Feminist views on BDSM vary widely from acceptance to rejection.

BDSM BDSM is a variety of often erotic practices or roleplaying involving bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and other related interpersonal dynamics. Given the wide range of practices, some of which may be engaged ...

refers to bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and Sado-Masochism. In order to evaluate its perception, two polarizing frameworks are compared. Some feminists, such as

Gayle Rubin Gayle S. Rubin (born January 1, 1949 in South Carolina) is an American cultural anthropologist best known as an activist and theorist of sex and gender politics. She has written on a range of subjects including feminism, sadomasochism, prosti ...

and

Patrick Califia Patrick Califia (born 1954; formerly also known as Pat Califia and by the last name Califia-Rice) is an American writer of non-fiction essays about sexuality and of erotic fiction and poetry. Califia is a bisexual trans man. Prior to transitioni ...

, perceive BDSM as a valid form of expression of

female sexuality Human female sexuality encompasses a broad range of behaviors and processes, including female sexual identity and Human sexual activity, sexual behavior, the physiological, psychological, social, cultural, political, and spiritual or religious ...

, while other feminists, such as

Andrea Dworkin Andrea Rita Dworkin (September 26, 1946 – April 9, 2005) was an American radical feminist writer and activist best known for her analysis of pornography. Her feminist writings, beginning in 1974, span 30 years. They are found in a dozen solo ...

and

Susan Griffin Susan Griffin (born January 26, 1943) is a radical feminist philosopher, essayist and playwright particularly known for her innovative, hybrid-form ecofeminist works. Life Griffin was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1943 and has resided i ...

, have stated that they regard BDSM as a form of woman-hating violence. Some lesbian feminists practice BDSM and regard it as part of their sexual identity. The historical relationship between feminists and BDSM practitioners has been controversial. The two most extreme positions reflect those who believe that feminism and BDSM are mutually exclusive beliefs, and those who believe that BDSM practices are a fundamental expression of sexual freedom. Much of the controversy is left over from the

feminist sex wars The feminist sex wars, also known as the lesbian sex wars, or simply the sex wars or porn wars, are terms used to refer to collective debates amongst feminists regarding a number of issues broadly relating to sexuality and sexual activity. Dif ...

(acrimonious debates over sex issues) and the battle between the

anti-pornography feminists Reasons for opposition to pornography include religious objections and feminist concerns (for specific sectors of feminism), as well as alleged harmful effects, such as pornography addiction. Pornography addiction is not a condition recognized ...

and the pro-pornography feminists.

History

1970s

In the 1970s, many different divisions of the feminist movement emerged. As Andrew McBride writes, "During the 1970s, much of the discourse in the feminist movement was dominated by discussions of

lesbian feminism Lesbian feminism is a cultural movement and critical perspective that encourages women to focus their efforts, attentions, relationships, and activities towards their fellow women rather than men, and often advocates lesbianism as the logic ...

. Toward the end of the decade, however, the conversations within feminism began to focus on a new topic: sexuality. This included sexuality of all types, not just lesbian sexuality. Included in the discussions and debates were heterosexuality, pornography, sadomasochism, butch/femme roles, and sex work." The

Lavender Menace The Lavender Menace or revolution was an informal group of lesbian radical feminists formed to protest the exclusion of lesbians and their issues from the feminist movement at the Second Congress to Unite Women in New York City on May 1, 1970. Me ...

and their concept of the woman identified woman and the

Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media (WAVPM) was a feminist anti-pornography activist group based in San Francisco and an influential force in the larger feminist anti-pornography movement of the late 1970s and 1980s. History WAVPM was ...

both came out strongly believing that engaging in BDSM play was contradictory to being a feminist.

Samois Samois was a lesbian-feminist BDSM organization based in San Francisco that existed from 1978 to 1983. It was the first lesbian BDSM group in the United States. It took its name from Samois-sur-Seine, the location of the fictional estate of Anne- ...

, a San Francisco-based lesbian BDSM group, maintained that feminists could engage in BDSM without being hypocritical.

