But femsub is broken too! On the normalisation of BDSM and the problem of pleasure

To Buy or Not to Buy? Vulnerability and the Criminalisation of Commercial BDSM

“…Furthermore, his performances (and those of others like him, for instance the US photographer Robert Mapplethorpe), while intended to explore the interaction of agency and vulnerability, simultaneously serve to represent the embodied vulnerabilities we are all subject to as humans and also as resistance to reductive and disempowering vulnerability discourses(Fineman 2008). Likewise, since the practice and politics of submission is an even less frequently researched BDSM role than that of pro-dommes (cf Hoppe 2011), the art / porn / bdsm films of the New York-based film maker and 'professional submissive', Maria Beatty, provoke us to rethink what we know about femininity, masochism and political agency, as well as the politics of desire (for discussion seeGalt 2010;Jacobs, 1997; on the transgressive potential of the female masochist as sexual agent rather than victim seeDymock 2012; cf Khan 2009a).…”

Conducting sexualities research: an outline of emergent issues and case studies from ten Wellcome-funded projects

“…Critical sexualities research has challenged these conventions, leading to both an increased understanding and awareness of the diversity of behaviour and experience (i.e. not only procreative), as well as new understandings or re-conceptualisations of forms of sexuality, sexual expression and sexual relating (for example Dymock, 2012;Gabb & Fink, 2017;Parker, 2009;Ravenhill & de Visser, 2017). The links between sexuality and health are complex and diverse (Graugaard, 2017).…”

Transgression and (sexual) citizenship: the political struggle for self-determination within BDSM communities

“…There remain ongoing concerns about the place of gender and race/ethnicity within BDSM communities (e.g. around the whiteness of some communities) but here too there has been productive discussion and debate (Cruz, 2016ab;Deckha, 2011;Dymock, 2012;Simula & Sumerau, 2017). In spite of differences between communities, empirical studies do however suggest that there is a good degree of consistency across communities, at least with regard to the themes at stake in this article about safety and consent (Beckmann, 2009;Newmaher, 2011;Weinberg, 2016;Weiss, 2011).…”

“…Feminist debates continue regarding BDSM, and particularly the notion of consent within the SSC mantra, though with an increasing volume of feminist voices seeking to challenge once dominant discourses of BDSM as patriarchal abuse and violence (Beres & MacDonald, 2015;Cruz, 2016ab;Deckha, 2011;Dymock, 2012;Moore & Reynolds, 2004;Ritchie & Barker, 2005;Simula & Sumerau, 2017). The liberal notion of consent at the heart of much sadomasochistic practice, in particular, has been critiqued by a number of feminist theorists, notably Carole Pateman (1983, contract, which is highlighted in BDSM, continues to be used to mask the operation of sexual and racial power.…”

“…However, as an increasing number of feminist theorists have argued, these positions themselves result in the silencing and policing of particular sexual subjects. The subjects in question here are women BDSM practitioners, and most particularly black women BDSM practitioners, through what Cruz (2016ab) refers to as a politics of respectability (see also Dymock, 2012). In the context of arguments about the controversial practice of 'race play' within BDSM, Cruz (2016a: 384) argues instead for engagement with a politics of perversity in which black women can buck respectability to 'engage in the illicit, queer pleasures of race'.…”