‘I feel so much better in myself’: Exploring meaningful non-erotic outcomes of BDSM participation

Abstract

Although research tends to focus on the sexual and/or erotic aspects of consensual BDSM participation, there are many non-erotic and nonsexual beneficial outcomes arising from participating in BDSM. This research aims to elucidate those other meaningful aspects of BDSM that reach beyond the sexual in order to highlight their salience for BDSM practitioners and to ensure that these non-erotic aspects of BDSM participation are not overlooked. Eleven regular practitioners of consensual BDSM took part in customized in-depth, face to face interviews conducted within an interpretive phenomenological perspective that focused on the lived experiences of consensual BDSM. The template analysis method was used to analyse the data. Findings illustrated that various non-erotic and non-sexual aspects of BDSM are important to practitioners. These elements are necessary and significant to participants’ lived experiences of BDSM and will be discussed in this paper in terms of transformative experiences and demonstrate that BDSM should be studied from a holistic perspective.

Is BDSM in the eye of the beholder? Variations in Conventional and non-Conventional Sexual Behaviors by Self-Identification vs. BDSM Practice Frequency in the General Population

“…Meanwhile, Beckmann (2009) describes the parallels between BDSM scenes and plays and religious practices or cultural rites in the use of particular attires and accessories, compulsion, restraint, ordeals to acquire powers, bodily practices, modulation of individual's self-awareness, altered experiences or transcendence. Therefore, given the high prevalence of sexual dysfunctions (McCool et al, 2016;Shifren et al, 2008) and sexual consent issues (Mori et al, 2020), BDSM offer experience and knowledge that may aid people or their relationship to emphasize ful llment, emotional experiences, and fostering deeper interpersonal connections (Simula, 2019a;Turley, 2022;Turley et al, 2018), or to reach better sexual satisfaction (Wismeijer & van Assen, 2013), function (Huang et al, 2023;Rogak & Connor, 2018), or be more satis ed and less concerned about their sexuality (Botta et al, 2019;Strizzi et al, 2022), to perhaps also have an overall a better mental health and emotional regulation (Dahl et al, 2023). Thus, Chilean sex research is yet to begin to understand the full depth of our sexuality from traditional views, where studies like this could pave the way, demonstrating the potential to learn more about ourselves sexually beyond CSB.…”