Interpreting Dominance and Submission Through Hegemonic and Alternative Cultural Gender Beliefs

• In Event: 308 - Section on Sociology of Sex and Gender Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 05. Gender, Sexuality, and Identity: Session III

Abstract

This paper analyzes how BDSM participants use hegemonic and alternative cultural beliefs about gender and power to frame the relationship between gender and BDSM role (e.g. dominant, submissive). Using 32 semi-structured, in-depth interviews and thousands of pages of discussion board data from one of the oldest and largest BDSM community websites in the world, I identified four types of cultural beliefs participants use to predict the BDSM role preferences of others and to interpret others’ performances of those roles: (1) gender is unrelated to dominance and submission; (2) men’s submission reaffirms rather than challenges their masculinity; (3) men and women have different styles of performing dominance and submission; and (4) men are naturally dominant while women are naturally submissive. I find that participants who hold alternative beliefs negotiate those beliefs in relation to hegemonic beliefs, highlighting how individuals use alternative beliefs to directly challenge hegemonic beliefs that link gender and power in normative ways. I find that even in settings in which individuals perceive that most others support alternative beliefs, the existence of multiple types of gender beliefs, combined with the anticipation that at least some individuals in the local setting will support hegemonic beliefs prevents individuals from relying systematically on alternative gender beliefs.

Author

• Brandy L. Simula, Emory University