CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2013
| Author | Vacaroiu, Iulia Florentina |
|---|---|
| Title | The Power that Binds: Questioning Normative Domination in Consensual Sadomasochistic Relationships in Romania |
| Summary | Despite widespread mediatisation, consensual sadomasochism is still a taboo for mainstream society because it plays at the limits of pleasure, pain and sexuality. Within this thesis I trace past these limits and reveal how practitioners of BDSM discursively enforce a non-hierarchical interchange of power, contesting the mainstream’s conventional ideas of domination. Throughout history, civilization has imposed itself through fear, and by doing so has always constructed its domain on an unsteady foundation, one prone to revolutions. In my research on practitioners of consensual sadomasochism in Romania, I show how these individuals question civilization’s normative domination and manage to reach mainstream society’s goal to control the body. By rationalizing the practice, creating a community, and enforcing power through contract and play rather than conflict, BDSM eliminates the need for revolting against the authoritarian figure as it leaves room for its practitioners to name their dominants on their own terms. In short, although one individual within a rapport is the dominant, the other is not implicitly powerless. However, perhaps the best answer to how this equilibrium of domination is maintained lies in a play session’s temporality. Power works within SM’s confines of consensuality because all play must eventually come to an end. |
| Supervisor | Fabiani, Jean-Louis; Monterescu, Daniel Benno Jacques |
| Department | Sociology MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2013/vacaroiu_iulia.pdf |
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