Transgression and (sexual) citizenship: the political struggle for self-determination within BDSM communities

ABSTRACT

There has been – and continues to be – a tension within the political strategies of sexual minority communities claiming citizenship. Whilst attempting to forge a political self-determination based on being (dissident) sexual subjects, members of sexually diverse communities have frequently engaged in political practices that normalize their diversity to accord with wider socio-cultural conventions. In this article, we address this issue in relation to the political strategies of one of the most marginalized sexual identities/practices: BDSM. By drawing on the work of Foucault, Rose, Rabinow and Bahktin, we advance a case for how it may be possible for dissident sexual communities to resist the normalizing effects of citizenship whilst still making claims for legal recognition and wider social acknowledgment. Key to the argument is the theorization of a position wherein carnival transgression operates within a dialectical integration of ideology and utopia as a mode of citizenship.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexual citizenship
• carnival
• transgression
• belonging
• BDSM

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The universal function of biopower occupies a prominent place in Foucault’s writing, where he determines that biopower that is based on the preservation of life and health as a governmental strategy connects between the institutional apparatus as a statement and a conditioned practice (see for example, The History of Sexuality: Part 1, 1978; Society Must be Defended, 2008).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Darren Langdridge

Darren Langdridge is Professor of Psychology and Sexuality at the Open University, UK, and a UKCP accredited existential psychotherapist working in private practice. For many years Darren has researched and written on sexualities, critical theory and psychotherapy, publishing numerous books, articles and book chapters.

Ofer Parchev

Ofer Parchev is a lecturer at Haifa University, Israel. His intellectual interests include governmental research, biopower strategy, and minority political groups and he has published various articles on these subjects in international journals of political theory.