What Is So Appealing About Being Spanked, Flogged, Dominated, or Restrained? Answers from Practitioners of Sexual Masochism/Submission

Abstract

A growing number of studies have demonstrated that BDSM (Bondage/Discipline-Domination /Submission-Sadism/Masochism) practices are not signs of mental illness. However, the reasons for engaging in such behaviors are not well understood, especially for sexual masochism or submission (m/s). A thorough review of the literature was conducted, as well as a search in Internet forums and an online survey to obtain testimonies that provide information on the origins of interest in m/s and the reasons for engaging in it. A qualitative content analysis was performed on narratives from 227 m/s practitioners. Sixteen themes emerged from this analysis, eight related to the origins of interest in m/s and eight to the reasons for engaging in m/s. The origins described were seen as either intrinsic or extrinsic. Reasons to engage in m/s were related to one of three main types of activities: use of interpersonal power; experiencing physical pain; and altering one's state of mind. These results concord with accounts found in non-academic books and small-scale studies suggesting that m/s interests are often present early in life and usually practiced to reach an altered state of mind associated with sexual arousal. Possible reasons for choosing m/s over more common means of mind alteration are discussed.

Curative kink: survivors of early abuse transform trauma through BDSM

“…The community element paralleled the supportive relationships phase in the Arias and Johnson (2013) model of healing from childhood sexual abuse. Finally, participants in the present sample reported the transcendent quality of pain, which is consistently identified in the literature as a motivator for BDSM involvement (Labrecque et al, 2021;Langdridge & Barker, 2007;Shahbaz & Chirinos, 2016).…”

“…However, under certain conditions for some survivors of early abuse, kink may function as an adaptive coping response to trauma. Moreover, this pathologizing line of reasoning overlooks the experiences of community members who describe their kinks as expressions of spirituality (Baker, 2018;Harrington, 2016), avenues for social connection (Weiss, 2006), coping strategies for neurological dysfunction (Kaldera & Tashlin, 2013), methods to manage chronic illness and distress (Labrecque et al, 2021), and catalysts for personal growth (Sprott, 2020). At least 40% of kinky people use BDSM as a coping strategy for general distress (Schuerwegen et al, 2020).…”

“…Brown et al, 2020;Hillier, 2019;Richters et al, 2008;Ten Brink et al, 2020) and, in one study (Hughes & Hammack, 2020), fewer than 19% of participants linked their kink to trauma. Although it is unlikely that BDSM interests derive from abusive experience (Hillier, 2019;Kink Clinical Practice Guidelines Project, 2019), early abuse may motivate kink involvement among some people (Labrecque et al, 2021), while some therapists have reported that kink-identified clients with trauma histories are not unusual (e.g. Lawrence & Love-Crowell, 2008).…”

It’s (probably) not about sex baby, but it is about you and me: A quasi-ethnographic exploration of consensual corporal punishment

“…At first glance, this supports Labrecque et al (2020), who suggest that it is not pain per se, but it is the combination of pain, scene, negotiation, clothing, and so forth that is arousing. However, in several participants, the pain was identified as the stimulating factor (P3, P4, P8, P9) irrespective of what might be termed scene extras.…”

Introduction to the special issue: BDSM Studies

“…In addition to expanding the analytic frameworks for understanding BDSM beyond the focus of sexuality, in the last two decades, the field has begun to disentangle the various practices that fall under BDSM umbrella. Studies of BDSM are now beginning to examine the specificities of identities, practices, and communities within that umbrella including pupping (Langdridge and Lawson, 2019;Lawson and Langdridge, 2020;Wignall and McCormack, 2017), ageplay (Bauer, 2018;Tildenberg and Paasonen, 2019), spanking (Labrecque et al, 2020;Plante, 2006), and domestic discipline (Carmack et al, 2015;DeGroot et al, 2015;Hebert Deshotels et al, 2019) to cite just a few examples of this burgeoning area of work.…”