Prologue: Personal Journey: A Reflexive Account of the Researcher

Get Complete Project Material File(s) Now! »

Informative: Introduction to BDSM

Those who are encountering BDSM for the first time may find themselves overwhelmed with information. There is a wealth of reading material readily available about different BDSM activities and a range of issues such as consent and safety. Also, the BDSM subculture has its own vernacular that one would need to be equipped with in order to converse, debate with and learn from like-minded practitioners. The glossary at the end of this dissertation includes some of the most widely-used terms most likely to arise in the literature and in participants’ responses.
The literature devoted to introducing BDSM to a naïve reader often acknowledges that there is no singular explanation of BDSM, nor is there an exemplary or typical practitioner (Guidroz, 2008). Texts geared towards introducing curious couples willing to experiment with kink generally function to: explain some BDSM terminologies; introduce different types of BDSM-related activities; familiarise the reader with some basic techniques they may wish to experiment with (e.g. how to tie your partner to the bedposts without cutting off blood circulation in the wrists and ankles, or how to wield a flogger and which parts of the body it would be safe to use on); highlight some safety and consent concerns inherent within BDSM play; debunk myths and misconceptions about BDSM practices and practitioners; and offer further resources (Miller & Devon, 1995; Taormino, 2012; Wiseman, 1996). Academic texts are less likely to offer this type of pragmatic information and instead would address more theoretical concerns, such as the aetiology of kinky practices and identities (Yost & Hunter, 2012), the context-specificity of concepts such as ‘deviance’ or ‘perversity’ (Peakman, 2009) and the state’s regulation of non-hegemonic erotic practices (Taylor, 1997).

Informative: Guidelines for health service providers

Members of any alternative lifestyle will likely, at some point in their lives, consult a doctor for medical advice or treatment, and they may not necessarily disclose their proclivities. It has been observed that those medical professionals who are aware of alternative sexual practices are more likely to be able to recognise how their own value judgements may impede on providing adequate care for their patients compared to those who have little or no knowledge about alternative sexual practices, and therefore would be in a better position to make more informed decisions about how to diagnose and treat their patients (Ando, Rowen, & Shindel, 2014).
However, this does not necessarily mean that all healthcare personnel who receive education/training about alternative sexual practices would not be biased or prejudiced against BDSM practitioners, or that BDSM-practising patients would not be discriminated against. In textbooks concerning human sexuality, BDSM receives comparatively minimal attention compared to other sexual subcultures, especially those that are more visible and have been deemed to be more ‘high risk’ or ‘vulnerable’ such as certain homosexual practices (e.g. cruising,4 penetrative sex without contraception, fisting), or problematic such as sexual offending or paedophilia. Out of three randomly selected human sexuality textbooks obtained from the University of Auckland’s main library, the first had less than two pages devoted to BDSM compared to entire chapters on health-oriented topics (women’s bodies, men’s bodies, STDs, sexual assault/violence, fertility/pregnancy/childbirth and so on) (Levay, Baldwin, & Baldwin, 2012). The second textbook arguably gave an even worse treatment of BDSM – the short and succinct blurb on ‘sadomasochism’ was contained within the ‘atypical and potentially problematic sexual connections’ section, which had a list of the following subheadings: ‘the sex worker industry’, ‘close encounters’, ‘sadomasochism’, ‘sex with animals’, ‘sex with the dead’, and ‘casual sex and pansexualism’ (Kelly, 1998). The third textbook did note that ‘abnormal’ and ‘atypical’ are descriptors used to denote statistically uncommon rather than morally objectionable sexual behaviours, though it was nevertheless medical in its focus, concerned with aetiology, formative childhood experiences and attempting to provide lengthy speculative explanations of aberrant behaviours which had previously been presented to the reader as a statistical anomaly (Hyde & Delamater, 2000). The medical field’s obsession with investigating the aetiologies of ‘abnormal’ and ‘atypical’ sexual behaviours renders them rooted as medical issues rather than personal preferences – not nearly as many resources are devoted to investigating, monitoring and policing why some people prefer certain colours, numbers or foods compared to why some people prefer certain ways of doing sex.
Counsellors and therapists may also encounter BDSM practitioners seeking their services. However, compounded with the issue that textbook information about BDSM is scarce, many of these social workers may not have adequate training or resources to deal with kinky clients (Barker, Iantaffi, & Gupta, 2007). In one study, 74% of therapists had at least some training on sexual minorities but 64% of the total sample had no training that included BDSM (Kelsey, Stiles, Spiller, & Diekhoff, 2013). In that same study, 76% of those polled had treated at least one kinky client, but only 48% of the total sample perceived themselves to have been competent in the area. This is important to rectify because some of the assumptions that people with little to no knowledge about BDSM have could cause irreparable damage and loss of trust in a therapeutic relationship. For example, the assumption that all BDSM practitioners have some form of underlying psychopathology is not empirically supported (Powls & Davies, 2012). There are guides that introduce BDSM to counsellors and therapists (Pitch, 2014) so that they can better understand their clients’ needs, desires and practices and tailor their approaches to therapy accordingly, but these rely on professionals being willing to acknowledge that they are lacking knowledge in the area, wanting to educate themselves, and proactively seeking these resources out.

READ Origins and publishing philosophy of South Africa’s university presses

Chapter One: Why is researching BDSM important?
Research Questions
Research Objectives
Dissertation Structure
Literature Review
Literature search strategy, inclusion and exclusion criteria .
Informative
Informative: Introduction to BDSM
Informative: Guidelines for health service providers
Theory
Theory: History
Theory: Literature reviews and meta-analyses .
Theory: Queer theory
Theory: Sexual citizenship/rights
Theory: Leisure theory
Praxi
Praxis: Quantitative methodologies .
Praxis: Qualitative methodologies .
Navigating the vanilla world
Navigating the vanilla world: Law and discrimination
Navigating the vanilla world: Media representations
Summary
Chapter Two: Methodology .
Chapter Three: The Local Kink Scene
Study One: Ethnography; Interviews
Prologue: Personal Journey: A Reflexive Account of the Researcher .
Introduction .
Methods
Analysis
Participant Profiles
Results
Kink and the kinky community
Events and playing in public
Safety, and when things go wrong .
Communication and relationship
Kink identities and origins
The invisible ‘others’: Disability and ethnicity in kink .
Mainstreaming kink8
Media (mis)representations
Vanilla assumptions
Conclusi
Chapter Four: The Vanilla Worl
Study Two: Public Opinion Survey
Introduction
Methods
Results
Demographics
Modified Attitudes about Sadomasochism Scale (Unweighted
Modified Attitudes about Sadomasochism Scale (Weighted)
Discussion
Limitation
Conclusion
Chapter Five: Public Service Announcement
References
Appendices