Sadomasochism!?

Hungappa had an article entitled "Power Exchange" in week 2's edition which caught my eye, and me, being who I am, decided to do some research on the subject and share it with you. (Sorry, can't provide a link 'cause it's not online yet - shame Hungappa, shame)

Hungappa refers to sadomasochism in the first instance as 'power exchange'. Other aliases include B&D, 'bondage and discipline', S&M, 'sadism and masochism', 'slave and master', D&S, "dominance and submission and the term I'll be using; bdsm.

To quote a very interesting article "SM is fantasy-sharing, which can only be consensual."and "But that's exactly what SM is: discovering and playing with our limits." - Hence Hungappa's use of 'power exchange'.

Photographer of bdsm, Barbara Nitke comments: "Communicating the reality of s/m interaction is challenging, in part because so much of what happens in s/m runs directly counter to everything we've been taught about sex, intimacy, love, and pleasure. Tenderness experienced through whipping? Personal empowerment through submission? Intimacy through abandonment? Pleasure through pain? What strange ideas these are to people who have no personal experience with s/m, and never witnessed others in the throes of a transformative s/m scene. And yet all of these dynamics are all utterly familiar, powerfully important, and quite matter-of-factly real to anyone who has made s/m play a significant part of his or her personal and sexual life." Maybe that's why popular media has iconicised bdsm for so long, usually in an aggressive or humourous light - it is so hard for non-practicing people to conceptualise.

Psychology Today states that psychologist Roy E Baumeister believes that masochism is a way of taking a breather from 'the self'; having to be the self-reliant, in control, responsible and driven. By having someone else control what's happening, you are getting a break from all that every-day stress. Interestingly, the article states that it's usually the priveledged 'classes' that are drawn to masochism; society's real victims don't go looking for masochistic sex. It also states that it's men who are most commonly looking to be sex slaves! Submission (societal, and sexual) is historically a feminine thing and "if anything, female masochists desire to be turned into an extreme caricature version of femininity, something far removed from their normal selves."

Often associated with sex toys it seems the possibilities that are open to bdsm's are infinite.

I have been on the internet actively reading and searching for information relating to bdsm for about 4 hours, and to try and encapsulate what bdsm is and what it means is impossible - it means different things to different people and there are so many things tied up (no pun intended) with it - leather fetishes, catheterisation, fisting, same-sex relationships, clubs, fetishes involving urine and faeces.... I have neither the time, nor the space to venture further into this unusual world. Here are a few links that can take you further if you so choose - http://www.geocities.com/stheory/contents.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BDSM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadism_and_masochism.

Wikipaedia, in its usual manner have numerous links throughout their articles, which in turn have links and so on in the true manner of the web. Have fun perusing. Me? I'm thankful that I'm vanilla (you'll have to look that one up kiddies) - it's all too complicated!