An interesting research article about the BDSM community

[teknight]

Just found this. It is an abstract, and you'd have to pay to get the whole thing, but it's still interesting. For those of you unwilling to follow a strange link that'll take you beyond the Lit safe zone:
Study done in 2001-2002 in Australia;19,307 respondents aged 16–59;
-1.8% of sexually active people (2.2% of men, 1.3% of women) said they had been involved in BDSM in the previous year
-However, they were no more likely to have been coerced into sexual activity, and were not significantly more likely to be unhappy or anxious—indeed, men who had engaged in BDSM scored significantly lower on a scale of psychological distress than other men.

The above are copies from the abstract text. There's more though. Any thoughts?

 

[FungiUg]

It's a bit old? I would suspect that exposure to BDSM will have gone up quite a bit since then.

 

[fuckmeat]

Well I like the conclusion: -

"Conclusion.  Our findings support the idea that BDSM is simply a sexual interest or subculture attractive to a minority, and for most participants not a pathological symptom of past abuse or difficulty with “normal” sex.

It's something any one of us could have told these people but they're all still too hung up on the juicy notion that BDSM is basically a symptom of mental illness. Good to know their the study into us "damaged and dangerous" people educated these guys.

 

[teknight]

Well I like the conclusion: -

"Conclusion.  Our findings support the idea that BDSM is simply a sexual interest or subculture attractive to a minority, and for most participants not a pathological symptom of past abuse or difficulty with “normal” sex.

It's something any one of us could have told these people but they're all still too hung up on the juicy notion that BDSM is basically a symptom of mental illness. Good to know their the study into us "damaged and dangerous" people educated these guys.

Would you rather they kept on assuming that BDSM is just a bunch of fucked up abused and damaged freaks? And, I'm sorry, but the opinion of any one of you amount to not much evidence of anything (a sample size of one is a waste of time). I found it edifying and not insulting, but YMMV.
Also, here's the funny thing- they did ask you (not you personally, but the BDSMers that responded.)

It'd appear that the general attitude is that BDSMers are freaks (not something I subscribe to, but my opinion doesn't mean fuck-all either), so, I say any science that dispels that notion is fan-fucking-tastic. Why are you getting so defensive? I swear I read it as genuine curiosity that winds up casting a positive light on the BDSM community.

....and there goes my only post for the day. Better make use of ETAs and PMs, I guess.

 

[YourCaptor]

Maybe off topic but whatever.

My psych of sexuality class, I stopped going about halfway through. It was the most ridiculous shit I've ever seen, still got an A though.

The professors attitude basically went like this, "penis, lol".

The topic for the class was basically, things people do in the bedroom. The exact worst thing you could do with psych, pry into peoples personal lives. Oh and then everything was followed by a good laugh, cause people suffering from fetishes are so damn funny.

All I got from that class were some numbers and the personal theory that sex has some very powerful implications that even the objective nature of science can't rise above.