“It's All About the Journey”: Skepticism and Spirituality in the BDSM Subculture

Abstract

Previous research onBDSM(bondage & discipline, dominance & submission, sadism & masochism) subcultures has largely ignored the spiritual aspects ofBDSMfor participants. Drawing primarily from my years of experience and participant observation as an insider in theDC/BaltimoreBDSMpansexual community and 70 interviews conducted with self‐identified kinksters throughout the Mid‐Atlantic United States, as well as a convenience sample (n >1,100) survey of American and Canadian kinksters, I show that theBDSMsubculture, as a noncriminal deviant subculture, provides a hospitable social environment for cultivating the “lived religious” (Wilcox ) experiences of this mostly agnostic/atheist and Pagan group. Nearly half of all American and Canadian kinksters who are heavily involved say they sometimes engage inBDSMfor spiritual fulfillment. Many kinksters demonstrate discomfort with the more mystical aspects of this spirituality, and often adopt an epistemic stance I call post‐rational to reluctantly acknowledge mystical experiences within a preferred framework of scientific and rational knowledge. Nonetheless, interviewees described spiritually connective, transcendental, and cathartic experiences from theirBDSMpractices. Further research is recommended on the spiritual experiences of religious “nones,” the social construction of catharsis, and potential applicability of a post‐rational stance to contexts such as alternative medicine.

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