1980s

During the 1980s, this sex war continued and reached the attention of several academics who attempted to dissect why such a division had occurred. Ardill and O'Sullivan explained the history using the conflict in the London Lesbian and Gay Center as an example. Similar conflicts were continuations of the issues in the 1970s. The

Lesbian Sex Mafia The Lesbian Sex Mafia (LSM) is an information and support group for bisexual women and lesbians interested in sexual activities involving BDSM, fetishes, costumes, etc. Founded in 1981 by Jo Arnone and Dorothy Allison, it is located in New York Cit ...

founded by

Dorothy Allison Dorothy Allison (born April 11, 1949) is an American writer from South Carolina whose writing focuses on class struggle, sexual abuse, child abuse, feminism and lesbianism. She is a self-identified lesbian femme. Allison has won a number of aw ...

appeared in New York advocating sex positive feminism and promoting the idea that all women had the right to explore their sexuality in whatever ways they saw fit. The controversial

1982 Barnard Conference on Sexuality The Barnard Conference on Sexuality is often credited as the moment that signaled the beginning of the Feminist Sex Wars. It was held at Barnard College (a private women's liberal arts college in New York City) on April 24, 1982, and was presented ...

, which brought these issues to the attention of academic feminists, is often regarded as officially launching the feminist sex wars.

1990s

In the 1990s feminist scholars continued to research and apply different feminist academic

frameworks A framework is a generic term commonly referring to an essential supporting structure which other things are built on top of. Framework may refer to: Computing * Application framework, used to implement the structure of an application for an op ...

to the questions of sexuality and BDSM in an effort to find a way to bridge the gap between the two groups. Hopkins, in 1994 applied critical analysis to the feminist viewpoints against Sadomasochistic acts. She takes each argument put forth against BDSM practice by women and answers it from within a feminist framework. In the end, she points out that the issue is not as concrete as feminists may try and paint it and that they may need to examine the concepts in more detail. In 1995, Teresa Hornsby also applied feminist frameworks to the subject of BDSM and came down on the side that the two were not contradictory. Hornsby went further to examine whether or not violence itself was only a masculine activity.

2000s

After 2000, advances in technology were opening up the world to more people and BDSM started coming out more and more in popular culture. Maneesha Deckha applied a

postcolonial feminist Postcolonial feminism is a form of feminism that developed as a response to feminism focusing solely on the experiences of women in Western cultures and former colonies. Postcolonial feminism seeks to account for the way that racism and the long- ...

approach where she suggests treating BDSM as a cultural practice as a means to put to rest the divide between feminists and BDSM practitioners. She came to the conclusion as did those in the 1990s that perhaps a more in depth look is needed to determine if feminist viewpoints on BDSM hold up under closer scrutiny. In addition, Deckha did some work on the concepts of consent and the legality of BDSM, specifically addressing the question on whether or not women can give consent and whether BDSM activities should be regulated in the context of violence or the context of sexuality. One point she makes is: if legislation is made in the context of regulating it around sex, then aren't we simply giving the patriarchy further control over women's expression of sexual identity?

Current feminist viewpoints

Current feminist viewpoints on BDSM practices continue to be controversial and at odds with one another. Some feminists view SM as an ideal feminist expression of sexual freedom while other feminists say that BDSM, and more particularly SM, reinforce

patriarchy Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males ...

and that these practices are contradictory to feminism. Feminists who view BDSM as contradictory to feminism also often believe that women who engage in BDSM practices, and specifically those who play a submissive role in them, have been led by sexist power structures to believe that they enjoy these acts. This feminist viewpoint argues that the individuals who enjoy playing a submissive role in the bedroom only enjoy it because they have been led to believe that it is what is expected of them and that they should enjoy it. This viewpoint argues that if these individuals, particularly women, were able to explore their sexual desires without the influence of a sexist power structure that they would come to very different conclusions about what they enjoy.

Perspectives on lesbian BDSM

Lesbian SM (Sadism, Submission, Masochism) has been problematic in the analysis of feminist viewpoints on BDSM, especially with regards to whether or not lesbians are recreating patriarchal structures. Many academic critics do not even tackle the idea of lesbian BDSM. Maneesha Deckha in her article, "Pain, pleasure, and consenting women: Exploring feminist responses to S/M and its legal regulation in Canada through Jelinek's '' The Piano Teacher''" admitted that covering lesbian BDSM made her theories too convoluted to see. Such

lesbian erasure Lesbian erasure is the tendency to ignore, remove, falsify, or reexplain evidence of lesbian women or relationships in history, academia, the news media, and other primary sources. Lesbian erasure also refers to instances wherein lesbian issues ...

has been fairly common in second and third wave feminism as lesbian identity has frequently been subsumed in feminist identity. This concept is explained by Calhoun in "The Gender Closet: Lesbian disappearance under the sign 'woman'" Some, such as Deckha, believe that although lesbians do practice BDSM, they are doing so in an effort to merely recreate the patriarchal power structure in the rest of society. Be it through domination and submission exchange of power, or the butch/femme dynamic, lesbians who interact in this way are convincing themselves that they are outside of patriarchy, when in reality they are reinforcing it because their sexuality is trapped within the patriarchal structure, true consent cannot occur. Others, such as Hornsby, believe that lesbians can in fact practice BDSM without recreating patriarchal systems because they have already declared themselves to be outside of those systems.

