Representations of consensual sadomasochism range from the dark, seedy undergrounds of crime thrillers to the fetishized pornographic images of sitcoms and erotica. In this pathbreaking book, ethnographer Staci Newmahr delves into the social space of a public, pansexual SM community to understand sadomasochism from the inside out. Based on four years of in-depth and immersive participant observation, she juxtaposes her experiences in the field with the life stories of community members, providing a richly detailed portrait of SM as a social space in which experiences of "violence" intersect with experiences of the erotic. She shows that SM is a recreational and deeply gendered risk-taking endeavor, through which participants negotiate boundaries between chaos and order. Playing on the Edge challenges our assumptions about sadomasochism, sexuality, eroticism, and emotional experience, exploring what we mean by intimacy, and how, exactly, we achieve it.
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"A fascinating, well-written, carefully researched book that illuminates a subculture about which we know very little.... Never before have we had research that is so close to the community, that allows us inside this community's behavior, rationalizations, understandings, and lived experiences." —Patricia Adler, co-author of Constructions of Deviance: Social Power, Context, and Interaction
(Patricia Adler, co-author of Constructions of Deviance: Social Power, Context, and Interaction )"Newmahr’s decisions to use passages of creative representation to convey ‘felt’ experiences, as well as to use her own body as an instrument of intellectual inquiry to such an extent, bring a sense of depth and presence to the book that is often sorely lacking in such work." —Katherine Frank, author of G-Strings and Sympathy: Strip Club Regulars and Male Desire
(Katherine Frank, author of G-Strings and Sympathy: Strip Club Regulars and Male Desire )"An important contribution to the fields of crime/deviance and sexuality." —Leon Anderson, author of Deviance: Social Constructions and Blurred Boundaries
(Leon Anderson, author of Deviance: Social Constructions and Blurred Boundaries )"[A] ground-breaking book.... captivating and ethnographically dense.
" —Ethnos
"Playing on the Edge is a well written, well supported, clear, easily accessed, and comprehendible yet theoretically rich delineation of a (supposedly deviant) community. In simple terms, this is a very good book and a first-class example of what ethnographic research can and should look like." —Criminal Justice Review
(Criminal Justice Review )"Staci Newmahr’s exploration of the public SM scene is interesting, thoughtprovoking,
and in some cases, challenging. Her involvement in the field and her willingness to share at least the surface details of her experience are extraordinary. Moreover, her commitment to understanding the community of public SM players with rigor, intellectual honesty, and sensitivity is the hallmark of a great ethnography." —Symbolic Interaction
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It should be noted, though, that Newmahr's research concentrates on public-play communities in which sadomasochism was not as strongly tied to sexuality as in certain other groups, meaning that her findings, accurate as they are, will not be immediately applicable to all SM contexts. Likewise, this is not necessarily a book for people who are sadomasochists, but rather a book about them. It is, however, a book every self-respecting scholar of sadomasochism, leathersex or kink should possess, and a reference which shows that the key findings of earlier SM ethnographers, such as Geoff Mains (who sadly is not quoted in it), still very much apply today.
Just as the sub-title says, this is a book about risk and intimacy, both of which are treated with the right sort of expertise, curiosity and respect.
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