Anna J Presents (Erotic Snapshots Volume 5)

All of the above questions guide my understanding and analysis of the audiovisual and musical performances of sadomasochistic erotica in the six examples discussed in this thesis: By this, I mean not only live performances, where the creators of music and its listeners occupy the same room, but the extended space of performative behavi- ours that are mediated through diferent means ilm, music video, singles and extend beyond physical spaces Cook , I investigate these case studies using cultural musicological analysis, close reading, audiovisual performance analysis and queer musicological analysis see section 1.

Accordingly, the objectives of my research are to: Explore how SM, non-normative or kink eroticism is created and represented through musical and audiovisual means, and consider how these representations afect and relect the reading of the performance. Develop new means for listening to erotic codes in music, and for analysing re- presentations of non-normative sex and sexualities in music.

Advance and expand queer musicology from discussions of gender and LGBT sex- ualities to deliberations of non-gender speciic kink sexualities, while bringing to queer musicology a broader academic deliberation on kink sexualities as a valid gateway to these perspectives. Expand discussions of sadomasochism to cultural and arts studies, especially cul- tural musicology. Furthermore, to expand such discussions of sex and sexuality from politics, sociology and aesthetics to include also art, ilm, and music.

Some work has already been done towards illuminating my research objectives; by no means would I claim to be the irst to tackle the above list of tasks in academic research. However, the focus of this study on these speciic interrelated themes is suicient to ex- tend and to some extent also challenge the indings of previous research. In what follows I will present a review of this body of research, as well as research on related subjects, and elaborate on how my research makes an original and necessary contribution to the ield of study.

Whilst early studies of SM and colloquial understandings of SM claim the practice to be pathological, more recent research, including the research reported in this thesis, treats sadomasochism as an alternative form of human sexuality whose valence is neither exclusively beneiciary nor detrimental. As was the case with homosexuality, sadomasochism has been consid- ered a criminal behaviour as well as a mental aliction. In the context of this work, sadomasochism is understood as belonging to the erotic-sexual sphere of human behaviour.

Full-time sadomas- ochists are oten represented as somehow broken individuals with strange sexual desires that go beyond normative heterosexual, cis-sexual, monogamous, non-kink compre- hension. Wilkinson is sceptical about automatically accepting the assumption that since SM is becoming more prevalent in the media, this automatically implies that SM is becoming a more accepted form of sexuality. While agreeing that sexual minorities need to be represented fairly in the mainstream me- dia, Wilkinson ibid. Sadomasochism rarely appears as a topic in music studies, which is not to say that is overlooked altogether.

Lori Burns has, furthermore, written on popu- lar music songs incorporating dominance and submission and the masochistic enjoyment of these attitudes. Outside of musicological analysis, some academics have attempted to combine popular music with the seemingly rampant codes of SM in popular culture. When SM is not experienced as sexual, it is usually considered something transcending normal life, a way of meditating and purifying the mind. However, the questions what speciically sadomasochistic or masochistic, sadistic pleasures and aesthetics ultimately are, and how music negotiates and depicts them, remain in these studies to a certain extent unanswered.

In these areas, my study will open up some new points for discussion and analysis. While grounding my readings in this body of work addressing issues of gender, sexuality and sex in music, I shall also expand on this and other earlier writing by considering how diferent forms of erotica can be expressed in musical performances and especially depictions of SM.

Looking beyond musicology, I am mostly indebted to scholars who have examined gen- der and sexuality in relation to broader questions about philosophy and power relations, such as Michel Foucault , , , , Judith Butler , , , , Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick , , J. Jack Halberstam , , , , Gayle Rubin , and others. Against this scholarly backdrop, I situate my work irmly in the sphere of queer theory where a central concern is to look for diferent expressions of sexual identities in musical performances. I participate in discussions of gender, sexuality, and queerness in the context of musicological inquiry, suggesting new points of departure for these themes that are interconnected with erotica and SM.

Sadomasochism in arts and cultural studies has been more prevalent in literary crit- icism and ilm studies than in, say, study of art history and musicology. In ilm studies, sadomasochism is discussed relatively oten, especially when it occurs in connection to horror and gothic genres see especially Allen , Studlar While my work does not focus on porn, I discuss my case studies also through questions of em- bodiment, pleasure, representation, and empowerment, which are central themes also in porn studies, and apply these concepts to audiovisual performances.

More speciically, the main methodological tools I employ in this research derive from the spheres of cultural musicology, queer theory and especially queer musicology. Cultural musicologists14 oten insist that music, compared to other forms of art art, architecture, photography, literature, ilm, and other expressive forms , has speciic means of conveying meanings, and should be considered as both distinct from, and bound up, with other media Mid- dleton , Work in cultural musicology draws on interdisciplinary research that investigates diferent discourses and forms of mediation through which the researched music phenomenon can be understood.

In this way, the result of the cultural analysis is dependent on the relevant discourses. However, the point is not to reach broadly generalizable out- comes or indisputable indings, as these inevitably change by assuming the perspective of diferent disciplines and theoretical discourses. Human reality is seen as constructed through usually unconscious social strategies and cultural codes Sarup , 2.