BDSM practitioners

Feminist writer Clarisse Thorn released a book in 2012 called ''The S&M Feminist,'' in which she often discusses her own experiences. The high-profile feminist anthology ''

Yes Means Yes ''Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape'' is a feminist non-fiction book edited by Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti, published in 2008. The book was one of ''Publishers Weekly'' 99 Best Books of 2009 and in ...

,'' published in 2008, also featured an essay about BDSM and feminism by Stacey May Fowles. Jessica Wakeman wrote of her own experience with SM activities in a follow-up interview after her articl
First Time For Everything: Getting Spanked
was published in 2009. At the time of the interview in October 2010, Wakeman had been writing about feminist issues, including feminism and media criticism, feminism and politics, and feminism and sex for about eight years and considered herself to be a rather active feminist. Wakeman discussed how she is able to enjoy spanking play and being dominated and still be a feminist. She discussed how spanking play is a fetish and is no different from other fetishes that individuals have, even though it does involve being hit by one's partner. She also commented that it is important to remember that when an individual is involved with BDSM play, such as spanking, if it is true BDSM play it has been discussed by both partners and either of them can stop the play at any time with a safe word, phrase or action. Furthermore, a real physically or emotionally abusive relationship is not safe and consensual like BDSM play is. There is a difference between what happens in the bedroom and what happens in real life. Wakeman wrote that she is able to enjoy things in the context of sex or flirting that she would not want to happen in her day-to-day life. Like other feminist BDSM practitioners, Wakeman rejects the argument that women are taught what they enjoy and led to be submissive by a dominant sexist power structure. Within BDSM communities, it is often said that submissive practitioners are the real dominants because they have the ultimate control over the situation with a safe word.

Major figures

Some feminists practice BDSM and regard it as part of their sexual identity.

Patrick Califia

Patrick Califia perceives BDSM as a valid form of expression of

Andrea Dworkin

Andrea Dworkin has written on the topic and regards BDSM as a form of misogynist violence.

Susan Griffin

Like Dworkin,

is against BDSM.

Gayle Rubin

Gayle Rubin is an American

cultural anthropologist Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portman ...

best known as an activist and theorist of sex and gender politics. She has written on a range of subjects including

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

sadomasochism Sadomasochism ( ) is the giving and receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation. Practitioners of sadomasochism may seek sexual pleasure from their acts. While the terms sadist and masochist refe ...

prostitution Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in Sex work, sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, n ...

pedophilia Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty ...

pornography Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,

and

lesbian literature Lesbian literature is a subgenre of literature addressing lesbian themes. It includes poetry, plays, fiction addressing lesbian characters, and non-fiction about lesbian-interest topics. Fiction that falls into this category may be of any gen ...

, as well as

anthropological Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

studies and histories of

sexual subcultures A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, pol ...

. Rubin's 1984 essay "Thinking Sex" is widely regarded as a founding text of

sexuality studies Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The f ...

and queer theory. In 2009, the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

hosted a "state of the field" conference in gender and sexuality studies entitled "Rethinking Sex" in recognition of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Rubin's essay. Rubin was a featured speaker at the conference, where she presented "Blood under the Bridge: Reflections on 'Thinking Sex'" to an audience of nearly eight hundred people. In 2011 ''GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies'' published a special issue, also titled "Rethinking Sex", featuring work emerging from this conference, and including Rubin's piece "Blood under the Bridge: Reflections on 'Thinking Sex'". In 1978 Rubin, together with Patrick Califia and others, founded the first lesbian BDSM group in the United States,

. Rubin became a prominent sex-positive feminist in the

of the late 1970s and 1980s.

References

{{BDSM Feminism and sexuality Sex-positive feminism Sexual ethics BDSM Point of view Misogyny