What is it Like to Be a BDSM Player? The Role of Sexuality and Erotization of Power in the BDSM Experience

Abstract

sex) well represents the multivocality of the points of view through which the phenomenon was observed. The generalization of Bdsm as an eminently sexual experience has obscured a more nuanced understanding of the specific meanings related to the activities promoted by the communities and has simplified the existence of a variegated geography of experiences, difficult to summarize in typifications and better described as "a sets of finite provinces of meanings".

Promoting the health of gender variant children in Italy: Parents' experience with supportive networks

“…Facing a topic that is subject to prejudice and ignorance may exacerbate the mission of promoting a child's identity toward the goal of health and personal fulfilment. The literature has widely highlighted how an accepting and supportive family context is of fundamental importance for the psychological well‐being and health of the child (Ashley, 2020; Bhattacharya et al, 2021; Faccio et al, 2020; Kuvalanka et al, 2017; Turchi et al, 2022). Rather than focusing on the gender identity of the child and on the search for elements related to possible psychopathologies, the attention from a psychological point of view should reconfigure itself toward the development of the interactive, communicative, and operational skills of the parent.…”

Mental health practitioners’ narratives about gender transition and the role of diagnosis: A qualitative study in the Italian context

“…These actions could help promote a new image of the mental health practitioner dealing with gender transition: A practitioner who is able to fulfil a function other than the classification and decision‐making involved in the medicalisation process (Bryant, 2006). Such a practitioner would be a promoter of change and recognition of the identity the trans person desires to affirm, capable of recognising and empowering others as experts in their own history and biography, and able to accept with confidence the value of professional and personal responsibility (ACA, 2010; Faccio et al., 2020; Iudici et al., 2017; Lev, 2004; Neri et al., 2020; Salpietro et al., 2019; Vitelli & Riccardi, 2010).…”

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

“…Although BDSM, SM, and kink (amongst a proliferation of other terms) can be understood as having different subcultures and practices, the term BDSM will be used throughout this article as these terms are frequently used interchangeably by both, practitioners themselves as well as within the existing academic literature. It should be acknowledged that the linguistic nominatives commonly used are not unproblematic, the terms sadism and masochism in particular are associated with negative stereotypes that reflect the stigmatizing agenda of the medical and psychiatric models (Faccio et al, 2020). This reflects Foucault’s (1978) notion of the deployment of sexuality; using perceived ‘expert’ discourses to define perversion and deviance and therefore constructs the non-normative, which excludes the heteronormative sphere from investigation and critical reflection (Beckmann, 2009).…”

“…One of the key signifiers of a BDSM interaction is the erotic exchange of power. Research on EPE, or erotic power exchange, has provided insight into the distinct elements that constitute this aspect of BDSM and foregrounding the ways that power can be constructed as a source of eroticism for BDSM practitioners (Faccio et al, 2020; Langdridge and Butt, 2005), along with an examination of the various ways to begin doing EPE and BDSM with a partner (Califia, 2002). Eroticism more broadly in BDSM has been investigated in terms of the adoption of roles and the creation of scenes, fantasies and the flow of desire (Carlström, 2019; Yost, 2007), and understandings and constructions of successful fantasy creation and maintenance have been explored (Turley et al, 2018; Yost, 2007; Zubriggen and Yost, 2004).…”

“…As reported earlier in this paper, there are clear sexual and erotic elements involved in BDSM for the majority of practitioners, and people enjoy taking part because it offers a transgressive and multifaceted approach to the normative Western ways of doing sex and sexuality (BLINDED, 2016). The phenomenon of BDSM has traditionally been linked exclusively to sexuality (Faccio et al, 2020), and mainstream analyses have often neglected other important, non-erotic outcomes. Much of Beckmann’s work argues that viewing BDSM as solely sexual is reductionist and is an overgeneralization of a complex phenomenon (2001, 2009, 2011).…”