Painful pleasures: Sacrifice, consent, and the resignification of BDSM symbolism in The Story of O and The Story of Obi

Kustritz, Anne

doi:10.3983/twc.2008.031

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…O is quickly stripped of her agency, first by being restricted at all times, and forbidden even to touch herself, and later on by a meticulous breaking down of any resistance she puts up, to the point of complete self-abandonment, though her life outside of her sexual service remains largely untouched by her status. The story itself has been criticized for its misogynist character numerous times (Benjamin, 1980;Kustritz 2008;Sontag, 2002Sontag, [1974), and while I generally agree with a reading that sees O as tied in a heteronormative and patriarchal system, in a key scene she admits to what in the novel is called her 'wantonness' (Re´age, 1972(Re´age, [1954: 129), the fact that she desires the men who use her. In that I read a remainder of agency on O's part that is completely absent in Anastasia's subjectivity.…”

Section: Negotiating Consentmentioning

confidence: 80%

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

Tsaros¹

2013

Sexualities

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This article explores questions of sexual agency and consent in mainstream representations of BDSM using Pauline Réage's Story of O and EL James's Fifty Shades trilogy as examples. It addresses normalizing tendencies and explores to what extent BDSM can be represented before being rejected by mainstream readers. Based on critiques of both novels, I outline the degree to which the concept of consensual non-consent, that is, the illusion of suspended consent in order to facilitate erotic power play, works in both novels. A close reading reveals a return to more traditional notions of femininity and female sexual agency in Fifty Shades, as well as a growing tendency to normatively limit the depictions of sadomasochistic desires.We act on our desires -or at least, we try to. Human interaction is governed by a multiplicity of rules and expectations, and in sexuality, more than in other areas of our lives, expectations dictate the process of events. Agency, the capacity to act in a way that leads to accomplishing a set goal, defining our sexual needs, deciding on activities we might want to engage in or not, and the ability to stop are necessary for a fulfilled sexuality. In BDSM 1 subculture, consent and sexual agency are seen as integral parts of interaction. Any erotic encounter is necessarily preceded by negotiations in order to establish boundaries and safewords, as well as discussing preferred practices and limits. While these procedures have become commonplace

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Section: Negotiating Consentmentioning

confidence: 80%

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

Tsaros¹

2013

Sexualities

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“…To elaborate, when speaking of pleasure, I subsume under the notion both the positive sentient experiences effected immediately, such as the consumption of tasty food, 33 the feeling of the warmth of the sun's rays on a clear day, 34 or perhaps the touch of a loved person 35 ; as well as those experienced mediately, whose pleasant effects emerge through the processes of apprehension and cognitive judgement, say the making of a charitable donation which resonates with one's values, 36 the process of imagination of future happy experiences, 37 and even the act of sacrifice for a subjectively hypostatised worthy cause 38 . The same applies to my use of the term ‘suffering’, 39 which also includes immediately felt unpleasantness, such as malodorous smells, 40 loud noises, 41 or a physical injury, 42 as well as those experienced mediately, such as due to deprivation that is the denial of pleasure, 43 through the expectation of fearful futures, 44 or through reflection and the consequent sense of guilt and remorse 45 …”

Section: Disentangling the Pvsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resolving the ethical quagmire of the persistent vegetative state

