Student Publications Student Scholarship Spring 2015 Liberation Through Domination: BDSM Culture and Submissive-Role Women Lisa R. Rivoli Gettysburg College Follow this and additional works at: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship Part of the Gender and Sexuality Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Share feedback about the accessibility of this item. Rivoli, Lisa R., "Liberation Through Domination: BDSM Culture and Submissive-Role Women" (2015). Student Publications. 318. https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/318 This is the author's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution. Cupola permanent link: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/ 318 This open access student research paper is brought to you by The uC pola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of The uC pola. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Liberation Through Domination: BDSM Culture and Submissive-Role Women Abstract The alternative sexual practices of bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadism and masochism (BDSM) are practiced by people all over the world. In this paper, I will examine the experiences of five submissive-role women in the Netherlands and five in south-central Pennsylvania, focusing specifically on how their involvement with the BDSM community and BDSM culture influences their self-perspective.I will begin my analysis by exploring anthropological perspectives of BDSM and their usefulness in studying sexual counterculture, followed by a consideration of feminist critiques of BDSM and societal barriers faced by women in the community.