From “SSC” and “RACK” to the “4Cs”: Introducing a new Framework for Negotiating BDSM Participation

Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality, Volume 17, July 5, 2014

www.ejhs.org

D J Williams, PhD: Center for Positive Sexuality (Los Angeles) and Idaho State University

Jeremy N. Thomas, PhD: Idaho State University

Emily E. Prior, MA: Center for Positive Sexuality (Los Angeles) and College of the Canyons

M. Candace Christensen, PhD: University of Texas at San Antonio

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Abstract

The BDSM (consensual sadomasochism) community has commonly utilized Safe, Sane, and Consensual (SSC), or more recently Risk Aware Consensual Kink (RACK) as basic frameworks to help structure the negotiation of BDSM participation. While these approaches have been useful, particularly for educating new participants concerning parameters of play, both approaches appear to have significant practical and conceptual limitations. In this paper we introduce an alternative framework for BDSM negotiation, Caring, Communication, Consent, and Caution (4Cs), and discuss its potential advantages.

Background and Introduction

From the time of Richard von Krafft-Ebing’s (1886/1978) text Psychopathia Sexualis, BDSM has commonly been assumed to be motivated by an underlying psychopathology. Although biases and misinterpretations among professionals still remain (see Hoff & Sprott, 2009; Kolmes, Stock, & Moser, 2007; Wright, 2009), researchers have consistently shown that BDSM cannot be explained by psychopathology (i.e., Connelly, 2006; Cross & Matheson, 2006; Powls & Davies, 2012; Richters, de Visser, Rissel, Grulich, & Smith, 2008; Weinberg, 2006). Some scholars have recognized that not only is BDSM participation not associated with psychopathology, but that it may be associated with desirable psychological states that are often associated with healthy leisure experience (Newmahr, 2010; Taylor & Ussher, 2001; Williams, 2006, 2009; Wismeijer & van Assen, 2013). Indeed, a widespread shift in understanding seems to be occurring wherein consensual BDSM participation is believed to be an acceptable expression of sexuality and/or leisure.

In light of this shift and in combination with the development of community-based research as a methodological strategy across the social sciences generally, an exciting recent development is the formal collaboration between scholars and communities of people with alternative sexual identities, including BDSM. The Community-Academic Consortium for Research on Alternative Sexualities (CARAS) was formed in 2005 and combines the knowledge and strengths of scholars and community members to produce high-quality knowledge that can directly benefit the community (Sprott & Bienvenu II, 2007). We welcome this development, and it is in the spirit of mutual benefit that we write the present paper. In fact, we are both scholars and also members of the BDSM community. Hopefully, our discussion here will generate insights among both academics and nonacademics.

In this paper, we summarize the popular BDSM community mottos of Safe, Sane, and Consensual (SSC) and Risk-Aware Consensual Kink (RACK) before proposing what we think is an improved approach, which we call the Caring, Communication, Consent, and Caution (4Cs) framework. Since each framework explicitly includes the precise concept of consent, we will discuss a few of the thorny issues surrounding the notion of consent within the 4Cs model a little bit later in the paper, rather than in our summary of SSC and RACK. We do this simply as a matter of retaining a consistent overall structure for readers.

Dis-identification: Alternative Sexuality and Gender Identities in Sadomasochistic Praxes

Ingrid Olson

Introduction

Sexuality and gender identities hold subversive potential. Contemporary academic work on sexuality and gender has targeted issues such as gender oppression,  sexual objectification,  and intersex, transsexual and transgender categorizations.  However, the creation and recognition of alternative, non-normative sexuality and gender identifications has been largely overlooked by the academic community. The study of sexuality is the study of power. Nowhere is this truer than in sadomasochism, the negotiated, consensual exchange of power. The practices and relationship schemata within the sadomasochistic community represent a paradigm for investigating alternative sexuality and gender identities. Members of the leather  community often engage in communication and negotiation for the specific purpose of developing consensual sexuality and/or gender roles within the framework of power exchange relationships. These subsequent alternative  sexuality and gender identities can be regarded as seditious as they problematize traditional, binary sex/gender categorizations, and sexual relationships based on expectations of symmetry and gentleness.

Consent and Consciousness: Policy Versus Practice in Sadomasochism

INGRID OLSON:

The study of sexuality is the study of power, nowhere is this truer than with sadomasochism (S/m), the negotiated, consensual exchange of power. Sexuality is defined through policy and practice, the public and the private, the permissible and the forbidden. The 1990 ‘Spanner Case’ in Manchester, England, determined S/m is impermissible because judicial policy states persons cannot consent to S/m activities as they have the potential to cause bodily harm. The 2004 ‘Sweet Productions’ case in Vancouver, Canada, determined that the practice of S/m is permissible because it is a normal form of sexuality that some members of society enjoy. The adherence to policy in the ‘Spanner Case’ and the recognition of practice in the ‘Sweet Productions’ decision distinguish the power of policy and practice in defining sadomasochism.

Fifty Shades of Grey: what BDSM enthusiasts think.

How well does EL James know the BDSM world? Is Christian Grey a psychopath? Would a real-life Anastasia submit so quickly? Our trio of experts give their verdict on Fifty Shades of Grey?

‘Real sex has spit and sweat’

Emily Sarah.Photograph: Felix Clay

Emily Sarah, 26, is a fetish model and performer who runs BDSM Healing, a business that combines techniques like reiki with sensory deprivation, bondage and spankings to deal with “the cathartic aspects of BDSM”. She discovered the fetish scene while at university in London.

I was shocked by how awful the film was. Ridiculous, really. The sex scenes were so vanilla. It didn’t look particularly kinky to me. There was a lot of beautiful equipment, but not much going on in terms of actual BDSM: it was just about Christian tying Anastasia up. In real BDSM relationships, there’s a lot more connection, a lot more talking, a lot more ritual. The play he did with her wasn’t hard play; it was sensation stuff. I switch between dominant and submissive, so I can see how she’d enjoy the scenes in the Red Room – but it didn’t show an authentic side to BDSM. It was more him stroking her for a bit with a whip, then lots of sex. That was it.