body rites
In body rites, I explore a space where women have control and power over their bodies; a space where they are not objects, but subjects.
BDSM is built upon trust, negotiation and consent. In a consensual power exchange between equals, participants gain a sense of freedom and control such that they feel free to allow someone else that control for a period of time.
(NSFW: light nudity, consensual kink play)
body rites is a declaration of agency by a number of different women involved in the Brisbane BDSM scene. These women have opened up their homes and allowed me to share in their intimate experiences.
In a society that grooms women to be passive about their sexuality, women who boldly make informed decisions about their own bodies are to be celebrated.
There is a long history of women being seen and treated as objects. Women(’s bodies and sexuality) are under constant scrutiny. Women are discouraged from talking about their sexuality due to a fear of judgement, which consequently functions as a form of social control. When women are uncomfortable even talking about sex, their desires are rendered illegitimate and they are coached in performative sexual passivity.*
The BDSM community provides a space for women to explore their sexualities and assert agency over their bodies.^
Sadomasochistic practices are a valid form of consensual activity that women are entitled to enjoy without fear of discriminatory judgment by society or other feminists.^
In 1886 Richard von Krafft-Ebing wrote Psychopathia Sexualis, which declared that any and all sexual expression beyond procreation was “perverse”. This book was the foundation for all research that followed, including that by Sigmund Freud, who perpetuated the falsehood that “masochism was the natural state for women.”
These assumptions do not leave room for the idea that women enjoy these activities for their own pleasure.★
“Physical pain does not simply resist language but actively destroys it, bringing about an immediate reversion to a state anterior to language, to the sounds and cries a human makes before language is learned.”
— Elaine Scarry (The Body in Pain)
There are few spheres in modern society where strong emotions are allowed. BDSM provides a space for transgressive and emotional expression. It is a space where bodies can (and are required to) be open in a society that has elevated the closed body to the ideal.`
Consent is rooted deeply in the framework of the BDSM community. It extends beyond sexual encounters; encompassing power relationships, negotiation and is often highly specific.
The consent dynamic as represented in the Fifty Shades franchise would be considered unhealthy by most (if not all) BDSM practitioners.
Sources:
*Bartasavich, Jennifer, Beth Montemurro, and Leann Wintermute. 2014. “Let’s (Not) Talk about Sex: The Gender of Sexual Discourse.” Sexuality & Culture, no 19 (October): 139–156.
^Prior, Emily. 2013. “Women’s perspectives of BDSM power exchange.” Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality, no. 16.
★Rehor, Jennifer. “Sensual, Erotic, and Sexual Behaviors of Women from the ‘Kink’ Community,” Archives of Sexual Behaviour 44, no. 4 (2015): 825.
`Carlström, Charlotta. 2017. “BDSM, Interaction Rituals and Open Bodies.” Sexuality & Culture, no. 22 (September): 209–219.
Scarry, Elaine. The Body in Pain. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Special thanks to everyone else who allowed me into your space and to share in your experiences. Also to MEAA for awarding me “most innovative photojournalism photography” at the Queensland College of Art 2018 graduate exhibition.
