Techniques of Pleasure: BDSM and the Circuits of Sexuality

Margot Weiss

Published by Duke University Press 2012

Techniques of Pleasure

BDSM and the Circuits of Sexuality

Margot Weiss

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822394914

Overview
Contents

About this book

In this lively ethnography, Weiss studies the pansexual BDSM community in the San Francisco Bay Area. Weiss finds that BDSM practice is not as transgressive as the participants imagine, nor is it simply reinforcing of older forms of social domination. Instead she shows how fantasy play depends on pre-existing social hierarchies, even as it also participates in a commodification of desires.

Author / Editor information

Margot Weiss is Assistant Professor of American Studies and Anthropology at Wesleyan University.

Reviews

“The analysis of these circuits is quite fascinating and could be expanded outside the BDSM scene to explore sexual fantasy and performance in any affluent, educated, tech-savvy culture. Recommended to readers interested in human sexuality.” - Scott Vieira, Library Journal

“[A] vital, if controversial, contribution to the body of writing and theory on BDSM.” - Nina Lary, Bitch

“[A] useful scholarly monograph on how once perversions of the select have become indulgences of the many. . . . Techniques of Pleasure is at its best when Weiss describes what goes on at gatherings of consenting adults engaged in semi-public and non-commercial fetishistic S-and-M role-play. To her credit, she includes extensive quotes from practitioners she meets along the way. Ethnographers have the eyes and ears of an explorer.” - David Rosen, The Brooklyn Rail

“I cannot emphasize enough how vital the analysis in Techniques of Pleasure is. Margot Weiss reveals the half-lie of ‘safe space’ in the BDSM world and, in doing so, artfully unveils the half-lies that propel ideas of ‘agency’ and ‘choice’ in neoliberal culture.”—Annalee Newitz, author of Pretend We’re Dead: Capitalist Monsters in American Pop Culture

“Techniques of Pleasure...is a landmark study of the BDSM “scene” in San Francisco...Weiss succeeds admirably in producing a work that is conceptually rich and ethnographically engaging.” - Richard Joseph Martin, Current Anthropology

“Techniques of Pleasure is a wonderful, theoretically significant, and ethnographically rich book. Margot Weiss contextualizes the development of the Bay Area’s BDSM scene, analyzing contemporary BDSM as biopolitical practice. Examining the complex connections between discipline and freedom, subject formation and subjugation, power and play, Weiss extends feminist and queer theoretical debates about identity, community, sexuality, gender, race, and the nature of power. This book breaks new theoretical ground in relation not only to BDSM but also to questions of personhood, political economy, and embodiment in late capitalism.”—David Valentine, author of Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category

“Techniques of Pleasure is an impressive book that does much to humanize BDSM to those who wish to get involved in the community or simply wish to be better educated about the topic. . . . Weiss exposes a world that is typically viewed as dank and dark by the casual outsider; through her insightful analysis, she brings this subculture into the light and shows us the ‘softer side of kink.’” - C. J. Bishop, Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality

“Margot Weiss’ sociological approach to the formation of sexual desire is breathtakingly smart and powerful, and should be required reading for any serious scholar of sexuality henceforth.” - Adam Isaiah Green, Contemporary Sociology

-- Michael Connors Jackman American Ethnologist

-- Amy L. Stone American Journal of Sociology

-- Andy Campbell GLQ

-- David Rosen The Brooklyn Rail

-- Adam Isaiah Green Contemporary Sociology

-- Nina Lary Bitch

-- Scott Vieira Library Journal

-- Misty Luminais International Social Science Review

-- Richard Joseph Martin Current Anthropology

-- Nicholaus Baca Peitho

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
A NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
INTRODUCTION TOWARD A PERFORMATIVE MATERIALISM Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
ONE SETTING THE SCENE SM Communities in the San Francisco Bay Area Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	34
TWO BECOMING A PRACTITIONER Self-Mastery, Social Control, and the Biopolitics of SM Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
THREE THE TOY BAG Exchange Economies and the Body at Play Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
FOUR BEYOND VANILLA Public Politics and Private Selves Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
FIVE SEX PLAY AND SOCIAL POWER Reading the Effective Circuit Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
APPENDIX INTERVIEWEE VIGNETTES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
NOTES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241
REFERENCES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	269
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	291

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Pages
- Main content: 336
Illustrations
- Other: 1 figure

eBook

Published: December 20, 2011
ISBN: 9780822394914