Sex, Violence and the Body: the Erotics of Wounding
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Sex, Violence and the Body The Erotics of Wounding Edited by Viv Burr and Jeff Hearn PPL-UK_SVB-Burr_FM.qxd 9/24/2008 2:33 PM Page i Sex, Violence and the Body PPL-UK_SVB-Burr_FM.qxd 9/24/2008 2:33 PM Page ii Also by Viv Burr AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM GENDER AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY INVITATION TO PERSONAL CONSTRUCT PSYCHOLOGY (with Trevor W. Butt) THE PERSON IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Also by Jeff Hearn BIRTH AND AFTERBIRTH: A Materialist Account ‘SEX’ AT ‘WORK’: The Power and Paradox of Organisation Sexuality (with Wendy Parkin) THE GENDER OF OPPRESSION: Men, Masculinity and the Critique of Marxism MEN, MASCULINITIES AND SOCIAL THEORY (co-editor with David Morgan) MEN IN THE PUBLIC EYE: The Construction and Deconstruction of Public Men and Public Patriarchies THE VIOLENCES OF MEN: How Men Talk about and How Agencies Respond to Men’s Violence to Women CONSUMING CULTURES: Power and Resistance (co-editor with Sasha Roseneil) TRANSFORMING POLITICS: Power and Resistance (co-editor with Paul Bagguley) GENDER, SEXUALITY AND VIOLENCE IN ORGANIZATIONS: The Unspoken Forces of Organization Violations (with Wendy Parkin) ENDING GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE: A Call for Global Action to Involve Men (with Harry Ferguson et al.) INFORMATION SOCIETY AND THE WORKPLACE: Spaces, Boundaries and Agency (co-editor with Tuula Heiskanen) GENDER AND ORGANISATIONS IN FLUX? (co-editor with Päivi Eriksson et al.) HANDBOOK OF STUDIES ON MEN AND MASCULINITIES (co-editor with Michael Kimmel and R. W. Connell) MEN AND MASCULINITIES IN EUROPE (with Keith Pringle et al.) EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVES ON MEN AND MASCULINITIES: National and Transnational Approaches (with Keith Pringle and members of CROME) PPL-UK_SVB-Burr_FM.qxd 9/24/2008 2:33 PM Page iii Sex, Violence and the Body The Erotics of Wounding Edited by Viv Burr University of Huddersfield, UK Jeff Hearn University of Huddersfield, UK, Linköping University, Sweden and Swedish School of Economics, Finland PPL-UK_SVB-Burr_FM.qxd 9/24/2008 2:33 PM Page iv Selection and editorial matter © Viv Burr and Jeff Hearn 2008 Individual chapters © their respective authors 2008 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2008 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN-13: 978-0-230-54934-0 hardback ISBN-10: 0-230-54934-9 hardback This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sex, violence, and the body : the erotics of wounding / [edited by] Viv Burr, Jeff Hearn. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-230-54934-0 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-230-54934-9 (alk. paper) 1. Sadomasochism. 2. Wounds and injuries—Erotic aspects. I. Burr, Viven. II. Hearn, Jeff, 1947 HQ79.S49 2008 306.77Ј5—dc22 2008024580 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne PPL-UK_SVB-Burr_FM.qxd 9/24/2008 2:33 PM Page v In memory of Gem and Spot who, although not troubled by the questions addressed in this book, happily accompanied me on many walks while I pondered them. And for Hans, for still talking, walking and singing. This page intentionally left blank PPL-UK_SVB-Burr_FM.qxd 9/24/2008 2:33 PM Page vii Contents List of Figures and Table ix Notes on Contributors x 1 Introducing the Erotics of Wounding: Sex, Violence and the Body 1 Jeff Hearn and Viv Burr 2 Body Modification as Self-Mutilation by Proxy 15 Sheila Jeffreys 3 Breast Augmentation Surgery: Carving the Flesh as Female 34 Taina Kinnunen 4 Physical Bruises, Emotional Scars and ‘Love-Bites’: Women’s Experiences of Men’s Violence 53 Michelle Jones and Jeff Hearn 5 Harming or Healing? The Meanings of Wounding among Sadomasochists Who Also Self-Injure 71 Ani Ritchie 6 Making the Moves: Masculinities, Bodies, Risk and Death in the ‘Extreme’ Sport of Rock Climbing 88 Victoria Robinson 7 Transformations of Pain: Erotic Encounters with Crash 103 Anthony McCosker 8 Tortured Heroes: The Story of Ouch! Fan Fiction and Sadomasochism 119 Jenny Alexander 9 ‘Oh Spike you’re covered in sexy wounds!’ The Erotic Significance of Wounding and Torture in Buffy the Vampire Slayer 137 Viv Burr 10 Spectacular Pain: Masculinity, Masochism and Men in the Movies 157 Tim Edwards vii PPL-UK_SVB-Burr_FM.qxd 9/24/2008 2:33 PM Page viii viii Contents 11 Cut Pieces: Self-Mutilation in Body Art 177 Ulla Angkjær Jørgensen 12 The Loathsome, the Rough Type and the Monster: The Violence and Wounding of Media Texts on Rape 194 Mona Livholts Bibliography 212 Index 235 PPL-UK_SVB-Burr_FM.qxd 9/24/2008 2:33 PM Page ix Figures and Table Figure 9.1 St Sebastian by Guido Reni (1615–1616, Génova) 143 Figure 9.2 St Teresa of Ávila, in the Cornaro Chapel, Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome. Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1646 144 Table 1.1 Sexually positive and negative positions of the wounder and the wounded 4 ix PPL-UK_SVB-Burr_FM.qxd 9/24/2008 2:33 PM Page x Notes on Contributors Jenny Alexander wrote her PhD on nineteenth-century anarchism and political autobiography. She was a lecturer at the University of Sussex in the Department of Media and Film from 2003 to 2006 where she helped set up the Gender Studies MA and BA Programmes. She specialises in gender and media, political autobiography and the media and advertis- ing. At present she is working as an Investigative Researcher at the Advertising Standards Authority in London. Viv Burr is Reader in Psychology, University of Huddersfield, UK. Her main research interests are social constructionism, gender and cultural studies. Her books include Invitation to Personal Construct Psychology (with Trevor Butt, Whurr Publishers, 1992; 2nd edition, 2003), An Introduction to Social Constructionism (Routledge, 1995), The Person in Social Psychology (Routledge, 2002), Gender and Social Psychology (Routledge, 1998) and Social Constructionism (Psychology Press, 2003). Tim Edwards is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Leicester and has taught and published widely on matters relating to masculinity, sexuality and sexual politics. His recent works include Cultures of Masculinity (Routledge, 2006), ‘Sex, booze and fags’ in Bethan Benwell (ed.) Masculinity and Men’s Lifestyle Magazines (Blackwell, 2003), Contradictions of Consumption (Open University Press, 2000), and Men in the Mirror: Men’s Fashion, Masculinity and Consumer Society (Cassell, 1997). Jeff Hearn is Professor, University of Huddersfield, UK; Linköping University, Sweden; and Swedish School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland. His books include The Gender of Oppression (Wheatsheaf/St. Martin’s, 1987), ‘Sex’ at ‘Work’ (with Wendy Parkin, St. Martin’s/Prentice Hall, 1987/1995), The Sexuality of Organization (co-editor, Sage, 1989), Men in the Public Eye (Routledge, 1992), The Violences of Men (Sage, 1998), Consuming Cultures (co-editor, Macmillan, 1999), Gender, Sexuality and Violence in Organizations (with Wendy Parkin, Sage, 2001), Information Society and the Workplace (co-editor, Routledge, 2004), Handbook of Studies on Men and Masculinities (co-editor, Sage, 2005), and European Perspectives on Men and Masculinities (with Keith Pringle and CROME, Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). His current research interests include men’s relations to ageing, virtuality and transnationalisation. x PPL-UK_SVB-Burr_FM.qxd 9/24/2008 2:33 PM Page xi Notes on Contributors xi Sheila Jeffreys is Professor in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne where she teaches sexual politics, inter- national feminist politics, and lesbian and gay politics. She has written six books on the history and politics of sexuality, on prostitution and beauty practices. Her most recent book is Beauty and Misogyny: Harmful Cultural Practices in the West (Routledge, 2005). In addition, she has just completed a book for Routledge on the international sex industry, pro- visionally entitled The Industrial Vagina, and is writing a book on the politics of transgenderism with Lorene Gottschalk of Ballarat University. She has been involved in feminist activism since 1973, mostly against sexual violence and pornography, and in lesbian feminism since 1978, through the London Lesbian Archive and the Lesbian History Group. She moved to Melbourne in 1991, where she was a founding member (in 1994) of the Australian branch of the Coalition against Trafficking in Women. She works both within Australia and internationally against commercial sexual violence.