Thesis (M.A.)--Concordia University, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-105).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--York University, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 260-274).

This essay examines the sadomasochistic relationship between the main characters of the Twilight Saga from a psychoanalytic perspective, and looks at the family and gender roles in the Saga from a post-feministic view. Aspects also considered are the portrayal of female sexuality as something dangerous and negative, recreational sex as something perverted, and the pro-marriage and anti-abortion propaganda in the last two novels. The purpose of the essay is to reveal how the author’s personal, and to some extent religious, beliefs and values are validated through the storyline; how the relationship between the main characters, as well as their personal psychological and physical health, change after matrimony and parenthood.

The purpose of this study is to hightlight experiences of living in a relationship where BDSM is being exercised. The acronym is an umbrella term for bondage/discipline, dominance/submission and sadomasochism. The study is based on qualitative interviews with five persons who define themselves as BDSM practitioners. The overall questions of this study are: How does the BDSM practice appear in everyday life? How did the practice start and how has it developed over time? What's included in the sexual BDSM practice? The empirical material has been analyzed with interactionism as the theoritical framework.The picture that emerges is complex. To define oneself as a BDSM practitioner might mean different things for different people where the extent of the practice, what it consists of and how integrated it is in the lives of people might vary from person to person. But despite differences there are also recurring, common patterns in the stories of the informants. All of them describe the practice in positive terms. To a great extent the practice has to do with sexuality where an explicit power exchange, an assuming of dominant and submissive roles and an everyday life filled with rituals, rules and agreements are described as being key elements. Punishment, in the form of physical pain or humiliation, is common when the rules are not obeyed. All the interviewees use safewords to make sure both are comfortable about what's happening. Some sort of tool is utilized by all. The most common are whips, bonds, chains and locks, paddles, clamps/clothespins, knives, butt plugs and ropes. There's an occupation among the informants to find and to form strategies to cope and to adapt the BDSM role to other roles and here the parental role is the most apparent. Also an ambition to create a balance between the personal norms and the norms of the BDSM culture and those of the overall society can be seen. The interviewees express a search for answers to why one practices BDSM. In this process they return to experiences, almost exclusively of a destructive nature, and they wonder if these experiences have affected their sexuality and their preference for BDSM. It's like this even if the common attitude in society actually has become more accepting, for example with the help of media, recent research and the fact that it's not anymore is considered being a disorder.

The purpose of this study is to examine escort-business with a focus on sales of BDSM-services (Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, Sadism and Masochism). The study is based on qualitative interviews with three informants providing BDSM-services, as well as a survey with 96 men who requested domination of escorts (the survey was carried out by an escort in the 1980s). The analysis of this material resulted in the identification of three themes on which the study centers: The personal experiences of the three escorts, the interaction between the escorts and the clients, and the changes over time when it comes to the performance of BDSM-services. The study has a gender perspective. The important conclusions are that there are several differences between prostitution having a focus on BDSM-services and other prostitution. Sexual intercourse is not a common occurrence. Role-playing games involving domination and submission, physical pain, humiliation and fantasies are instead central elements. Due to the security risks submissive services have been assumed not to exist in prostitution. In this study, however, two of the informants present themselves as submissive. Nothing in the empirical material suggests a greater security risk for escorts providing BDSM-services than other sexsellers. Instead, the escorts themselves characterize the phenomenon by straightforwardness, upright communication, and pre-agreed rules of the interaction.

Denna studie kom till efter att RFSU hade börjat arbeta med frågor om sadomasochism, och efter att Socialstyrelsen tog bort sadomasochism ur sin diagnosmanual. Syftet med studien är att ta reda på vilka diskurser som används när media talar om sadomasochism. Queerteori är det teoretiska fundamentet i studien. Jag utgår även från Michel Foucaults teorier. Min metod är foucauldiansk genealogisk diskursanalys. Analysmaterialet består av 33 tryckta artiklar från svenska dags- och kvällstidningar. Resultatet visar att talet om sadomasochism i media följer olika diskurser. Vissa utgår från att normalisering är godtycklig, att normer är föränderliga och att alla människor bör ha rätt till sin egen sexualitet. Diskurser om kvinnor och barn utgår från att sadomasochism är farligt och att människor måste skyddas från sexuella avvikare. Det talas om sadism som inte sker under samtycke som sjukt. Vissa diskurser framställer sadomasochism som positivt och används i sadomasochisters identitetsskapade. Även när de accepterande artiklarna talar om sadomasochism görs det på ett sätt så att de sexuella normerna inte ifrågasätts. Media lägger fram en nomaliserad variant av sadomaschism som är lättare för allmänheten att acceptera. Sadomasochism fortsätter på grund av normaliseringen att betraktas som avvikande.