In bet- ween these two names lies a geographical distinction: See also Williams , 27—29, Scott , 1—2. A level of academic criticism15 is also called for when doing cultural music research Middleton , 5; Richardson , To engage in this criticism, the adoption of a certain amount of interdisciplinary theory is required.

One speciic niche of cultural musicology is musical hermeneutics, which I apply in formulating some of the basic premises of my work. As an approach, musical hermeneu- tics is largely premised on the antiformalist idea that music can and does have referential power Kramer , 5 , that is able to convey moods, afective experiences, and even socially constructed codes such as gender or social power; McClary , 7—9, 36; Cusick , ; Shepherd , 51; Moisala , In this way, open interpretation is a subjective form of research.

In addition to music, cultural musicology looks to facets of social life that are in imme- diate contact with musical phenomena: Since my research concerns issues of gender and sex- uality, one almost self-explanatory point of reference to ground this research, alongside cultural musicology, is queer studies; more speciically, queer musicology. While my work is not ethno- graphic, I consider the US-European culture from a position of both a participant and an outsider: More options could include feminist studies radical, material, third-wave, intersectional , psychology, or sociology as the main points of departure.

Queer studies can also comment on hegemonic gender norms Hawkins , 4. Queer studies originated from LGBT studies and the polit- ical movements of the s, and nowadays joins feminist criticism as two signiicant forces in cultural musicology. In queer musicology, these sexualities, identities, meanings, and discourses are interpreted in a musical context, starting from the seminal anthology Queering the Pitch published in ed.

I do not, however, suggest, without at least some reservations, that SM is necessarily queer by default. Along with Nikki Sullivan ibid. In queer musicology, music is seen as a ield of activities that negotiates gender, sexual- ity and identity in a sphere that is ontologically diferent from others, mainly because of its auditive nature.

Other variants appear quite reg- ularly, and the most usual form is LGBT. See Richardson , Queer musicology concerns itself with any kind of music, not limited to the identity of the performer or genre: Queer musicology can analyse, criticise, and debate any kind of music from a new angle, as a queered sensibility where non-normative sexualities are either celebrated, hidden or denied. Queer musicologists believe in the importance of envoicing queer minorities through music and their self-expression, but this is not the only motivation for a queer listening of music. I continue to lesh out the special queerness of music throughout my thesis, both in my case studies and also with consideration to how music negotiates queer sounds and spaces in broader terms.

Close reading in its more traditional forms has been the subject of considerable, and justiied, critique in cultural research, as a result of its overly restrictive focus on texts and formal description. Close reading can further elaborate upon phenomenological re- search, grounding the experience to data and situation. Academic criticism is closely connected to close reading as well as cultural analysis see Middleton , 5.

In musicology, academic criticism demands the attention of the analysis be not only on the music, but also on the surrounding culture, as viewed through a critical lens. Usually, academic criticism includes such procedures as description, analysis, interpretation, and evaluation. In my research, I do this by describ- ing case studies and analysing them from musicological and audiovisual points of view, and by interpreting these indings in reference to diferent contexts and themes, evaluat- ing the roles these musical cases play in these diferent contexts, and how the audiovisual and musicological indings mediate diferent aspects of the contexts and themes that arise from the examples.

A frame suggests a metacommunicative premise whereupon the subject is viewed; outside of a speciic frame, other premises apply Bateson , — In the context of play, frames are also social behavioural agreements between people. While they function as thematic perspectives, they are based on cultural references and concepts.

Framing also insists on the organic state of the object: As methodological tools, frames are understood as thematic perspectives that reveal appropriate themes within the subject that is researched. I frequently frame my case studies with relevant cultural themes and examine three main musical modalities: I then go on to discuss and situate these modalities within broader deliberations about speciic themes in SM, culture, or SM in culture. In this way, the case studies inluence the inal analyses as much as the primary frames inluence the case studies, keeping my readings dialogical between materials and theories a mode of analysis I fully endorse and aspire to in academic discussions.

Readings between these two positions are rare, and espe- cially in what might justiiably be called feminist pro- and anti-SM writings, afective re- sponses oten guide the deliberations more than carefully argued observations or erudite theories. Her research incor- porates the main stances of SM interpretation, queer theory performativity and Marxist, socio-economic materialism, which in turn provide a multifaceted understanding of SM occurrences. In other words, it can be said that certain SM practices are transgressive and performative, but they also mirror power imbalances in society at large ibid.

While the performative approach can be applied to the meanings embedded in performances of music, the materialist side cannot overlook the historical, societal, even economical facts that are attached to expressive forms. In this way, performative materialism makes the readings I conduct in this research intersection- al. I shall further theorise this intersectionality in thesis section 2. Materialist research as research of ecology and material objects instruments, scores, recordings, concert halls has also recently emerged in musicology Straw , , Materialist research, however, can also be viewed as research of embodiment and sound waves that comprise music and afect the human body, creating yet other windows frames for music-hermeneutical and phenomenological research.