Arandjelović

2023

Evaluation Clinical Practice

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BackgroundA patient is diagnosed with the persistent vegetative state (PVS) when they show no evidence of the awareness of the self or the environment for an extended period of time. The chance of recovery of any mental function or the ability to interact in a meaningful way is low. Though rare, the condition, considering its nature as a state outwith the realm of the conscious, coupled with the trauma experienced by the patient's kin as well as health care staff confronted with painful decisions regarding the patient's care, has attracted a considerable amount of discussion within the bioethics community.AimsAt present, there is a wealth of literature that discusses the relevant neurology, that elucidates the plethora of ethical challenges in understanding and dealing with the condition, and that analyses the real‐world cases which have prominently featured in the mainstream media as a result of emotionally charged, divergent views concerning the provision of care to the patient. However, there is scarcely anything in the published scholarly literature that proposes concrete and practically actionable solutions to the now widely recognized moral conundrums. The present article describes a step in that direction.Materials & MethodsI start from the very foundations, laying out a sentientist approach which serves as the basis for the consequent moral decision‐making, and then proceed to systematically identify and deconstruct the different cases of discord, using the aforementioned foundations as the basis for their resolution.ResultsA major intellectual contribution concerns the fluidity of the duty of care which I argue is demanded by the sentientist focus.DiscussionThe said duty is shown initially to have for its object the patient, which depending on the circumstances, can change to the patient's kin, or the health care staff themselves.ConclusionIn conclusion, the proposed framework represents the first comprehensive proposal regarding the decision‐making processes involved in the deliberation on the provision of life sustaining treatment to a patient in a PVS.

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“…To elaborate, when speaking of pleasure, I subsume under the notion both the positive sentient experiences effected immediately, such as the consumption of tasty food (Kringelbach, 2015), the feeling of the warmth of the sun's rays on a clear day (An et al, 2016), or perhaps the touch of a loved person (Esch and Stefano, 2005); as well as those experienced mediately, whose pleasant effects emerge through the processes of apprehension and cognitive judgement, say the making of a charitable donation which resonates with one's values (Moll et al, 2006), the process of imagination of future happy experiences (Addison, 1828), and even the act of sacrifice for a subjectively hypostatized worthy cause (Kustritz, 2008). The same applies to my use of the term 'suffering' (Hall et al, 2010), which also includes immediately felt unpleasantness, such as malodorous smells (Zald, 2003), loud noises (Hirano et al, 2006), or a physical injury (Bruneau et al, 2015), as well as those experienced mediately, such as due to deprivation that is the denial of pleasure (Cushing, 2007), through the expectation of fearful futures (Arandjelović, 2023), or through reflection and the consequent sense of guilt and remorse (Morris, 1971).…”

Section: Laying Out the Foundationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resolving the Ethical Quagmire of the Persistent Vegetative State

Arandjelović¹

2023

Preprint

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A patient is diagnosed with the persistent vegetative state (PVS) when they show no evidence of the awareness of the self or the environment for an extended period of time. The chance of recovery of any mental function or the ability to interact in a meaningful way is low. Though rare, the condition, considering its nature as a state outwith the realm of the conscious, coupled with the trauma experienced by the patient's kin as well as health care staff confronted with painful decisions regarding the patient's care, has attracted a considerable amount of discussion within the bioethics community. At present, there is a wealth of literature that discusses the relevant neurology, that elucidates the plethora of ethical challenges in understanding and dealing with the condition, and that analyses the real-world cases which have prominently featured in the mainstream media as a result of emotionally charged, divergent views concerning the provision of care to the patient. However, there is scarcely anything in the published scholarly literature that proposes concrete and practically actionable solutions to the now widely recognized moral conundrums. The present article describes a step in that direction. I start from the very foundations, laying out a sentientist approach which serves as the basis for the consequent moral decision-making, and then proceed to systematically identify and deconstruct the different cases of discord, using the aforementioned foundations as the basis for their resolution. A major intellectual contribution concerns the fluidity of the duty of care which I argue is demanded by the sentientist focus. The said duty is shown initially to have for its object the patient, which depending on the circumstances, can change to the patient's kin, or the health care staff themselves. In conclusion, the proposed framework represents the first comprehensive proposal regarding the decision-making processes involved in the deliberation on the provision of life sustaining treatment to a patient in a PVS.

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Painful pleasures: Sacrifice, consent, and the resignification of BDSM symbolism in The Story of O and The Story of Obi

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

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

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

Resolving the ethical quagmire of the persistent vegetative state

Resolving the Ethical Quagmire of the Persistent Vegetative State

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