Gender equal BDSM practice – a Swedish paradox?

ABSTRACT

In this article I examine power and BDSM, that is, Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, and Sadism and Masochism, within Swedish society. The main research question is: How do practitioners relate to power, gender and consent in Swedish society, which has been characterised by a long tradition of gender equality? The study is based on 29 in-depth interviews with self-defined BDSM practitioners and ethnographic fieldwork in Swedish BDSM communities. The article shows that there is a strong preoccupation of gender and equality among Swedish practitioners. They express gender awareness and problematise the practice in relation to societal power structures. For BDSM to fit into a society with a strong egalitarian discourse like Sweden, the practitioners need to reconcile BDSM and gender equality. To defend an interest in BDSM, the practitioners emphasise the voluntariness, the central role of consent, and the defined staging in the practices. By highlighting the consent, the informants thus position themselves against the discourse of BDSM as violent, oppressive and patriarchal.

KEYWORDS:

• BDSM
• Sweden
• ethnography
• gender equality
• power

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Hir is a gender-neutral third-person singular object pronoun.

2. Domina (or Mistress) means a dominant female in BDSM practices.

3. Dnr. 2012/180 and 2013/232.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Centre for Sexology and Sexuality Studies, Malmö University.

Notes on contributors

Charlotta Carlström

Charlotta Carlström, PhD., teaches at the master's program in Sexology at Malmö University.Her main area of research is human sexuality and gender with a focus on the experiences of people in sexual communities located outside the mainstream – particularly BDSM and polyamorous communities.