Materiality is, in fact, the very foundation upon which the erotic potential of music can be erected. Since critics of traditional musicology, such as Susan McClary and Robert Walser , reproached musicologists for shunning away from sexual matters in music, scholars have embraced matters of sex and sexuality along- side gender and queer theories among other relevant cultural theories.

Music is a Wagnerian love potion taken by ear rather than mouth. It coerces; it exerts pressure; and we cannot resist what we cannot see. Music is then Chart 1. For one example among many, Suzanne G. In queer musicology, the particular perspective adopted emphasises every occurrence outside the heteronormative matrix, such as same-sex desire or queer experi- ences, through a relationship to any kind of music.

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Kinking musical experience is by no means a complete alternative to queering it. In fact, the process is similar in many ways. Kink listening emphasises sexuality and sex as a healthy and joyous part of life. Listening to music as a queer subject produces queer readings and analyses of any music. Perhaps the most blatant diference between queering and kinking is the attitude to- wards sex and sexual pleasure.

In kink, sex and sexual pleasure are the focal point. Conse- quently, in a way, kink is a narrower term than queer, which studies also the identities, de- sires, and political issues of LGBT people. In short, kink reading is about 1. In my research, I propose an approach to kink listening that seeks out non-traditional, non-heteronormative expressions of sexualities and desires in music.

Kink listening as it is applied here, utilises the principles of cultural musicol- ogy, phenomenology, close reading, and queer musicology, but adds to them the speciic frames of non-normative sex, sexuality, and eroticism. When kink listening, I listen to musical representations of erotica and ascertain what exactly encodes the music as a erotic, b speciically kink erotic, and c culturally and musically signiicant to other chosen frames used in tandem with kink listening.

While some of the case studies presented herein can be regarded as un- problematic and salutary depictions of SM, kink listening can also relect on depictions of SM that are not easily regarded as transgressing the gender-, sexuality- or sex norms that are still rife in popular culture.

I shall continue developing kink reading as a concrete method of reading music in section 2. While I cannot speak for any practicing sadomasochists, as I do not identify as belonging to this social group without reservations, my academic- political goal is to change discussions of SM and perhaps, in some contexts, all matters of gender and sexuality from being overtly afective to being dialogical, critical and mul- tifaceted, where no straightforward truths are to be found. Instead, in my research, many simultaneous and coinciding truths are present, which are in dialogue with one another.

One common feature of both queer studies and phenomenological methodologies is self-relexivity. Hekanaho believes that it is im- portant to keep the research as politically explanatory as possible. Many queer scholars make their sexual identities known either directly or in relation to the research subject.

Whether it really makes a diference to the reader to know which side of the whip the researcher prefers, or whether this person even owns one, is a discussion in itself. Calvin homas, editor of Straight with a Twist , poses the question thus: Furthermore, to conceive of queer theory as mainly a set of theories for LGBT researchers and having to do with only LGBT subjects is, in my view, putting queer theory into another normative box, which goes against the very value system of queer theory itself. I fully agree with this statement. I come from Northern Finland and approach my topic of study from a Western cultural angle, albeit a relatively peripheral one.

I consider this a beneit, since my position as both insider and outsider to Western mainstream culture gives me a standpoint from which I can both understand and criticise its core aspects. My aim is to strive for a balanced perspective by complicating and interrogating debates from all sides and in this way to derive a more nuanced perspective.

I do not claim to be completely impartial when it comes to sadomasochistic aesthetics. It is an embodied feeling that comes about with visual incentives. Although sounds and auditive reception are more important in my study rather than solely visual sensations, I can conirm the experience of resonance brought about by the audiovisual texts within me. Ater all, as Paasonen notes: Paaso- nen , I have chosen to build the case study chapters from inductive readings of two, mutually supportive case studies, which I then discuss through shared themes.

Interplay between Extremes chapter 3 , Fantasy and Surrealism chapter 4 , and In Vis- ibility chapter 5. In my view, each of these themes reveals something integral to uses of SM in multimodal contents: I approach all my case studies from a SM-speciic perspective, but not all of them are explicitly or straightforwardly sadomasochistic. In doing so, I make the claim that kink listening can be applied to any song that has any ainity to sex and sexuality. Furthermore, in accord- ance with my research questions, I observe how a general mood, afect, or conceptualis- ation can lead to SM-speciic readings without the need for explicit SM codes or signposts to be attached.

In chapter 3, I will discuss perhaps the most fundamental aspect of sadomasochism, interplay between extremes, through two SM-erotic ilms, the romantic comedy Secretary and the more dramatic, artistic ilm Duke of Burgundy As an additional theme, I discuss SM erotica in speciically ilmic renditions, and how eroticism is rendered by the audiovisual characteristics of both ilms.

In chapter four, I approach questions of fantasy and surrealism through heterosexual? Both case stud- ies discuss feminine sexual empowerment in public forums, and highlight the possibil- ity of sadistic pleasures in girliness and the spectacle of quasi-violence.

