Alison Robertson “Beating the Boundaries: An Exploration of BDSM as Religioning”

332 Pages·2017·3.15 MB·English

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Beating the Boundaries: An Exploration of BDSM as
Religioning
Thesis
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Robertson, Alison R (2017). Beating the Boundaries: An Exploration of BDSM as Religioning. PhD thesis
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Alison Robertson
LLB (Hons) Law, University of Greenwich
BA (Open), the Open University
MA Psychology of Religion, Heythrop College, University of London

Thesis Title
“Beating the Boundaries: An Exploration of BDSM as Religioning”

For the degree of:
Doctor of Philosophy

In the discipline of:
Religious Studies
Faculty of Arts, Open University

Submitted for examination on: 30-Nov-16
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Abstract
The focus of this research is an exploration of BDSM experience as it emerges from
the complex interactions of kink activities and relationships. It argues that practices
which are ostensibly not religious can be understood as contributing to personal
processes of religioning. Enriching debates about living religion, I offer the idea of
gestalt as a tool to address the question of how examples of a given practice which
is a part of religioning might be distinguished from those where it is not. A gestalt is
something felt to be more or other than the sum of its constituent parts; it is an
emergent, felt quality that is neither perceptual nor cognitive. A sense of gestalt
arises unpredictably from an individual's whole experience of a given phenomenon
as it is integrated into their world and, when it appears, it changes the value,
significance and meaning of the phenomenon. Thus, kink experience is presented as
a crucible where personal outcomes and meaning can be distilled from the
concentrated matter therein. I argue that the significance of a given experience is
not located solely within any intrinsic quality ascribed to it, rather, it is in what the
experiencer subsequently constructs from the refined experience.

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Acknowledgements
My thanks go to many people: to my supervisors, Prof. Graham Harvey and Dr Paul-
François Tremlett, for their interest and sage advice; to Theo Wildcroft, for her
constant reassurance that It Is Not Me; to Abi White and Rob Woodward, for their
herculean proof-reading efforts; and to all the people who shared their thoughts
and stories with me in the role of research participants.

This is for my Master, who is the safe place from where I can explore and to whom I
can always return.

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Contents
Abstract .................................................................................................................................. 3
Contents ................................................................................................................................. 7
Table of Illustrations .............................................................................................................. 9
1 – Introduction: Processes of Religioning ........................................................................... 11
2 – Setting the Scene............................................................................................................ 25
3 – Siting My Research: Literature ....................................................................................... 47
4 – Siting My Research: Approaches and Methods ............................................................. 82
5 - What It Is That We Do: Experiential accounts of play ................................................... 107
6 – The Play Experience (1): Making Play-Spaces ............................................................... 115
7 – The Play Experience (2): Inside Play-Spaces ................................................................. 137
8 – Subcultural Identity: Kink in Context and in Clothes .................................................... 161
9 – Kinky Bodies ................................................................................................................. 193
10 – Exploring the Edge ...................................................................................................... 223
11 – Kink Ritualising ........................................................................................................... 253
12 – Conclusion: Gestalt Kink, Gestalt Religion .................................................................. 287
References ......................................................................................................................... 301
Appendix A – A Kink Glossary ............................................................................................. 318
Appendix B – Research Participants ................................................................................... 322
Appendix C – Statement of Consent .................................................................................. 332

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Table of Illustrations
1: BDSM toys ........................................................................................................................ 27
2: Implements for CP............................................................................................................ 31
3: Fetlife profile page, with list of roles ................................................................................ 44
4: E-stim equipment ........................................................................................................... 111
5: A selection of floggers .................................................................................................... 121
6: A spanking bench ........................................................................................................... 130
7: A Violet wand and attachments ..................................................................................... 134
8: Jewellery with a kink ‘edge’, inset Story of O ring .......................................................... 165
9: Bondage Equipment ....................................................................................................... 179
10: Collars .......................................................................................................................... 189
11: A violet wand powered up and in use on skin .............................................................. 196
12: Canes, crops and birches .............................................................................................. 208

All photographs property of Alison Robertson.
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