Playing on the Edge: Sadomasochism, Risk, and Intimacy

Notes

Notes Introduction 1. Other organizations cropped up along the East Coast during the seventies, though none has been as successful or endured as long as TES. 2. “Play” is used as both a noun and a verb, to refer to SM interaction specifically (e.g., “Do you want to play?”) and generally (e.g., “It depends on the play”). 3. All proper names regarding the community I studied, including the names of people, places, and organizations, have been changed. 4. “The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom is a national organization committed to creating a political, legal, and social environment in the United States that advances equal rights of consenting adults who practice forms of alternative sexual expression.” National Coalition for Sexual Freedom Mission Statement, http://www .ncsfreedom.org. 5. In the two years preceding my entry into the field, the community had been thrice burned by people who claimed to be academic researchers, but who were journalists , bloggers, or students whose work either explicitly attacked SM participants or depicted SM in a particularly unfavorable light. This happened twice again while I was there, though in one of these cases the writer claimed to be a participant and did not disclose his project. 6. The swinger scene is an alternative sexual community of mostly heterosexual couples who swap partners for otherwise conventional sexual activity. 7. As the identification labels themselves suggest, “dominant” and “submissive” are used in the community to draw on narratives of unequal power relations in SM play. They are used as both nouns and adjectives. Male dominant/female submissive were the most common identification labels in EPP by far, but there were exceptions. 8. This subset of the community differs from Horizons in significant ways, many of which manifest themselves in differences in gender relations. An exploration of these differences is beyond the scope of this work. 9. Friends from the scene tell me that they think this may, in 2010, be changing. 10. See, e.g., Abu-Lughod 1986; Bourgois 1996; Prieur 1998; Duneier 1999. 205 11. Interestingly, friends outside the SM community later informed me that the name I had chosen was a “stripper name.” People in the scene, however, most often guessed a relationship to the Dakota, the famous building in front of which John Lennon was killed. 12. By press time, however, the word “kink” appears to have experienced a significant resurgence in the community. I am no longer sure that it is less common than either BDSM or SM. 1. Defiance 1. I was smaller than most of the members of the community, and was often referred to as “tiny” and “skinny.” It is possible that respondents may have been disinclined to discuss weight issues with me. However, informal word-of-mouth investigation suggests that the desire to weigh less was not an issue with which most people in Caeden were especially concerned, at least discursively. 2. For developments of these arguments, see Messerschmidt 1999; Monaghan 2005; and Bell and McNaughton 2007. 3. See Bell and McNaughton 2007 for a thorough account of the literature. 4. See Beauvoir 1952; Connell 1987; Doane 1991; Halberstam 1998; and Hole 2003. 5. Interestingly, Jeri and Shane were the only respondents who left the community before I did. 2. Geeks and Freaks 1. See Calhoun 1980 for a notable exception. 2. See Evans 2007 for a review of research on sense of community and psychological sense of community. 3. The date has been changed. 4. In Caeden, the word “pervert” is used widely and positively, in an often conscious effort to reclaim SM from the model of pathology. 5. See Brubaker and Cooper (2000) for a compelling and thorough critique of the use of identity as a category of analysis. 3. Tipping the Scales 1. Both Hopkins and Stear are deconstructing SM as it occurs privately, rather than public SM communities. 2. “Scat” (short for scatophilia) refers to erotic play with feces. 3. In Caeden, not all leathermen are SM participants, and many characterize their activities the way that Weinberg, Williams, and Moser’s leathermen did. These particular activities, though, are viewed as SM in both communities in Caeden. As I did not participate in the gay (male) leather scene, I am grateful for the insights of others who are familiar with the national leather community, most notably Boymeat. 4. The general resentment of wankers stems from their explicit and immediate “use” of other people’s play for sexual gratification...