All examples are more or less mainstream, but all of them can be considered as belonging to the category of popular music. I also deine the term through mainstream media consumption and dissemination. See Richardson , 5, note 3; Machin , 9. Here I present the basic theories, aesthetic principles and codes that frame discussions of sado- masochism in cultural studies, feminist and queer theory, and also musicology, which in turn illuminate the analytical work conducted in chapters 3—5. I have additionally included a section on sadomasochism in the media, par- ticularly as seen in popular music and ilm, and how these phenomena relate to the claim that media has become more sexualised in the last twenty to thirty years.

SM is nowadays considered as a sexual preference or play based on erotic power switching that is interpersonal and unbound to any particular gender. See also Newmahr , 67—69; Beckmann , 98, —; Caliia , — I am critical towards traditional psychoanalytical approaches to SM throughout my readings, but acknowledge that these cannot be fully negated. Other essentialist claims by Krat-Ebing and Freud that I disagree with are, in short: SM or sadism, or masochism is non-sexual behaviour Krat-Ebing , 2; Freud , 70 ; sadism and masochism are inherently the same Freud , 3; an idea contested vehemently in Deleuze ; and sadism sexual or otherwise is a necessary social and sexual predisposition for men Freud , Not all of these are found in speciic SM situations, but usually all ive are present.

Consensuality, that is, voluntary agreement to enter into the interaction. A sexual context, though the concept that SM is always sexual is not shared by all participants. According to this principle, the submissive has the power to stop a sadomasochism scene6 through the use of a code word, agreed on in advance, ater which ideally the dominant will cease all SM activity and reality is reinstated. Sadomasochism has been at the heart of some debates related to sex as sexual activity and sexuality as a construction of psychosexual identity in both fem- inist and queer politics.

Some scholars contest whether SM is a part of human sexuality at all, whether it is or indeed needs to be an identity category of sexual minorities and if so, 6 An SM scene, or play, is the frame of space and time during which the SM sexual encounter happens. See, for example, Weiss , However, most practitioners agree that the negotiation of a safety word helps both par- ties to communicate during a scene if something is going amiss. Kleinplatz , ; Nichols , ; Weinberg , 34; Weiss , 81— As Patrick Caliia , writes: Since these questions are also at the heart of my readings, in what follows I ofer a summary of the main points of these discussions.

Some SM prac- titioners think of their preference as only being partial to a given sexual play,9 while others consider SM an identity see Caliia , In this case, SM roles would appear to be innate and not changeable according to whim. Jack Halberstam , 65—67, 69, 78 speculates that especially female sexuality could be a state of low that changes through the years.

Conversely, there are scholars who ind it especially revealing of SM that the power statuses are performative: If there is an identity category of SM it is, according to Foucault, a subcultural one where the discourse of pleasure is desex- ualised and reinvented through SM aesthetics ibid. Some debates concern whether or not SM is viable as a queer sexuality. If we think of queer- ness as an academic term for non-normative sexualities,12 then SM is not necessarily queer, as we cannot claim that SM is straightforwardly or automatically non-heteronormative.

It is not that totalitarian. See especially chapter 2. See Jagose , Some SM-identiied queer scholars contest monosexuality by disconnecting the sexual identi- ication from terms of hetero-, bi- or homosexual and emphasising their SM-preferences and roles. Pat Caliia , , for example, identiied at the time of writing more as a sadomasochist top sadist than a lesbian. In this way, SM does not seem to essentialise genders, and could hence have queer potential. Foucault , discusses the SM scene as similar to broader social power relations, but doubts that it is a straightforward reproduction of them, let alone a symptom of pathologically sexualising power inequalities.

He sees SM as the eroticisation of strategic social power, but notes that it is diicult to invert social power statuses as they are embedded in and stabilised by institutions. Foucault ultimately regards the SM scene as sexual play, where the rules can be trans- gressed or agreed upon using the safe word method, or other preigured arrangements in order to establish boundaries.

See also Musser , 9— What Foucault , inds fascinating about SM is the use of strategic power re- lations as a source of pleasure. In heteronormative interactions the negotiating and acting out of strategic relationships always happens before sexual relations, during the courting stage. In SM, it happens inside the sexual relationship. In this way, the diference between a non-kink heteronormative power negotiation relationship and an SM one is that the former is centred on the social person, and the latter on the body.

Based on this, it is safe to speculate that Foucault does entertain the possibility of employing SM as a political tool, subverting existing norms through parody and pleasure. Foucault seems to think that SM can be framed outside of political discussions in the minds of practitioners, as well as having the potential to destabilise power structures.

Most of this criticism is based on the humanist ideal of equality Duncan , , where every person is understood as having equal rights with others. From this quite literal interpretative angle, which fails to take into account the notion of SM as performative play, it is seen as a perverted power imbalance that has been eroticised within an accepted patriarchial context. As queer theorist Patricia Duncan ibid. In this way, SM can be seen as playing with or erotising diference, and the efect on its practitioners is regarded more as liberation than repression ibid.

