Image by addictedimage.
Indeed. Reporting on the wake of a scandal, today Guardian UK endeavors to cover both Max Mosley‘s lawsuit over News of the World running a video of him in a military BDSM scenario and the topic of BDSM itself. They do both a bit ham-handedly, but the resulting article is interesting. In Crime and Punishment, Emine Saner describes that Mosley is suing the the tabloid for saying he took part in a “Nazi-themed orgy”. In his defense, he has stated he has an ‘unfortunate interest’ in sadomasochism, yet also explains that he’s been in the BDSM world for 45 years (!) and that he doesn’t see anything wrong with S/M, though his wife didn’t know about it. To me, that’s the ‘unfortunate’ part. I guess it’s a little tough to encourage understanding about your uniform fetish when your dad was former leader of the British Union of Fascists. Whoa. Still, most of the article has a somewhat bewildered writer wandering into explaining the veritable thicket of BDSM practices and subcultures (no small undertaking, that), and it’s funny — but also rather fair and cites some interesting studies. Especially for a media outlet that ran a piece about the evils of porn addiction a while back. Still, I read Guardian UK every day, I like all the diverse news voices they have in their stable. Check it out:
(…) One of the things to have come out in court was Mosley’s defence that his interest in S&M was not degrading or sick, and that the News of the World was out of touch. James Price, Mosley’s QC, said: “It’s not a surprise to me or to others who don’t live in an ivory tower or a monastery, or, I am sure, to your lordship, to learn that quite a lot of people, men and women, have a fascinated interest in this sort of thing.”
Nobody knows how many people engage in BDSM – the acronym for Bondage Domination Sadomasochism – but it is estimated that 14% of men and 11% of women have tried it. There are a huge number of BDSM websites, with everything from sites giving advice and instructions, to personal ads, to online groups where people arrange to meet. Next month, for instance, Unfettered, a voluntary group set up four years ago to run educational workshops and promote and defend BDSM, hosts Kinkfest in London, “a whole day of non-stop salacious stage entertainment, fantastic stalls, wicked workshops, superb speeches and special guests”. Is everyone at it?
“I think there are people who wouldn’t consider themselves practitioners of BDSM but who have experimented with tying themselves up with a dressing-gown cord or done a little bit of spanking here and there,” says Pamela Stephenson Connolly, a clinical psychologist and sex therapist. “It comes up all the time in my work and people understand that what they’re doing is playing out a form of BDSM. If the rules are observed, it is a perfectly reasonable part of the very broad tapestry of normal human sexuality.”
Stephenson Connolly recently carried out a study of 132 BDSM participants to try to find out whether there was more prevalence of clinical disorders, such as depression, anxiety or psychological sadomasochism among those who practised BDSM. “The answer I found was no,” she says. “Most of the assumptions that my profession has made about people who participate in BDSM is that there must be something wrong with them, but I didn’t find that at all. What I did find is that the credo in the BDSM movement – and I’m not talking about people who don’t know what they are doing – is ‘safe, sane and consensual’. People would discuss what was about to occur, and talk about their limitations. I discovered tremendous detail in how it is played and anyone who doesn’t obey the rules is kicked out of the community and nobody will play with them again. People are very anxious to ensure that consent takes place.”
Psychologist David Mirich and sex therapist Neil Cannon have been conducting a major study into sadomasochism in the US, and believe that BDSM behaviours are much more common than is popularly thought. (…read more.)
You have to understand Formula 1 is one of the most watched sport in the world. This reflects very poorly on sponsors.I have feel prostitution should be legal and if you want to do BDSM that’s fine.The Nazi theme sets everybody off.Germany is a huge market for F1 and doesn’t sit well with them.He is married and has kids.I feel you shouldn’t be buying prostitutes and doing BDSM with someone else without your wife’s permission.
Interesting article, agreed. I should read more of the Guardian UK, I recently saw their head of communities and user experience speak at a conference and their attitudes towards users seem fairly sensible, for big media folks.
Perhaps the other ‘unfortunate’ part for Mosley is that mainstream society still seems to consider BDSM as [insert range from ‘unusual’ to ‘obscene’] instead of just one wavelength in the vast range of sexual frequencies. Would anyone have cared about this if his fetish was boning Page 3 girls?
Still, at least this article gives some fair reflection on the topic, which should lead to interesting discussions around proverbial water coolers.