Pain as culture: A postcolonial feminist approach to S/M and women’s agency

Abstract

The interaction of gender, culture, race and sexuality is a central dynamic to this article, which seeks to move forward feminist debate on the benefits and harms of sadomasochist practices for women by applying the critical race and postcolonial method of world-travelling. The article seeks to make a novel contribution to the feminist analysis of consensual violence and sadomasochism in law by filtering the issue through a postcolonial feminist theoretical framework to productively circumvent the current analytical impasse in this area of feminist 'sex wars'.

Consent is a grey area? A comparison of understandings of consent in Fifty Shades of Grey and on the BDSM blogosphere

“…Pervocracy (2011b) Millbank (2012a, b & c), Valentine (2012) and Boldlygo (2012) explicitly address the common tendency of discussions to polarise into either an agency feminist position xi where everyone is regarded as free and autonomous, or a radical feminist position where freedom is considered impossible under conditions of patriarchy/kyriarchy xii . Like many of the academics writing on these topics, such bloggers search for a more 'sex critical' position (Downing, 2012) which rejects the neo-liberal choice rhetoric and acknowledges the multiple intersecting power dynamics within which agency operates (Deckha, 2011). For example, Millbank (2012c) critiques the 'sex-positive' position, present in many sexual communities, which risks becoming a sexual imperative excluding those who do not want sex.…”

Consensual non-consent: Comparing EL James’s Fifty Shades of Grey and Pauline Réage’s Story of O

“…This disavowal of voluntary sexual submission, however, does not mean that what happens within the more conventional relationship is necessarily any different from behaviour put forward in the contract. When Deckha (2011) states that ' . .…”

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

“…Whilst communities vary enormously, in the last few decades there has been a general (often sadly exclusionary) trend towards prominent cultural expression through consumer and luxury goods (Weiss, 2011;Weinberg, 2016). However, what is arguably most disquieting about BDSM is the wider cultural hegemonic interpretation concerning the sordid association it takes on when attached to the lifestyle of a sexual underground (Deckha, 2011;Wilkinson, 2009). BDSM participants are judged with a colonial yardstick, which determines that their practice is a brutal activity that violates the wholeness of the body and the integrity of their physiological and mental state.…”

“…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.…”