Some feminist critics such as Gayle Rubin, Lynda Hart, or Anita 14 Feminist writer Pat Caliia , — vehemently disagrees with this claim, and while admitting that violence against women must be dismantled, Caliia ibid. One criticism directed against SM is that practitioners accept and reproduce patri- archal power imbalances. SM critics at the admonishing end of the spectrum oten accuse women of upholding the patriarchy through practicing SM Hart , Similarly, queer theorist Lynda Hart , 18 argues that the very concept of sexual fantasy is, in fact, gendered as speciically masculine in the minds of SM critics.

Disagreement oten arises as a result of ambivalence between sexual play and reality. Feminists who approach the subject in a balanced and critical way, do not deny this critique of power imbalance, but argue for framing it diferently within SM scenes. See Weiss , In her book Technologies of Pleasure: In this way, the perspective is particularly appropriate to apply to readings of SM representations in popular media, as they oten tend to favour either the playfulness of kinky sex or the assumed psychopathology inscribed in SM.

Performative materialism in this thesis refers to an intersectional, multifaceted approach to cultural reading of SM that includes the sexually pleasurable experiences but also interprets them within larger sociocultural themes. It further addresses how one either reinforces or critiques the oth- er: Behind this process are culturally constructed, repeated and gendered codes, which are copied down generationally.

Over time, these constructions tend to change, and in this way performativity is also temporally marked, as actors have the opportunity to remake, re-invent and re-assign the terms of engagement. It remains a matter for debate whether or not performative gender can be agentic, and thus, whether it is a possible arena for parodic actions. According to Butler , , the only parody that can be accomplished is the very notion of an original gender, as in drag performance: In this way, per- formativity can be conscious or unconscious when constructing sets of behaviour that are adopted as markers of identity.

In her writings on performativity as active production vs. Where performativity in SM is concerned, similar themes of theatricality and authen- ticity, relectivity and blind repetition arise. SM power play admittedly can relect anal- ogously the dominant imbalances between sexes and sexualities in society, but it can be seen as doing so in a performative way, implying a level of detachment from the usual consequences and social entanglements of relations between the sexes.

SM might even be regarded as challenging these relations through the subversive force of performative play or empowering humour. As representations in popular culture, performative pow- er imbalances are oten open to decoding, which enforces as much as subverts conven- tional gender positions. Diferent interpretations can never be avoided. In the popular media, SM representations are sensationalised and stigmatised as obsession or mental disability.

While Weiss utilises mostly Marxist and socioeconomical theories in her book, in my work I focus more on the cultural dimensions of Marxist theory which are nev- ertheless intertwined with economic considerations as well as new materialist feminism when looking for a more critical approach to SM representations. In research on music, the Frankfurt School and especially philosophy of heodor Adorno cannot be entirely avoided when cultural readings of any sort are concerned.

From a Horkheimerian and Adornian stand- point , 98, , regarding the position of SM in popular culture, Fity Shades might be considered an obvious example of mass deception in the cultural industry. See also Barker , 49— Although SM may be seen to critique existing power relations, this is seen as a mere illusion, as these representations ultimately reproduce, sustain and propagate social inequality.

I shall expand on this point in chapter 6. Representations of SM as sexy titillation might also be interpreted as promoting the acceptance of the socio-sexual status quo, much as Horkheimer and Adorno , , emphasis mine elaborate in their critique of cartoons: Reading these beatings as SM spanking, the quotation remains both literal and symbolic; the power exchange or rather, yielding of power becomes natural- ised, but it also grants sadistic or masochistic enjoyment voyeurism?

It is not easy, however, to establish a simple, straightforward theory of Marxist-materialist thought as it regards human sexuality. Early Marxist scholarship on relationships and marriage ranges from condemnation as a bourgeois system to celebration or even preferably, free love and polyamory as the radical lifestyle leading away from capitalist oppression.

See also Adorno , In this sense, replicating these codes in popular culture and even sexualising them as pleas- urable would seem to be a ploy to re-establish the old patriarchal forms of domination by disguising it as sexual pleasure for women. See Weiss , ; Linden , 4. Concerning sexuality, it is my under- standing however that Horkheimer and Adorno , — do not explicitly devalue sexuality, but are not impressed with its narrow representations in the mass media. Women have bodies; these bodies have pain as well as pleasure. We need a way to talk about these bodies and the materiality they inhabit.

Indeed, in my research, I address lived experiences through the inclusion of theories of embodiment, and phenomenology including embodied pain and pleasure. I suggest that sensation is an important critical term because it undercuts the identitarian dimensions of experience. If we conceive of experience as the narrative that consciousness imposes on a collection of sensations, sensation provides a way for us to explore corporeality without reifying identity. In this thesis, I study how complex sensations of intermingling pain and pleasure are negotiated in the multisensory contexts of audiovisual expression.

To make my scholarly intervention more speciically musicological, I look to music, voices, and sounds that par- ticipate in negotiating these circuits within the scope of the case studies analysed. Embodiment is the result of socially performed and constructed actions while also containing the physical and material sensations of eroti- cised pain and pleasure. Kathy Sisson , 12—27 pro- poses a ive stage historical timeline for SM cultural formations, which I paraphrase here in table 2.

