Kiwi Kinksters: BDSM in Auckland, New Zealand

Abstract

An ethnographic inquiry into the Auckland kink scene (the term kink encompasses erotic practices that involve some form of Bondage, Discipline, Dominance/Submission and/or Sadism/Masochism, and is interchangeably used throughout this thesis with the acronym BDSM) – the first of its kind in New Zealand – constitutes the bulk of this dissertation. Alongside direct observations made by the researcher-participant, 21 self-identified BDSM practitioners were interviewed about their life experiences in relation to their BDSM identities, practices and lifestyles. One of the concerns that BDSM practitioners had was being discriminated against if their proclivities were made publicly known. Thus, the next section of the dissertation uses a public opinion survey to investigate how New Zealand (primarily Auckland) residents perceive BDSM and BDSM practitioners. The results from this survey demonstrate that most respondents tend to agree with ‘BDSM-positive’ statements (such as ‘Kinky people are just like everybody else’) and disagree with ‘BDSM-negative’ statements (such as ‘Kink is associated with a variety of serious psychological disorders’), suggesting that they are fairly tolerant/accepting of BDSM. Finally, given how influential the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise has been in shaping the public perception of BDSM over the past 5 years since this publication, the last section of the dissertation focuses on how mainstream media – specifically the Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) movie – portray BDSM and BDSM practitioners, and how viewers engage with and respond to these media representations. This was achieved by analysing 833 reviews of the movie and asking 10 participants to view and respond to ten open-ended questions about the movie. Despite the trend towards BDSM tolerance and acceptance, fictional narratives like Fifty Shades that gain an enormous amount of traction worldwide (which enjoy far more publicity than any non-fictional accounts of first-hand experiences with BDSM) continue to promulgate problematic messages about BDSM practices and practitioners – a problem that becomes evident when such messages are being disseminated among those who have little or no interest in partaking in BDSM, may be less well-informed about what BDSM identities, practices and lifestyles entail, and yet have the ability to make judgements and decisions that will adversely affect BDSM practitioners.