabled us to own our sexuality, in part by frankly sharing our sexual experiences, fantasies and goals with vast numbers of like-minded individuals online.
With the exception of a handful of sex-positive close friends, no one who knows us personally is aware of our blog. No one knows that we’re kinky, or at the very least no one knows the extent of our kinkiness. No one knows that we’ve visited a sex club, or that we enjoy fisting and anal sex. With the exception of the person who has been our occasional unicorn, or third, no one knows that we’ve had threesomes. We keep this information from our friends and family as much to protect our privacy as we do to protect their delicate sensibilities. To paraphrase Jack Nicholson, they can’t handle the truth.
It is the truth, though. This is who we really are. While we may have invented Jack and Jill as a means of exploration, it has since become apparent to us that although the names are false, everything else about these individuals is the truth. Jack and Jill are not fictitious alter egos. They are our secret identities.
Well said. I – and I’m sure many more sex bloggers who have to remain anonymous for reasons such as yours or for other reasons, such as in our case – can relate to what you say. Our blogging identities are honest and open and inherently who we are, while our day to day personas are those in which we must hide our true selves.
Nice post. And I understand completely. I posted very similar thoughts a while ago.
Happy Monday. 🙂
Rhut Rho… am I who I think I am, or am I a secret identity of someone else…
:oD
~shoes~
I know who you guys are in real life!!!! 🙂
We obviously have the same dilemma as you guys, with keeping the “real” us out of the sex blogging world. I would hate to think one of my dads follows our blog and figured it out. Their heads would surely explode.
On the other hand, knowing people who know you in “real” life can’t make the connection, is freeing. It opens up a whole new world of things you can talk about, question, try, discuss, without fear of being looked down upon or shunned in “real” life.
Anyway, I love you alter egos AND the real yous! I’m one of the very few (only?) here who can say that.
Explains the short answer on SS, Although I’m new to the blogging/tweeting world. I am totally honest with who I am here. (pseudonym used for professional reasons) I didn’t expect to end up in the “sex blog” category I seem to lean towards. However I feel most comfortable with you and the others I have found. Finding acceptance and very real people here. Glad to have found you both.
What??? You mean Jack and Jill aren’t your real names? Am I the only one who blogs by the name on their birth certificate?
(Great post, very well written)
After this post, I think you should do an HNT wearing capes.
I LOVE this post, in 3+ yrs of blogging V and I never thought of “Veronica” and “Hubman” as alter egos, but that’s exactly what they are!
V: We are generally very honest here, unless we are writing about a fantasy that has yet to occur, or being sarcastic (which we do pretty often). The only thing we’re not honest about are our names.
Max: Thanks. We’ll dig through your archives because we’d love to read your thoughts on the subject.
Red Shoes: You do a pretty good job being yourself on your blog, and we enjoy it. We wish we had that sort of freedom to be transparent here, but given the subject matter we must resist.
Mia: The thought of your dads reading your blog and their heads exploding made us laugh. We used to have similar worries about Jill’s siblings or parents finding our blog, but of late we’ve adopted the “If they’re reading sex blogs, they should know the risks” posture.
Sxybklvr: Thank you. We’re glad that we put you at ease, and we feel the same way.
Cougar in Training: I guess when your parents name you “Cougar in Training” you’re destined to become a sex blogger…
Vincent: It could happen! We’re always on the lookout for new ideas.
Hubman: It was hard to put our finger on exactly what the relationship was between our real identities and our blogging identities, but we like thinking of it as an alter ego/secret identity thing.