S/M in SA: Sexual Violence, Simulated Sex and Psychoanalytic Theory

South Africa is one of the most violent nations on earth. Not only are South Africans constantly confronted with an array of the violent images that are the standard fare in the media landscape of the post-industrial world, all South Africans have to live with the knowledge that they could at any time and in any place be the victims of violent abuse. In short, South Africans are traumatized by the ubiquitous violence in their society. And the extent of this trauma can be mapped onto class, race and gender.

Violent sexual crime is rampant in South Africa. According to the latest available official police statistics, there were a reported 27,056 cases of rape in 1993. This is approximately sixty-five reported rapes per hundred thousand of the population of the country. Conservative estimates are that fifty to sixty-five percent of rape cases are reported, while some studies claim that as little as five percent enter official statistics (Stanton 1993, 21). But even taking the number of reported rapes as a guideline, the average incidence of rape throughout all of South Africa is comparable to that of New York City, while the rape capitals of America like Jacksonville, Florida, Dallas, Texas and Flint, Michigan look safe compared to Durban and Johannesburg, their South African counterparts.

Over the past decade, there has been a steady rise in the importance of sadomasochistic sexuality in South Africa. There are no empirical studies of sadomasochism in South Africa, so we don’t know who is doing what with whom when, or whether there has been an increase in the number of people participating in s/m. But there has certainly been an increase in the general visibility of s/m scenes and imagery, and the degree to which this imagery tends to be acceptable within mainstream South African culture. This is accompanied by an increase in the availability of s/m sex. There is evidence that an s/m subculture has existed in South Africa for many years already, particularly among the gay community (Isaacs 1989). In contrast, however, a study of prostitutes in Durban published in 1991 claimed that they were very conscious of the boundaries separating normal from perverse sexual activities, and tended not to engage in anal sex “or render other services of a perverse or bizarre nature” (Schurink and Ndabandaba 1991, 40).

In more recent years, however, the boundaries of normal sexual activity seem to have blurred, and acts that were previously considered perverse or bizarre have become acceptable to the point where even family newspapers on Sunday carry contact advertisements for encounters of discipline and bondage.

What we are witnessing in South Africa corresponds to a general trend in the West. Sadomasochism is coming increasingly to be offered as part of the menu of sex for sale. It is used in advertising, and is ever more common as part of the scenery in film and television (The Night Porter, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Basic Instinct, Seven Beauties, just to mention some of the better known examples). A study into the subculture of s/m published in Germany in 1993 commented that, whereas sadomasochism was relatively well hidden in the seventies, it has in recent years become popular in Germany and, above all, the United States.

It is found in pop videos, the belles lettres and the world of fashion. The dark passion is also accorded special attention in the numerous lifestyle magazines on the market. It occupies a top position in media agendas. But while sadomasochistic iconography is ever more pronounced in the most diverse areas of popular culture, we know little about the worlds in which it arises.

(Wetzstein 1993, 17)

For those who actively seek s/m encounters or images, the Internet has brought it closer than ever before. The Internet seems a perfect medium for the propagation of s/m. It is a forum where people can indulge the shared fantasies that are the essence of s/m. The Sunday magazine of the Cape Town newspaper The Argus recently highlighted how the exchange...