Abstract
Andrea Beckmann’s book reads like a dissertation which is unfortunate, because hidden inside this pedantic, heavily jargoned tome are some very uncommon insights and a fresh point of view. Beckmann’s book is informed by “queer theorists” like Jeffrey Weeks and Michael Warner. She brings this “insider/outsider” perspective to the study of sadomasochism, a slightly different subject matter but still part of sexual practices generally considered by the mainstream to be not only variant but “deviant” or “perverted.” The subjects of her study are a “snowball sample” of men and women who participated in the BDSM (bondage/discipline; dominance/submission; sadism/masochism) community in London. They are on the whole educated, sophisticated Londoners who frequented BDSM clubs, organizations, and public or semi-public “play parties.” Her subjects are articulate and high-functioning, and their sexual behaviors, while unusual and somewhat extreme, are rarely dangerous, always involve adults, and are always consensual. These practices include sexual “play” or “scenes,” in which participants take dominant or submissive roles and may include floggings or other use of pain as well as bondage, psychological games, and fetishes. Beckmann’s subjects included single men and women as well as long-term couples.
Beckmann conducts her research from the perspective that “differences” between people or groups of people can be viewed as resources, not pathological deviancy, and that the role of the criminologist is to expose injustice, not simply enforce the status quo. She is an unabashed advocate for the rights of her subjects. She is explicit about viewing BDSM as a “normal” sexual variant rather than a “deviance.” She expertly exposes the ways in which the criminal justice system punishes and marginalizes practicioners of BDSM without a scientific, evidence-based rationale for classifying people as “paraphiliacs.” Honoring the perspective that differences are resources, Beckmann devotes a significant part of her book to describing ways in which many S/M “players” use sexual techniques to achieve states of altered consciousness that many consider spiritual enlightment. She describes the use of pain to achieve transcendence in a way that is highly convincing and will leave even a skeptical reader with more openness about apparently “strange” and “bizarre” sexual practices.
Moreover, Beckmann places all this within an historical and sociological context. She traces the stigmatization of nonprocreative sexual acts to the religious dominance of Christianity over paganism, and draws parallels between S/M use of pain to achieve transcendence and Sufi practices. She notes studies showing the ubiquitousness of S/M practices in human societies and even among animals. Beckmann also painstakingly details the more recent history of how contemporary social science and political movements have viewed S/M, including the controversy among feminist scholars. She describes most of the modern “explanations” of S/M behavior before deconstructing them. Beckmann draws analogies between her study of sadomasochism and the sociology of the body, sexuality, and social power and dominance. It is these sections and in her conclusions, however, that Beckmann is most pedantic. The parts of her book that appear most “alive” and readable are the excerpts from interviews of her subjects. The densest and least accessible are the chapters steeped in literature review and sociological theory.
I am a clinical psychologist and sex therapist specializing in work with the “queer” community, including the BDSM community, and so I read this book with very little formal knowledge of the current trends and controversies in sociology but a lifelong immersion in how psychology and sexology deal with sexual variance. In my discipline, there are two views of BDSM. Mainstream mental health, including mainstream sexology, label spracticioners of S/M as “paraphilics”: sadism and masochism are still psychiatric disorders according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. But a vocal minority of sexologists, of which I am a member, sees BDSM practices as interesting variations of sexuality that might teach us something about sex in general but that are no more likely than more common practices to be “pathological.” Many of us are “queer theorists” and/or members of a “queer” subculture that sees BDSM as normal and for the most part unremarkable. All of us see ourselves as advocates of people who practice kink, and, like Beckmann, we are aware of and enthusiastic about the positive aspects of BDSM. In the last decade this minority has increasingly challenged the prevailing psychiatric paradigm. In 2010 a petition was delivered to the American Psychiatric Association Sexual and Gender Disorders Workgroup for the upcoming DSM 5; the petition demanded the removal of the entire subgroup of “Paraphilias” from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.
So it is fascinating to see that Andrea Beckmann is clearly a sociological counterpart to this movement within mental health, and that this book is an attempt to re-define BDSM within the field of sociology. But Beckmann’s re-definition is extraordinarily ambitious. She is not content to make the case that sadomasochistic sexuality is a normal variant of sexual behavior unfairly miscast as perversion by the repressive forces of Western society and religion. She analyzes the way BDSM is viewed by the mainstream culture and finds parallels to torture, cosmetic surgery, and “conditions of domination” in social relations. I am not qualified to comment on the sociological theory she describes, but as an observer from another discipline her reach seems over-long.
Perhaps only another sociologist can read and understand this book. Much of it was too obtuse for me, and while I am extremely familiar with the subject matter, I am not a sociologist. Beckmann might consider writing a more accessible version. Her ideas are interesting, and it is wonderful to see this challenge to the prevailing paradigms of sexual “deviance.” But one must work very hard to gain the benefits of the good ideas in The Social Construction of Sexuality and Perversion. The book is a laborious (and high-priced) read and I suspect that few will decide the nuggets of interest sprinkled within are worth the effort.