Are Conservatives More Into BDSM?

Factual Questions
1

I’ve heard that BDSM is a popular fetish among conservative Republican types.

A couple of years ago a guest who provided BDSM services was on Dr. Drew’s Loveline program and said that the BDSM capital of the world is Orange County, California, followed closely by Salt Lake City, Utah- both of which are conservative strongholds. She also said that their clientele included many CEO’s and powerful executives who get off on being made to act like a dog, being slaves, having things inserted into them, and having the women pee all over them.

Is this true? When you hear conservatives talk about the virtues of spanking children, making prisoners do ‘hard’ labor, and advocating the use of the electric chair you have to wonder if these are rational, well-thought-out opinions or just part of their bizarre sexual fetish. What’s the straight dope??

Thanks.

2

Adult consensual sexual practices that bring pleasure and gratification to both partners has nothing to do with the capital punishment or beating your children.

Kindly refrain from linking them.

Thanks.

3

Conservatives are more into BDSM in Sexual Clicheland, yes. In the real world, no.

4

“the capital punishment” is of course, what we call it on the Southside of Chicago

Ya, hey. You know, they got the capital punishment over by 'dere in Virginia

5

I think there are 6 districts within Orange County, CA…3 of which are totally within the county:
CD45 - Bono ®
CD46 - Rohrabacher ®
CD47 - Sanchez (D)

By your logic, maybe BDSM is practiced more by Mormon polygomists (in the case of Utah) and undocumented Mexican farm workers (in Ms. Sanchez’ district).

6

The phrase “conservative Orange County” turns up 573 Google hits.

The phrase “liberal Orange County” turns up only 13 Google hits.

I’m sure there are other Orange County’s, but all of the ones on Google that I checked referred to Orange County, CA.

7

Cite please. Why wouldn’t sexual preferences vary along political or cultural lines ?

8

I’m into BDSM but against spanking children, making prisoners do hard labor and the death penalty.

I vaguely perceive how you could think that these things could be perceived as having something to do with BDSM (they make people suffer), but honestly it’s totally unrelated.

There’s nothing sexual in having people being sent to the electric chair. And actually, BDSM isn’t about making people suffer (let alone making random people suffer). Someone who would find gratification in having people doing hard labor or being executed I would call a sociopath. And someone who would enjoy spanking children a pedophile (though probably a sadist too).

9

I didn’t intend to write such a tortuous sentence. I should have previewed it. My mistake.

10

But it appears that in regard to the OP, we have no data to support or reject the initial assertion. Not an uninteresting proposition, and one that has certainly been floated before. Lots of smoke here, but no fire. How about some numbers, dopers.

11

Well, as one isn’t required to REGISTER as a BDSM enthusiast, I fail to see how we’d ever get a number.

But what we’re trying to do here is let Surreal know that just because someone is into rough sex in the bedroom doesn’t mean they enjoy torturing children in real life :rolleyes:

12

It’s a dull friday here, so I did a bit of googling on the term “BDSM” combined with the name of various political parties:



Party        Total Hits    Hits with “BDSM”    BDSM refs
                           on the same page    per million hits
republican    3,050,000      17,300             5,672
democrat      1,540,000         359               233
libertarian     650,000         606               932
green         6,910,000      41,400             5,991
socialist     1,300,000       1,070               823
natural law     209,000          66               316
independent   6,150,000      26,300             4,276
nazi          1,580,000       2,620             1,658
communist     1,920,000       3,650             1,901
bdsm          8,040,000   2,010,000           250,000

The term bdsm itself is included in the list because it shows that google does not allow two consecutive search terms to to be found at the same location within a document.
The rightmost column reveals a surprising absence of the term BDSM from pages that also contain the word democrat. As expected if Surreal’s OP holds a shred of truth, the term republican came out on top for BDSM references.
Obviously the results for the terms “green” and “independent” are skewed by the common use of the terms in a nonpolitical context. In fact the whole exercise is highly suspect, however it does point out that there might be something real, as opposed to anecdotal, going on here.

13

Here’s two opinions on a somewhat related issue:

http://www.yvonnesplace.net/news/atlantic_monthly.htm

http://www.yvonnesplace.net/yvonne/amybloom.htm

The first is an article from Atlantic Monthly claiming that most heterosexual male cross-dressers are moderate Republicans in politics. The second disputes that claim. I’m not taking any position on this issue.

14

I have been involved in the swinging lifestyle for over a decade. I swing with couples, and occasionally single females (I am a straight single male).

This is totally anecdotal, but I almost never encountered any swingers who espoused even SLIGHTLY left-of-center politics.

If any political opinions were expressed, they were invariably right-of-center (with the obvious exception that conservative politics is not popularly linked with the swinging lifestyle). I did encounter some fairly prominent conservative polical figures.

I admit that my information is skewed by at least two things:

  1. The fact that swingers tend to be at least comfortably middle-class economically; and

  2. A possible need to counteract extant stereotypes about swingers.

That said, my experiences have caused me to snicker at stereotypes of all ‘sexual outlaws’ as Marx-quoting hippies.

15

F. U. Shakespeare, I was trying to find a reference, but I remember, years ago, Dr, Dean Edel reported on a survey of swingers that showed that they indeed tend to:

-be from the upper middle class
-be more conservative politically
-be less dependent upon drugs & alcohol

Maybe the OP has confused the lifestyle?

OTOH the report mentioned that they are more liberal in one area of course: they frown on government efforts to control sexuality.

16

No position or information to add to this question, but a rebuke for Squink: it is to the proponent of a proposition to demonstrate evidence for it. You cannot demand a cite for the gratuitous denial of a gratuitous assertion.

In short - “Why wouldn’t it - prove me wrong!” is a fallacy.

  • Rick
17

Just speculating, but I think there might be something to it. Perhaps being brought up in a conservative household can repress ones’ sexual urges and channel them in other, kinkier ways. Or perhaps if one is raised to feel guilty about those sexual urges, it is easier to get off if one is bound, humiliated, etc.

Totally anecdotal, but I’ve known two women who were very kinky/submissive, both raised in very religious & conservative circumstances.

18

Sure you can, you just have to be willing to accept that the pairing of your gratuitous request with a gratuitous assertion emphasizes the lack relevant information on all sides of the issue. This being GQ, it’s perfectly valid to point out that no one had provided a valid basis for their opinions.

19

Very good replies, guys. Thanks.

GIGObuster, now that you mention it, I’ve heard Dr. Dean Edell state that both swingers AND people who are into S&M have conservative tendencies (on separate programs, though). When I heard him say that about the people who are into BDSM I assumed that the Conservative-types were into Sadistically torturing and humiliating their partners, not the other way around.

It wasn’t until I heard the dominatrix on Dr. Drew Pinsky’s program that I found out that the opposite is true- Conservatives prefer to be the submissive partner.

If you’re familiar with Dr. Dean Edell’s program, you know that he really doesn’t make any statements that he has not verified with a good scientific study. I believe one exists for the Republican/BDSM submissive connnection, but I don’t know where to look to find it.