In the s, SM expanded from brothels to homes, and entered erotica literature, fashion and art. From there on, SM social movements and cultural visibility have transformed rather quickly: While SM cultures, aesthetics and practitioners are no longer able or willing to remain invisible from mainstream society, Wilkinson , argues for taking into account the possibilities and risks of this visibility. In contrast, the pathologising strategies feature a submissive woman and a dominant man ibid. Perhaps there is a correlation between diferent power statuses between genders as relecting either porn-normativity or pathologisation; for example, the Japanese-French ilm In the Realm of the Senses , dir.

Meanwhile, the ilm Secretary , dir. Steven Shainberg features a submissive woman and a dominant man, but is directed more towards eroticisation, even though it has its pathologising subtextual moments. In addition, gender ambivalence is oten not tolerated.

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Sadomasochism is quite oten represented as a kinky counterpart to this sexualised media Wilkinson , ; Rubin , Porn has become more accessible with the rise of the internet, where easily consumed videos can be viewed and then discarded. Spoken voice includes 27 Although, sexuality constantly on display soon loses its risk factor; see Weiss , — Sound efects in porn usually focus on emphasising the embodied sensations in sex scenes with slaps spanking and otherwise and the enhanced sounds and words that accompany fellatio and penetration.

Adding any of these sounds to music communicates not only the erotic but also the pornographic. See Hawkins , See appendix 2 for a more concise ta- ble of SM in ilms. From the year onwards, SM has become a permanent ixture of mainstream Holly- wood cinema, starting with Quills , dir. Philip Kaufman , which established a new way of representing sadomasochistic sexual preferences through sympathetic humour mixed with dark hues, even when considering the contradictory character of the Marquis de Sade Geofrey Rush.

US ilmmakers began to treat the subject of SM with compas- sion and semi-kinky titillation in ilms such as Secretary , dir. Steven Shainberg; see section 3. Mary Harron and Shortbus , dir. Some of the ilms made in the s discuss SM directly and attempt to aestheticise SM pleasures. II represents SM sex as the ultimate form of sex therapy, as the character Joe inally manages to climax ater a long period of frustration during an SM scene, although the treatment of SM in the ilm is not necessarily aestheticising.

Duke of Burgundy , dir. Peter Strickland; see section 3. Here, SM works as a means to pinpoint the inequalities in their relationship, without pathologising either participant. While I do not claim that this is a comprehensive account of SM in ilms, I would sug- gest a shit in the emphases of productions as follows: When considering popular music, a more elaborate and complicated historical line can be traced. Furthermore, since the s, there has been an emergence of fetish and burlesque attires in music videos, and broader popular culture. Below, I will briely sum- marise what speciic musical classical, popular codes that one might listen for to hear expressions of a sadomasochistic-erotic atmosphere.

I compiled the list when writing this thesis, but it is not comprehensive. All songs have either English, German, or Finnish lyrics. Jim Sharman , and later in Chicago , dir. Rob Marshall or Moulin Rouge! Akita plays his music with noise levels exceeding the pain threshold dB and over , relecting sadism through the inlicting of auditory pain upon the audience. Masochism and music are oten approached in tandem with theories of listening.

One can also dominate music by playing it, mastering it, composing it, which is another possible form of power exchange between music and musicians or listeners: Cultural or critical musicology for example, Scott ; Middleton ; Wil- liams is the main approach applied to the subject of sadomasochistic imagery and erotica in music. Queer musicology is crucial when analysing my examples and reading them from an SM-sensitive point of view. I have condensed my analytic-conceptual tools to a few, simple points of inquiry, which can be used as starting points in which kink listening to music, focusing on SM-sensitive imagery and erotica.

Not all of these points need to be addressed apart perhaps from point 1, which is a prem- ise of kink listening , and no particular hierarchy is implied. I have also added the brief theories of musical SM erotica listed above as brief examples of each category, but as these are discussed throughout the thesis, I have also signposted sections or complete chapters where particular attention is paid to each category. What makes the music erotic: What kind of eroticism is depicted? Do they relate to one another?

Is there interaction that could be heard as sexually loaded interplay between extreme positions? Does the other side comply?

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Can these aspects or their power posi- tions be interchangeable at least in interpretation? See also section 3. Do they have sexual context or articulate intentions? Do they challenge or transgress hegemonic sexual expres- sions in any way? Is camp reading a valid strategy here? Is there excessive repetition? Does a certain word, note, rhythm or other musical code appear in an accentuated way, perhaps as a clear auditory hook, without which the music would not sound the same? Is it lited to the status of an auditory fetish? See chapter 5 and section 3.

Does the erotic situation encode the music, or disambiguate it? Does the music encode the erotic situation, or disambiguate it? For encoding, see chapter 3; for disambiguation, see sections 2. Listening to, and for, these themes and elements of expression in musical performances is, however, only the irst step of interpreting SM aesthetics in music. In kink listening, discerning the non-normative gender, codes of sexuality and sex, begins a cultural discus- sion which permits further elucidation of the phenomena at hand.

