S&M and Bondage

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
1

The S&M article could use some updating.

Having worked with professional dommes, and interacted with the S&M (now more commonly referred to as BDSM) community, much of the information provided in the article is either outdated and/or not entirely comprehensive.

As an example of the change that S&M has gone through since 1982, (when the article was written), it is now more commonly referred to as BDSM within the practicing community because BDSM, (bondage/discipline, domination/submission, sadism/masochism), is more descriptive of the lifetsyle. It is also undergoing reexamination in psychiatry where sadism and masochism, which are listed as paraphilias in the DSM-IV, now have professionals in the field arguing for their removal as pathologies due to research indicating most BDSM practiioners are otherwise mentally healthy and functional individuals.

I would recommend reading articles about BDSM and related research by Charles Moser, as well as by Alison, L., Nordling, N., Sandnabba, N. K., & Santtila, P. collectively.

2

Apologies… Here is the link to the article:

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_065.html

3

[QUOTE=Angelick77]

Having worked with professional dommes, and interacted with the S&M (now more commonly referred to as BDSM) community, much of the information provided in the article is either outdated and/or not entirely comprehensive.

As an example of the change that S&M has gone through since 1982, (when the article was written), it is now more commonly referred to as BDSM within the practicing community…<snip> It is also undergoing reexamination in psychiatry where sadism and masochism, which are listed as paraphilias in the DSM-IV, now have professionals in the field arguing for their removal as pathologies … <snip>

I would recommend reading articles about BDSM and related research by Charles Moser, as well as by Alison, L., Nordling, N., Sandnabba, N. K., & Santtila, P. collectively.
[/QUOTE]

After doing some research on the more current of the articles I found under those names (Investigating the Underlying Structure in Sadomasochistically Oriented Behavior (2001), Differences and Similarities Between Gay and Straight Individuals Involved in the Sadomasochistic Subculture (2006)) I don’t really see the differences your referring to.

There is this quote early in the article…

…which seems to presage the change to BDSM as the default term for discussion. I don’t believe there has been much change in actual behavior, but, of the dommes I know, none has been doing the job long enough to say with any assurance what people were or weren’t doing in 1982.

Aside from a mention of the hanky code — which Cecil insinuates was either on the way out or already gone — there seems to be very little else to update. Unca Cece doesn’t even broach the subject of BDSM as it relates to psychopathology.

Are there specific articles that might suggest changes that need to be made?

4

I’d hazard a guess that for people really into something, be it BDSM, comic-book collecting or Royal Doulton figurines, no 600-word column from 26 years ago can possibly cover all the bases.

5

Perhaps a 26 year old comic about Royal Doulton figurines in BDSM poses…?