THE OBSCENE "RACE" IN BDSM CULTURE: THE LEGITIMIZATION OF RACEPLAY THROUGH TRAUMA AND RACIAL REPARATION

Abstract

Since the 1970s and 1980s, BDSM - an acronym for Bondage and Discipline, Domination and Submission, Sadism and Masochism, and Fetishistic Practices - has been read by feminist movements (and black feminists) as a replication of violence and power hierarchies or as an exercise of individual freedom with an emphasis on the consent of the participants. In recent years, sexual practices that were once considered abnormal, unhealthy or sinful (Rubin, 1984) have gained visibility in mainstream culture and the marketplace, accompanied by a shift from obscenity to politically correct eroticism, and a sense of health and empowerment of the self (Gregori, 2016). In this sense, as social markers of difference function as libidinal tensors (Perlongher, 1987), we seek here to understand how "race" has functioned in the BDSM community, specifically through sexual practices with a racial background, known as race play (Schotanus, 2017).