Playing on the Edge

Sadomasochism, Risk, and Intimacy

Häftad, Engelska, 2011

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Representations of consensual sadomasochism range from the dark, seedy undergrounds of crime thrillers to the fetishized pornographic images of sitcoms and erotica. In this pathbreaking book, ethnographer Staci Newmahr delves into the social space of a public, pansexual SM community to understand sadomasochism from the inside out. Based on four years of in-depth and immersive participant observation, she juxtaposes her experiences in the field with the life stories of community members, providing a richly detailed portrait of SM as a social space in which experiences of "violence" intersect with experiences of the erotic. She shows that SM is a recreational and deeply gendered risk-taking endeavor, through which participants negotiate boundaries between chaos and order. Playing on the Edge challenges our assumptions about sadomasochism, sexuality, eroticism, and emotional experience, exploring what we mean by intimacy, and how, exactly, we achieve it.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2011-02-14
Mått152 x 229 x 19 mm
Vikt363 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
SerieIndiana University Press (IPS)
Antal sidor244
FörlagIndiana University Press
ISBN9780253222855

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ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart 1: People1. Defiance: Bodies, Minds, and Marginality2. Geeks and Freaks: Marginal Identity and CommunityPart 2: Play3. Tipping the Scales: Striving for Imbalance4. Fringe Benefits: The Rewards of SM Play5. Badasses, Servants, and Martyrs: Gender PerformancesPart 3: Edges6. Reconcilable Differences: Pain, Eroticism, and Violence7. Collaborating the Edge: Feminism and Edgework8. "What It Is That We Do": Intimate EdgeworkConcluding Notes: Erotic Subjectivity and the Construction of the FieldGlossaryNotesBibliographyIndex

Playing on the Edge. . . is an exciting sociological contribution to academic explorations of SM, providing an empirically rich window into a rarely seen SM community.(Sexualities) Staci Newmahr's exploration of the public SM scene is interesting, thoughtprovoking, and in some cases, challenging. Her involvement in the field and her willingness to share at least the surface details of her experience are extraordinary. Moreover, her commitment to understanding the community of public SM players with rigor, intellectual honesty, and sensitivity is the hallmark of a great ethnography.(Symbolic Interaction) Playing on the Edge is a well written, well supported, clear, easily accessed, and comprehendible yet theoretically rich delineation of a (supposedly deviant) community. In simple terms, this is a very good book and a first-class example of what ethnographic research can and should look like.(Criminal Justice Review) [A] ground-breaking book . . . . captivating and ethnographically dense.(Ethnos)