In the following chapters, I discuss these questions through diferent strategies of SM aesthet- icism: From these themes and examples, further complex themes arise, which in turn allows for a cultural-critical reading of SM in popular music. In the context of the present chapter, the power luctuation occurs within the ilms, but also between sounds and music, the plot and the audiovisuals. By no means do I mean to suggest that they are the best or the most accepted terms among academics or participants. Tendencies of either might be present. It is oten assumed that activity belongs more to the dominant stance while the submissive stays passive during SM-sexual play.

Further illustrative of the interplay between extremes is the feeling of lowing between the statuses of dominant and submissive. If we think about the diference between the overt dom in power and the covert sub can indeed hold the ultimate position of power; see for example Kleinplatz , layers of SM power relations and sexual dynamics,4 the luctuation between these polarised positions becomes one of the main sources of pleasure within an SM scene and aesthetics.

Or, as argued by Foucault , — , SM power positions are indeed more luid than social power statuses. While these two levels, of social power and SM performative power, can relect each other to a greater or lesser extent within the theatrical SM play space, power in SM scenes or play is ultimate- ly a negotiation between the sub and dom, with no reference necessary to social power positions, nor fear of repercussions.

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In the case studies that follow, I identify a number of luctuations between power po- sitions, and pleasures derived from the ambivalence they create. Steven Shainberg is an independently produced ilm that is mostly built around the narrative conventions and aesthetics of romantic comedy. Edward Grey James Spader , and how their rela- tionship transforms from professional, to SM-erotic and romantic, ending up in marriage. See appendix 3 for soundtrack album tracks.

Experiences of pain in this SM-romantic ilm always take place within a fantastical setting that attaches notions of pleasure to them, exploring the aesthetic and erotic nature of SM experience. In this chapter, I theorise how SM eroticism is audiovisually depicted in the ilm. I con- sider SM erotica in the ilm from three diferent audiovisual perspectives: See Brown , 63, See Donnelly , Lee retrieving papers and coffee in bondage gear in the opening scene of Secretary.

Screen- play writer Erin Cressida Wilson wrote in an online article: She should be pow- erful in a way that appeared strong through a traditional feminist lens. And so I decided that this was a coming-out ilm for a masochist. At the beginning of the story, Lee is a timid, self-harming9 young girl who has just been released from a psychological ward. In a scene where Lee sits at Mr.

See also Belmont , ; Cossman , In contrast, the inal scene of the ilm depicts Lee holding a long, steady gaze straight towards the camera lens, with only a slight tilt of her head as if to dare the audience to question her choices in the ilm. Her voice occupies most of the sonic space, subjecting her point of view also to the audience, while simultaneously accen- tuating her agency in the story.

Female voice-overs are somewhat rare in ilm narration, and used to be exclu- sively a feature of avant-garde and independent ilms, with the exception of the ilm noir genre McHugh, ; Butkus , 72— I shall return to this theme in section 5. Another pivotal sound symbol in the ilm for Lee is that of the typewriter, heard problems.

Suyemoto and Macdonald have made a summary of the many reasons why girls cut them- selves. Prompted by Edward, Lee admits to this; she is escaping the painful feelings surrounding her alcoholic father. By extension, her challenging look can also be read as the challenging look of all SM practition- ers to non-kink audiences, daring them to reconsider their ways of life. For further writings on the gaze, see Mulvey , —; Kaplan , 29; in music videos, see Richardson , It is striking that Lee inds both her sexually submissive side and her independent, self-actual- ised side by learning to type.

While the ilm seems to be set in early s, Edward despises computers, and values the nostalgic value of the typewriter both the machine and the woman using it. Slowly, Lee becomes the quintessential image of the secretary wearing high heels and short skirts, lirting with her employer. In other words, she moulds herself to the role she is assigned, taking pleasure in it and emphasising it to the point of camp humour. For Lee, in addition to being a source of pride and independence, the sound of the typewriter becomes an eroticised one, even a fetish object.

In a way, without the typing skill, she would never have found herself, independently, sex- ually, or otherwise. Camp is a very queer term closely associated with queer theory. See also Flinn , — It can be a partial fetish hair, legs, breasts, obesity, voice or it can be an inanimate object, like objects or clothing of leather or latex, hats, shoes, lace, glasses, or fur ibid. It is notable that Lee never questions her feelings and pleasure, no matter how inappropriate they might seem to others. As Elaine Graham , argues, cyborgs do not share in human hang-ups about mixed identities, exclusive communities or absolute truths: Similarly, Lee never has any doubts or suspicions about her newfound technologically organised sexual pleasure, she embraces it and demands more of it.

In a fantasy scene, Lee asserts her sexual urges powerfully in the privacy of her own bedroom, masturbating to the thought of Mr. Grey, as she obedi- ently refers to her employer. As the rif modulates spontaneously one tone up , Lee tries to fantasise about her boyfriend instead, but even in the fantasy he appears awkward and clumsy. See Freud ; section 3. First bars are repeated 2—6 times. Kathryn Kalinak , 89 has written about how Badalamenti likes to work against cultural expectation in the musical track. Kink listening to the track of Secretary in this way, hearing the undoubtedly pornographic bass purely as such would seem too straightforward.