The object of this essay is the Swedish author Agnes von Krusenstjerna's novels Ninas dagbok (The diary of Nina) and Helenas första kärlek (Helena's first love) as well as the cycle novel Fröknarna von Pahlen (The misses von Pahlen). The purpose is to explore her use of the discourse of girls' fiction, which I analyse by the depiciton of women's sexual awakening, and her depiction of sadomasochism. The theories of Elaine Showalter, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and Judith Butler are used. Women's sexual awakening is depicted similarly in the novels but more explicitly in Fröknarna von Pahlen. In Ninas dagbok and Helenas första kärlek there is an eroticization of dominance and submission, which is not explicitly sadomasochistic. In Fröknarna von Pahlen, sadomasochism is explicitly described as a "perverted" sexuality and reveals the inequality in the violent sexuality, which is described as "normal". The sexuality that is included in Fröknarna von Pahlen's ending utopia is a female same-sex sexuality, which is a further development of the intimate friendships that are often depicted through the discourse of girls' fiction. Accordingly, Fröknarna von Pahlen and its ending utopia can be interpreted as a "city of girls", that is a further developement of subjects such as female same-sex sexuality and sadomasochism that can only be implied within the discourse of girls' fiction.

<p>Denna uppsats syftar till att undersöka hur fyra sexuellt dominanta kvinnor uppfattar sin sexualitet. Särskilt inriktar den sig på hur kvinnorna definierar sig som sexuellt dominanta och vad dominans innebär för dem sexuellt men också till vardags och generellt. Vidare undersöks hur informanterna uppfattar sin sexuella dominans i relation till sin identitet och sitt identitetsskapande överlag. För att kunna verkställa syftet har fyra kvinnor intervjuats som alla definierar sig som sexuellt dominanta på ett eller annat vis. Fortsättningsvis inriktar sig uppsatsen på kvinnor som utövar sin sexuella dominans via aktiviteter och uttryck för dominans vanliga inom bdsm.</p> / <p>This thesis aims to examine how four sexually dominant women understand their sexuality. It specifically concentrates upon how the women defines themselves as sexually dominant and what dominance means to them sexually but also what it means to them in everyday life and in general. Additionally this essay examines how the informants understand their sexual dominance in relation to their identity and in shaping their identity. In order to carry out the purpose of this thesis four women who define themselves in one way or another as sexually dominant have been interviewed. Furthermore the study focuses upon women who practice their sexual dominance through activities and expressions that are common in the world of bdsm.</p>

Denna uppsats syftar till att undersöka hur fyra sexuellt dominanta kvinnor uppfattar sin sexualitet. Särskilt inriktar den sig på hur kvinnorna definierar sig som sexuellt dominanta och vad dominans innebär för dem sexuellt men också till vardags och generellt. Vidare undersöks hur informanterna uppfattar sin sexuella dominans i relation till sin identitet och sitt identitetsskapande överlag. För att kunna verkställa syftet har fyra kvinnor intervjuats som alla definierar sig som sexuellt dominanta på ett eller annat vis. Fortsättningsvis inriktar sig uppsatsen på kvinnor som utövar sin sexuella dominans via aktiviteter och uttryck för dominans vanliga inom bdsm. / This thesis aims to examine how four sexually dominant women understand their sexuality. It specifically concentrates upon how the women defines themselves as sexually dominant and what dominance means to them sexually but also what it means to them in everyday life and in general. Additionally this essay examines how the informants understand their sexual dominance in relation to their identity and in shaping their identity. In order to carry out the purpose of this thesis four women who define themselves in one way or another as sexually dominant have been interviewed. Furthermore the study focuses upon women who practice their sexual dominance through activities and expressions that are common in the world of bdsm.

Rape play is a type of consensual, ritualistic domination and submission, developed and enacted in a sado-masochistic (S/M) sex culture, which involves the appearance of force. There are two feminist theories that can be employed in a feminist analysis of rape play: dominance/radical feminism and libertarian/"sex positive" feminism. Libertarian/"sex positive" feminism holds that S/M, including rape play, is potentially compatible with feminism because the power dynamic between a dominant/"rapist" and submissive/"victim" does not draw on either practitioners' actual social identity and the power it possesses or lacks. Dominance/radical feminism argues that gender, which is socially constructed, can best be understood as a form of sexualized domination and submission, so social identity could not be dissociated from power in S/M. My reading of guidebooks and narratives about rape play suggests that the dominance/radical feminist position is more accurate in the case of rape play, though not necessarily all of S/M culture. / by Megan Halena. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.