It’s important for those who engage in BDSM to be aware of the distinction between harmless kink and violence. But it’s also important for BDSM not to be considered a de facto abusive practice.
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Articles on Bondage, domination, submission, discipline, sado-masochism (BDSM)
Displaying 1 - 20 of 21 articles
Hooking up with a stranger is against the law under lockdown, so more people are going online for their thrills.
The emergence of female-oriented erotica has been portrayed as a sign of women’s liberation, but research indicates that it reinforces cultural scripts of pornography targeting men.
Describing non-consensual acts as pornography minimises the importance of consent.
Leathermen expose the myth of hypermasculinity by refusing the violence and aggression which is normally attached to it.
The law needs updating – but great care is required when it comes to consent and sadomasochistic sex.
Many women find it easier to identify with different genders in sexual scenarios – for this, and many other reasons, gay porn can be a turn on.
Fetishes and non-conventional sexual practices are commonly misrepresented and judged by society. It’s time to stop judging and instead embrace and enjoy our sexual lives.
Though sharing with Fifty Shades the overall themes of sexual domination and submission, Story of O remains a work of substantial literary merit.
From censorship, to mainstream, to Donald Trump: erotica has a long and varied history.
There is a growing mainstream appetite for things that would previously be considered “deviant” pursuits – and businesses are catching on.
Pornography is a handy scapegoat that diverts our attention away from our deeper problems with sex and violence.
Sex isn’t the issue – we should object when TV programmes try to sell us anything.
The BDSM-themed movie, Fifty Shades of Grey, is the number one movie in Australia. Its success means that a lot of people are titillated by the idea of sex beyond “vanilla sex.” Controversy about BDSM…
With the release of Fifty Shades of Grey in cinemas this week, serious questions have been raised about whether the film depicts abuse – including on The Conversation. Some feminist groups have staged…
Christian Grey knows exactly his hard limits in sadomasochism and he may also know a thing or two about his legal limits. The Dominant character Grey in the fantasy fiction Fifty Shades of Grey is bent…
This Valentine’s Day, why not ditch the roses and celebrate by watching some sexual violence? That’s a more honest marketing pitch for the Fifty Shades of Grey film. It’s astonishing that, in 2015, sexual…
Fifty Shades of Grey film opens this Valentine’s weekend to much fanfare but, perhaps tellingly, with few press previews in the UK. With one UK cinema chain reporting advance ticket sales worth £1.3m…
Handcuffs, spikes and traps – you would think they were part of some bondage aficionado’s bedroom collection. But what are they doing in the insect world? A new study I worked on sheds light on why some…
The poster for Secretary is up on my wall at work. I actually paid to see A Dangerous Method purely for Jung’s novel approach to therapy (and God do I hate period films.) While I probably won’t read all…
Top contributors
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Senior Lecturer, The University of Melbourne
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Senior lecturer, La Trobe University
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Associate Professor & Programme co-ordinator (Masters of Public Policy), The University of Western Australia
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Associate Professor, School of Built Environment, UNSW Sydney
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Senior Research Fellow, Global and Women's Health, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University
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Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies, The University of Melbourne
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Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney
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Lecturer in Zoology, University of Hull
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Associate Professor, Design Anthropology, Swinburne University of Technology
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Senior Lecturer, Criminal Law, Nottingham Trent University
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Reader in Media Studies, University of East London
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Chair in Feminist Media Studies, University of Strathclyde
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Associate professor, The University of Melbourne, The University of Melbourne
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Research fellow, The University of Western Australia
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Visiting Researcher in Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University
