READERS

7 Apr 2015

Who are These Leather People








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Spank me silly: sadomasochism and the modern woman

Courtesy of: The Conversation & Lauren Rosewarne (Senior Lecturer at University of Melbourne)


"The poster for Secretary is up on my wall at work. I actually paid to see A Dangerous Method purely for Jung’s novel approach to therapy (and God do I hate period films.) While I probably won’t read all of Fifty Shades of Grey, I’ve certainly read the dirty bits.

No surprises: spanking has long been on my mind.

Journalist Katie Roiphe recently offered her take, writing in Newsweek about an apparent surge of reddened rears in pop culture. Roiphe proposes that while the spanked-into-subordination fantasy is nothing new, its contemporary popularity reflects women’s burgeoning power. Power in the workplace, power in the bedroom. Apparently we ladies are a little nostalgically misty for those heydays of patriarchy so we’re reminiscing through bedroom oppression.

While many sex-positive feminists have criticised Roiphe for overlooking women’s own sexual agency and for peddling an unsubstantiated thesis about women’s dissatisfaction with power, I kinda think she makes some valid points.

What trans and genderqueer people think about the origins of gender variance

Crossdreamers




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5 Apr 2015

How has #queer theory influenced the ways we think about gender?




How has queer theory influenced the ways we think about gender?

In this essay, I aim to examine the ways in which ‘queer theory’, as a theoretical approach, has influenced, and at times advanced, our understandings of ‘gender’. In particular, I will be paying attention to the ways queer theorists, such as Butler, have problematized and deconstructed the ‘sex/gender distinction’ within her work, Gender Trouble, in 1990. Developing these ideas, I aim to show that the queer approach to gender has allowed for better trans and non-binary inclusion within the study of gender due to its refusal to accept biologically determinist theories of gender. However, queer theory has been critiqued by trans and non-binary scholars, for its lack of attention to the material conditions of transgender lives – often featuring disproportionate violence and discrimination compared to the cisgender (non-trans) community (Hines, 2007; MacDonald, 1998; Monro, 2005; Namaste, 2000; Stryker & Whittle, 2006). Following an examination of these problematic effects of queer theory, I hope to provide a remedy to the critique by blending an intersectional and materialist analysis of non-normative gender identities with the deconstructive and non-naturalizing elements of queer theory. It is my aim to show that a combination of methods, both feminist and queer can provide the most compelling and exhaustive analysis of gender.

Transgender kids. #LouisTheroux #Transgender

Louis Theroux travels to San Francisco, where a group of pioneering medical professionals are helping children who say they were born in the wrong body to transition from boy to girl or girl to boy at ever-younger ages.
 At the Child And Adolescent Gender Center at UCSF Hospital Louis meets children who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Louis is told that children as young as three can show signs of rejecting the gender they were assigned at birth, leaving parents with a difficult dilemma - do they start transitioning a child who is still developing their own identity, or do they wait and risk making the change once their body has gone through the transformations of puberty?
 It is a decision that can be the start of a complex series of medical interventions, from puberty blockers to hormone replacement therapy and eventually gender reassignment surgery. Louis spends time with children and their families as they negotiate their way along this life changing and emotional journey.

To buy or not to buy. BDSM & the law






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How Many People Engage in SM?





A handful of significant sociological studies have been done to determine percentage of the population engages in SM activities.

The 1990 Kinsey Institute New Report on Sex reports:

Global Sex Survey
"Researchers estimate that 5-10 percent of the U.S. population engages in sadomasochism for sexual pleasure on at least an occasional basis, with most incidents being either mild or stage activities involving no real pain or violence. Most often it is the receiver (the masochist), not the giver (the sadist), who sets and controls the exact type and extent of the couple's activities. It might also interest you to know that in many such heterosexual relationships, the so-called traditional sex roles are reversed -- with men playing the submissive or masochistic role. Sadomasochistic activities can also occur between homosexual couples."

June M. Reinisch, Ph.D. with Ruth Beasley, M.L.S (1990). Kinsey Institute New Report on Sex, St. Martin's Press: pg. 162-163.

A new Playboy poll by Dr. Marty Klein appeared in November, 1998, p. 81:

  • 18% of the men and 20% of the women have used a blindfold during sex.
  • 30% of the men and 32% of the women have tied someone up or have been tied up during sex.
  • News.com.au
  • 49% of the men and 38% of the women have spanked or have been spanked as part of sex.

 A survey by Hunt (1974) of 2,026 respondents found that:
  • 4.8% of men and
  • 2.1% percent of women had obtained sexual pleasure from inflicting pain and
  • 2.5% of the men and
  • 4.6% of the women obtained sexual pleasure from receiving pain.



These numbers are probably underestimates, because the erotic response to "pain" is only one aspect of SM. (M. Hunt, Sexual Behavior in the 1970s, Chicago: Playboy Press.)

A mid-1970s independent research organization poll funded by Playboy surveyed 3,700 randomly selected students from 20 colleges found that 12% women and 18% of the men had indicated a willingness to try bondage or master-slave role-playing. (Playboy, "What's Really Happening on Campus", October 1976.)

A survey by E. Hariton (1972) found that up to 49% of women fantasize about submissive scenarios during sexual intercourse with 14% doing so frequently. (E. Hariton, "Women's Fantasies During Sexual Intercourse with their Husbands: A Normative Study with Tests of Personality and Theoretical Models'" unpublished doctoral dissertation, City University of New York.)

Paul H. Gebhard, is an anthropologist and was the executive director of the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University from 1956 to 1983. Gebhard noted in Fetishism and Sadomasochism (Dynamics of Deviant Sexuality, 1969, pg. 79.) that "consciously recognized sexual arousal from sadomasochistic stimuli are not rare." The Institute for Sex Research found that one in eight females and one in five males were aroused by sadomasochistic stories.


In 1929, Hamilton's marriage habits survey reported that 28% of men and 29% of women admitted they derived "pleasant thrills" from having some form of "pain" inflicted in them. (G.V. Hamilton, A Research in Marriage, Boni, New York.)




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Practice makes perfect

Resulting form the lack of effectiveness in work while wearing shackles, I did promise Mistress to practice more at home when I have time an...