Perceptions of and stigma toward BDSM practitioners

Mistrust and missed opportunities: BDSM practitioner experiences in healthcare

BACKGROUND

Stigma and discrimination have been shown to be significant barriers to healthcare utilization and provider trust among sexual minority groups including BDSM and kink communities.

AIM

This exploratory study sought to better understand medical mistrust and experiences of discrimination in primary care settings and how these factors predict hiding kink-related injuries from healthcare providers.

METHODS

A total of 301 individuals who self-identified as being a member of the BDSM community and engaged in BDSM-play activities completed an online survey.

OUTCOMES

Participants completed measures including experiences with BDSM-play-related injuries, disclosure of BDSM activity to healthcare providers, measures addressing mistrust in in healthcare providers (such as avoidance of questions about sexual health or STI testing), and experiences with discrimination in healthcare settings because of BDSM group membership (such as perceptions of being insulted or receiving poor care).

RESULTS

Nearly, 40% of participants indicated at least one experience with discrimination in the healthcare system because they identified as a member of the kink community. Over 20% of participants indicated there were BDSM-related concerns they would have liked to discuss with their primary care provider but did not. Participants who hid injuries from their primary care provider had higher levels of medical mistrust and more experiences with medical discrimination than those who disclosed their injuries. A stepwise logistic regression determined that medical mistrust served as a significant predictor of hiding injuries from healthcare providers.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

Patients who are members of the BDSM community are likely to have had negative healthcare experiences, and these experiences impact their communication with and trust in future medical encounters.

STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS

Strengths of the study include addressing diverse components of stigma in healthcare including both experiences with discrimination as well as perceptions of the medical field. Furthermore, potential direct consequences of past negative experiences such as hiding injuries from healthcare providers were examined. Given the likely impact of race, gender, and BDSM group membership on experiences with discrimination, a limitation includes the limited representations of BDSM participants from minoritized racial and ethnic groups. Furthermore, in addressing injuries, the survey did not differentiate intended or expected injuries obtained in BDSM play from unintentional or unwanted injuries.

CONCLUSION

Mistrust in the medical system impacts members of the BDSM community's willingness to disclose injuries to their healthcare provider.

Not Twisted, Just Kinky: Replication and Structural Invariance of Attachment, Personality, and Well-Being Among BDSM Practitioners

BDSM is a range of diverse sexual practices. Stigma regarding BDSM is associated with dysfunctional personalities, insecure attachment styles, or damaged well-being. Previous studies have shown contrary evidence to these views. However, the replicability of these findings remains understudied. This study conducts a close replication to examine personality, attachment, rejection sensitivity, and well-being differences between BDSM practitioners and non-practitioners. To address previous limitations, this study provides a highly powered sample of a new population (Spanish, N = 1,907), assessing effect sizes and the impact of LGTBIQA+ individuals and employing an alternative BDSM role classification. Additionally, we examined attachment styles, personality, and well-being differences among BDSM practitioners. As predicted, BDSM practitioners showed higher levels of secure attachment, conscientiousness, openness, and well-being while also lower levels of insecure attachments, rejection sensitivity, neuroticism, and agreeableness, countering the stigma. Gender, sexual orientations, and experience with BDSM showed explanatory potential. The associations between attachment, personality, and well-being were consistent across both BDSM practitioners and non-practitioners, as well as across various BDSM roles. BDSM practitioners share the same psychological structure as non-practitioners but also show more functional profiles. Thus, de-stigmatizing BDSM populations is reinforced and recommended. Limitations and implications for applied and research audiences are discussed.

The Marginalization of Kink: Kinkphobia, Vanilla-Normativity and Kink-Normativity

A recent wave of academic research has highlighted the wide-ranging and negative impacts that stigma against kink has on kinksters. As scholarship continues to explore prejudice and discrimination around kink, this article argues that fresh insight can be found by drawing on adjacent work around other stigmatized sexualities. Over the previous decades, scholars in sexuality studies and queer studies have developed a powerful conceptual framework of "phobias" and "normativities" for thinking about the marginalization of sexual differences. This framework has its origins in the concepts of homophobia, heteronormativity and homonormativity, but its naming conventions and analytical insights have since been extended to address reproduction, romantic love, monogamy, gender identity, etc. This article argues that this conceptual framework should be expanded once again, this time to encompass kink. Building on the nascent use of this conceptual framework within kink scholarship, this article defines and expands on the concepts of kinkphobia and vanilla-normativity, and introduces the new concept of kink-normativity. This article demonstrates how these concepts can help us better talk about and think through the marginalization of kink.

The correlation between sadomasochists' experience and their sadomasochistic behaviors and fantasies: A qualitative analysis of interviews

Lacking a comprehensive understanding of sadomasochism makes difficulties in judicial dispositions, clinical interventions, and mental health services. This study explores the correlation between sadomasochists' growth experience and their sadomasochistic behaviors and fantasies. We interviewed 51 sadomasochists from a Chinese subcultural website, coded and analyzed the interview records, conducted correlation and cluster analyses on the reference points of the nodes of impressive experience and sadomasochistic behaviors and fantasies, and constructed the model of Experience-Behaviors and Fantasies. We found that sadomasochists' typical impressive experiences are family parenting and sexual experience; sadomasochistic behaviors and fantasies can be classified into five categories: spirit, punishment, sex, canine, and excretion; and sadomasochistic behaviors and fantasies are partially correlated with sadomasochists' impressive experiences, indicating psychoanalytic theory is the leading theory for the driving processes of sadomasochism, while behaviorist and Gestalt theories also contribute.

BDSM in North America, Europe, and Oceania: A Large-Scale International Survey Gauging BDSM Interests and Activities

BDSM bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadism and masochism is a widespread and highly prevalent yet stigmatized practice of intimacy and sexuality. In recent years, international interest in BDSM research has grown, mainly resulting in prevalence studies in various countries. To date, however, no research has investigated international and intercontinental differences in the nature of BDSM interests and fantasies, BDSM roles and practicing contexts among BDSM practitioners. In order to explore international discrepancies in BDSM identity, fantasies, and activities among self-identified BDSM practitioners, a group of FetLife (a social network website for BDSM and kink interested individuals) members (N = 1,112) originating from North America (n = 458), Europe (n = 566), Oceania (n = 46), and Other (n = 42) completed the survey. Europeans reported an earlier age of onset of fantasizing about BDSM than did North Americans. More North Americans indicated practicing BDSM in a public context than did Europeans and Oceanians. These differences could in part be explained by different cultural backgrounds, higher levels of religiosity, and current stigmas toward non-traditional sexual interests. Future research should focus on clarifying whether cultural mechanisms underlie these dissimilarities.