Stupid S&M News
» Fetishes in the News
Martin Weinberg, a sociologist at Indiana University is classic case of badly informed, generalizing academic:
“There are two forms of SM. One is a sociological phenomenon and is more about socializing with other people. People go to a club for recreational, theatrical fun. The other is a psychological phenomenon. Something in someone’s biography leads them to seek out SM,” he said.
Wearing leather and PVC, visiting one a fetish club in an urban center may overlap S&M but it certainly isn’t a form of it. And wanting to wear snazzy clothes probably has psychological underpinnings.
Just whose sexuality isn’t an expression of their “biography?”
“Psychological cases get into heavy pain. They pay for dominatrices and ask for extreme pain like having pins stuck in their scrotum. People paying for dominatrices are not socializing with other people, they are in it purely for the pain,” he said.
A term like “psychological cases” is a real sign of scholarship.
Oh, yes, of course we all pay ProDommes. Those of us who do it with friends and lovers just don’t exist do we? And all those submissive women with dominant boyfriends and husbands, I guess they are just illusions.
Comments
Not exactly an insightful article… I wish there was some more nuanced discussion.
Posted by: Peter Tupper | February 18, 2008 6:18 PM
I find the whole ‘Fetish’ thing very amusing because most people, especially in the sadistic lifestyle, have no idea what the word ‘fetish’ actually means. It is so rediculous that some guy went so far as to invent a web page dedicated to the ‘Naked woman fetish’. It was really quite funny.
I thought the remarks at the end of the article where very sucinct especially about how seeking pain has nothing to do with Love.
“But simply having a wake-up call, no matter how startling, is not always enough. Kuriansky said it was rare for a masochist to finally become capable of associating sex with pleasure and love instead of pain and danger.
“There is a triumvirate of guilt, embarrassment and fear of intimacy for these people,” she said. “It is rare that all of a sudden they can give up on being interested in pain and suddenly be capable of being loved.”
Posted by: Corneilius | February 19, 2008 7:00 AM
Many psychologists are amazingly out of touch about sexuality and especially alternative sexual expression but it is amazing that a “sexologist” can be this uninformed and naive. The problem is that the media talks to people who are educators instead of real participants in the things they wish to understand. A token sentence from the NLA prez is followed immediately with a sensational FOX news meme, “for some” or “Some say”
Corneilius, could you please explain what you think fetish means?
Also, I am curious as to exactly what the “sadistic lifestyle” is.
Posted by: M.Yu | February 29, 2008 5:17 PM