A third accomplishment through the BDSM performances is the consensual exchanges of power, and the ability to take on a power role that may be the opposite of what one has been forced into in their daily life. This is not only powerful for those participating, but can be emotionally moving for those who witness it. I believe that this is the main difference between those who practice BDSM privately, and those who are willing to put on a more public performance, although it is still hidden from mainstream dominant culture. This is illustrated in a quote from panther, in Techniques of Pleasure:
For a lot of people, BDSM is not about whips and chains, it's about control, it's about power exchange. I think there are a lot of people who can relate to the power exchange: losing control, who holds the remote, who holds the checkbook, who chooses the radio station, who is driving, who decides where we're eating, where we're going on vacation. It's like the classic joke: 'we know who wears the pants in that family' or 'she knows her place.' (Weiss 143)
These performances fly in the face of dominance and oppression. The practitioners negotiate terms, set up safe words, and the one in the submissive role has the option to set up safe words and end a situation at any time. Although the BDSM subculture does perpetuate certain aspects of the dominant mainstream hegemonic culture, such as being full of primarily white people, and mostly men filling the dominant roles, the choice to participate in the performances or not, and witness or not, makes it transgressive. Perhaps most interesting at all, some BDSM practitioners reenact traumatic events from earlier in life as a way to take back control over what happened to...
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...s a subculture isn't hurting anyone, and making people happy or helping oneself or others in some way, it is clearly effective, whether or not the goal is to be resistant.
Works Cited
Brophy, James M. "Mirth and Subversion: Carnival in Cologne." History Today 1 July 1997: n. pag. Print.
DeChaine, Robert. "Mapping Subversion: Queercore Music's Playful Discourse of Resistance." Popular Music and Society (1997): 7-37. Web.
Haenfler, Ross. Goths, Gamers, and Grrrls: Deviance and Youth Subcultures. New York: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.
Pitts-Taylor, Victoria. In the Flesh: The Cultural Politics of Body Modification. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. PDF.
Scott, James C. Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts. New Haven: Yale UP, 1990. Print.
Weiss, Margot Danielle. Techniques of Pleasure: BDSM and the Circuits of Sexuality. Durham: Duke UP, 2011. Print.
People usually expect to see paintings and sculptures in Art Galleries. Imagine the surprise one finds when they are presented with a man stitching his face into a bizarre caricature, or connected to a machine which controls the artist’s body. These shocking pieces of performance art come under the broad umbrella that is Postmodernism. Emphasis on meaning and shock value has replaced traditional skills and aesthetic values evident in the earlier Modernist movements.
Kennedy, Elizabeth Lapovsky, and Madelaine Davis. “The Reproduction of Butch-Fem Roles: A Social Constructionist Approach.” Passion and Power: Sexuality in History. Ed. Kathy Peiss and Christina Simmons. Philadelphia: Temple Up, 1989, 199-255.
Kelso, P. T. (2003). Behind the curtain: The body, control, and ballet. Edwardsville Journal of Sociology, 3(2). Retrieved from http://www.siue.edu/sociology/EJS/v32kelso.htm
The Erotic is one thing that is always on all living human minds just like eating is when one is hungry or sleeping when one is tired. There are beliefs that some people agree with and some that don’t for example; men and women may not have the same opinion on how the erotic affects both of their genders. Many men believe that it makes them sit in a more powerful position, a position where women need them to fill this erotic feeling. Although, women needing men for such a thing is an argument worth fighting because, women are just as capable of taking care of themselves just as men do. Individualism is a trait that women all over the world have started to increasingly embrace, thriving with the amazing feeling that it allows them to feel. “Uses of the Erotic” encourages individualism.
control by taking away their sense of power and ultimately their own manhood. A direct
...hat the drag show can be interpreted from different point of view. I specifically focused on how the event could appear to everyone to be very attractive. The reason why people perceived the Annual Drag Show was entertaining is not only because the performance itself was interesting, but also because it provided unusual experiences. Escaping from the daily routine, meeting people from the minority group, breaking the group norm, and expressing one’s suppressed identity were the unusual experiences that were given by the drag show, and also those were the different ways to enjoy the event. We often do not pay much attention to how others perceive the world. Needless to say, people see the world through their own lenses and interpret the same world in different ways. The Fourth Annual Drag Show of Pasadena City College was a perfect example to examine such a tendency.
Carl Wittman, "Refugees From Amerika: A Gay Manifesto (1970)," The Radical Reader: A Documentary History of the American Radical Tradition, ed. Timothy Patrick McCarthy and John McMillian (New York: The New Press, 2011), 583.
In this paper, I will attempt to do an overview of the studies that have been conducted on strippers and stripping as an occupation. I will utilize studies and articles that focus primarily on women as strippers to consider specifically the questions addressed in the opening paragraph. Are women empowered in any way by this occupation? Or, as some feminist theorists have suggested , is it purely objectification, with no positive benefits to the women involved? This paper will evaluate the existing studies and literature in an attempt to locate moments of empowerment, a sense of agency, and, to borrow Carol Rambo Ronai's term, "resistance strategies " present in the daily lives and experiences of strippers.
Excerpt from K. Conboy, N. Medina and S. Stanbury, eds. Writing on the Body: Female Embodiment and Feminist Theory (401-17). NY: Columbia University Press, 1997.
... a way for audiences and performers to connect on a closer level. They are both experiencing the surreal, disassociating themselves from the performance taking place. They both become more introspective. The performance becomes a vehicle for self-understanding, metacognition.
Wilton, Tamsin. "Which One's the Man? The Heterosexualisation of Lesbain Sex." Gender, Sex, and Sexuality. New York: Oxford University, 2009. 157-70. Print.
In particular, contemporary dance history dwells on the element if codes of seduction denunciation. The dance’s choreography explores various internal struggles experienced by humanity. These are the relationship between two forms that is almost always marked with violence, power and fear. In addition, the relations existing between two forms where a third creatures present is viewed in the dance, where the third form is portrayed as human. This is a rationality that presents the manner in which Bausch denounce the common codes of seduction by coming up with inter-relationally where fear is also a factor. However, the dancers overcomes their fear as the enormous rock in the stage suggests a shoreline, yet they climb over the rock in a dangerous manner of dancing. The melancholic choreography addresses the relationship between the male and female genders. The use of female dancers brings out the pain
Leary, Timothy. "Evolution of Countercultures." CyberReader. Ed. Victor Vitanza. Mass: Allyn & Bacon, 1996. 364.
Also, the performers are constituted with same number of men and women. They imply the importance of equality through the performance. The female and male dancers use the same movements to show that they are equal. The message being conveyed here is important, on the grounds of its social influence and giving the whole performance a deeper meaning. The thing makes dancing different and odd to other occupations is the fact that most famous and well known dancers are mostly females, since on other social circumstances males tend to dominate more realms. Here, besides all the female masters, the male dancers appear as much as the female artists do and they also showcase what they are capable of. As I watched more of the performance, the interactions between dancers and the LED lights became more appealing to me. Dancers use their bodies to interpret the connections between human beings and technology. Moreover, the background music also plays a vital role in the production of this whole piece of art. The tempo of the music, the dance movements, as well as the frequency of the lights going on and off together appeared to the audience as a desirable combination. I love how the dancers do every movements according to the rhythm of the music and how they two fit perfectly. All of those things together made a great show to watch and
Through discourses in theatrical, anthropological and philosophical discussions, Butler portrays gender identity as being performative rather than expressive. Gender, rather than being drawn from a particular essence, is inscribed and repeated by bodies through the use of taboos and social