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(Sub)Culture: the Experiences of the BDSM Community

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(Sub)Culture: the Experiences of the BDSM Community Consent (sub)Culture: The Experiences of the BDSM Community A thesis submitted To Kent State University in partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts By Kayla Cagwin December 2018 Thesis written by Kayla Cagwin B.S., Virginia Commonwealth University, 2016 M.A., Kent State University, 2018 Approved by ___________________________________Advisor, Department of Sociology Tiffany Taylor ___________________________________Chair, Department of Sociology Richard Serpe ___________________________________Dean, College of Arts and Sciences James L. Blank TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………………………….……..iii LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………………………….…….vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………………….v I. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………1 II. LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………………………………………3 III. METHODS……………………………………………………………………………..……13 IV. FINDINGS………………………………………………………………………………..….18 V. DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION……………………………………………………...….…29 VI. LIMITATIONS & FUTURE DIRECTIONS……………………………………………..…34 VII. REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………...36 iii LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1. Participant Demographics…………………………………………………………....17 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my thesis committee, consisting of Dr. Tiffany Taylor, Dr. Kathryn Feltey, and Dr. Christopher Dum, for their guidance and the generous feedback they offered to me during each stage of this research. Their support and feedback were instrumental for helping me to conduct my research project. Each member of this committee has encouraged and provided me with critiques that will influence the future directions I take with this project when considering publication. I would like to extend additional gratitude to my committee chair and advisor, Dr. Tiffany Taylor, for believing in this project from its conception and assisting me with her expertise in the discipline, her willingness to provide critical and constructive feedback, and her advice and encouragement throughout the thesis process. I would also like to thank Dr. Brianna Turgeon for sharing her documents used during her thesis process including her proposal and the final thesis and Dr. Austin Johnson for sharing his IRB proposal. These documents were incredibly helpful for me to consider when I was drafting my own research project. I would also like to express my appreciation to Jackie Towne-Roese for putting her time and energy into the formatting of my thesis. My partner, family, friends, colleagues, and professors, you have all shown me an extraordinary amount of support throughout this process and I am grateful to each of you for it. Additionally, I would like to thank the Department of Sociology at Kent State University for the opportunity to write and defend this thesis in a professional atmosphere. Finally, I would like to thank my participants for allowing me into your v groups and lives, trusting me to represent your personal experiences in writing. This project would not have been possible without you vi INTRODUCTION Previous studies have shown that the BDSM community practices a culture of consent associated with lower rape-supportive beliefs (Klement, Sagarin, & Lee, 2017). The specific goal of this research is to investigate BDSM (an acronym for bondage/discipline, domination/submission, and sadomasochism) as a community to observe how consent is discussed, taught and enforced. This qualitative research uses feminist methodologies and grounded theory, to access information and personal accounts of BDSM identifying individuals and the interactive processes of consent. Second, because this is a stigmatized population, I will consider how consent could be persistent as a response to stigma. Further, I will explore how consent practices within BDSM challenge traditional gender norms and associated gender characteristics. I will analyze the implications that BDSM ideologies have for teaching consent and autonomy to combat rape culture with the desired result being a culture of consent (Stryker, Queen, & Penny 2017). This study serves to inform the reality of practices within the BDSM community and illuminate the structural norms it challenges. It has the potential to uncover and highlight the benefits or risks of consent as practiced by this community. This research may have implications for how important consent is when considering not only sexual health and education but also an increased sociological understanding of the possibilities the BDSM community brings to resist rape culture by creating consent culture. There has been significant academic interest in the BDSM subculture and community. Sex-positive feminists, activists, and researchers have long debated the effects of BDSM on individual practitioners and society. Many find the practices of this community to be forward- 1 thinking and egalitarian, while others argue that the power dynamics involved perpetuate structural oppression (Seidman 2003; Simula & Sumerau 2017). However, studying BDSM individuals is important because it is a marginalized community that ironically faces the stigma of abuse despite its strict consent practices and educational tools. Stereotypes perpetuated in popular media, such as seen in 50 Shades of Grey films, add to the stigma of abuse and sexual depravity attached to this community (Tripodi 2017). The medical community exacerbated the stigma that surrounds BDSM by how has framed fetishism and masochism in their literature. The medical community defined fetishism in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders III (DSM III) to include practices found in BDSM. Members of this community rejected this classification of their identities and struggled against the stigma placed on them by the medical community for decades. The medical literature did not remove ‘fetishism’ as a mental disorder until the recent updates in the DSM V (DSM V). However, the DSM V still classifies masochism as a sexual disorder, which includes many practices found within BDSM (DSM V). The medical literature continues to pathologize BDSM, framing it as deviant and morally corrupt, resulting in stigma against those who practice it. (Carmody 2003; Williams 2007; Stiles & Clark, 2011; Bezreh, Weinberg, & Edgar 2012; Pitagora, 2013). Considering the lived experiences of individuals taking part in these activities is important to understanding BDSM ideologies surrounding consent and bodily autonomy. Few studies have focused on consent ideologies held by BDSM individuals and the larger implications they could have for constructing consent culture in society. To fill this gap in the literature, I use qualitative methods to explore BDSM ideologies, how they resist rape culture and stigma to complicate normative ideas about consent and gender to create a space where consent culture may thrive. 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Rape Culture In the last few decades, it has become clear that the United States has a problem with sexual assault. The media have even claimed there is an epidemic of sexual assault occurring. Every 98 seconds someone is a victim of sexual assault in the United States; almost 325,000 people a year report having been assaulted (RAINN 2018). This social problem has invaded college campuses, where sexual assault is three times more likely for young women ages 18-35 compared to women outside this age group, and beyond (RAINN 2018). This epidemic is not occurring at random. The Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network (2018) reports that seven out of ten sexual assaults are an acquaintance or date rape, or an assault committed by someone the victim knows. One explanation of this growing epidemic is the perpetuation of “rape culture” in the United States. A “rape culture” contains values and beliefs that result in rape and violent sexual dominance becoming normalized within society (Buchwald, Fletcher, and Roth 1993; Pascoe & Hollander 2016). The consequences of rape culture are a society where sexual violence and assault, and the threat of both, are so integrated into the social fabric they are normative rather than unusual or deviant occurrences within emotional and physical relationships (Pascoe 2007, Pascoe & Hollander 2016). Previous research has focused on rape culture supported by the hook-up culture within college student populations. These studies find that rape culture, rape myth acceptance, and hookup culture perpetuate traditional gender norms and reproduce normative gender power relations (Boswell & Spade 1996; Reling el al. 2018). Rape is a 3 common occurrence on and off college campuses yet remains a criminalized activity with most perpetrators being white males over the age of thirty (RAINN 2018. Within a rape culture, sexual assault is not conflated with sexual deviants and criminals but instead is committed by “normal men” (Pascoe & Hollander 2016). This means the longstanding stereotype of ‘stranger danger’ has become antiquated to the realities of rape today (Gavey 2013). Even within a rape culture, rape itself has become increasingly stigmatized, causing men to need to distance themselves from the concept of being a rapist because “real men” do not commit rape (Pascoe and Hollander 2016). However, to “do gender” men still must fulfill the expectations of normative masculinity. Society expects men to be accountable for both not being a rapist while being dominant and masculine (West and Zimmerman 1987; Hollander 2013). Two main components of a rape culture are rape myth acceptance and victim blaming. Common rape myths are ideas such as that a person is “asking for it” based on their
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