While the bass certainly adds an element of 19 he dream scene of season, 1, episode 2 in Twin Peaks springs to mind in particular. Lee on the bed, Mr.

Grey embracing Lee, Lee posing for Mr. Ater all, the electric bass is commonly thought to represent masculinity, agency, movement and speed, power and control especially when the bass leans towards synco- pated funk aesthetics, as it oten does in Secretary; see Tagg , — Her agency is not in question in the ilm; what could remain in question is whether her empowerment is feminist, or post-feminist.

Indeed, as Storr ibid.

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According to cultural theorist Rosalind Gill , — , post-fem- inist popular culture oten asserts pressure on women to self-regulate and police their behaviour, their appearances, and their bodies. Prompted by Edward, Lee changes her appearance and succumbs to his behaviour control, but sexualises this policing eiciently.

She prefers a fulilling sexual life as opposed to a virtually adolescent, asexual and neurotic existence under the 20 For more on power hierarchies and bass lines in the context of traditional voice leading, see Lewin , ; McClary , — See Warwick , — See also Cossman , , One of the most captivating facets of Secretary is the interplay between Lee, who inds her emergent SM interests, and Edward, who soon notices her craving for a diferent life- style.

In the following section 3. Music contributes to this shit in perception considerably. In this section of the thesis, I focus on the discursive codes that are re-framed through music: Here, I ind particularly useful a term from close reading methodology: Here I examine how music and sounds in the ilm reframe the relationship between Lee and Edward from a seemingly neutral professional relationship to an intimate, erotic one. As she speaks to him, a melodic ges- ture is presented on the synthesiser, comprising a glittery, almost whistling sound, and a contrapuntal descending bass line accompaniment.

Tellingly, this melodic sign is repeated in a later scene when Lee is on her knees setting up a mouse trap, and Edward receives an accidental up- skirt glance 0: In a way, Lee is seen to pull his strings. While his sexual fascination is clear, it also becomes evident that he is interested in Lee also as a person, not only as a fetish object. Do you realise you snile? In Secretary, this process is reversed. Close-up recording of Mr. While the frame of reference shits to an SM-erotic between the two protagonists, the music continues to reframe their relationship by shiting the powerful, decisive power from Edward to Lee.

It is worth mentioning that in the song the relationship between the two parties is decided by the recipient of the song heteronormatively assuming, a woman , and not the singing man Cohen. Although they have already established their submissive and dominant roles, the song would seem to depict both in diferent ways that complicate the power statuses of both roles efectively.

While the relationship between Lee and Edward is clearly an SM one, the montage se- quence presents shiting frames of reference between the two characters, producing a slip- pery gender-queer space for both. Only the carrot has been added. Lee on the phone with Edward; Edward fitting a saddle to Lee. His dominant stance tranforms almost into that of a passive dominant, providing pleasure for Lee but not demanding it for himself.

Of course, analysing the song from this angle could be contested, as it is quite clear that Edward is sexually an active dominant by character. I shall return to this in section 3. It is quite clear that music plays a signiicant role in reassigning Lee and Edward their new, personal-sexual identities as well as rewriting the interplay between them into an SM-erotic relationship.

Consequently, eforts to articulate the experience of pain as an un- comfortable or pleasurable experience to another will inevitably remain insuicient Las- caratou , Furthermore, physical pain is not something external from the self, but is felt on the body. Hence, it is not a shared experience or an intersubjective one, which again goes to the heart of phenomenology. In contrast to experimental scientiic research, where the validity of research is based on its repetition, the validity of research concerning phenomenonological experiences, such as pain, cannot be measured or ensured through such experimental methodological designs29 Furthermore, the experience of pain is always uncertain or unknowable if the body in question is not your own.

Elaine Scarry , 12 has studied this in regard to non-sexual, invol- untary torture, particularly how the torturer can separate his feelings of empathy from seeing the tortured body in pain, as there is always the possibility that the pain is some- how inauthentic when it does not involve his own body. Lang- dridge , 95; emphasis mine. I also theorise how the scene extends this multisensory experience to the audience. Ater a heated discussion, Edward storms of, leaving Lee be- hind, sniling.

In the corridor, Edward stops abruptly, as a violin suspense sound shits the frame of reference from a relatively banal oice scene to a sexually laden one.

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A frustrated Edward has in a previous scene forbidden Lee from sniling, and here she seen to disobey him. Barely audible, Edward tells Lee to bend over his desk and read the letter aloud. She complies, but stops as Edward irst spanks her bottom. Her voice tries to stay stable but is interrupted and quivering due to the physical impact of spanking.

In this way, the inauthentic spanking sound efect does not necessarily depict only pain but also the bodily and emo- tional shock, the surprise, and the sexual pleasure that Lee is experiencing. See Chion , Ater the irst spank, prompted by Edward, Lee continues to read the letter, her voice trembling as Edward continues spanking her. She inishes, and Edward orders her to read it again. In a sense, by making Lee read the letter, Ed- ward dominates her speech patterns, as well as her pitch by changing her voice with his spanking actions.

During the irst six spanks, his pace is slow, meditative, and each spank sounds diferent. All in all, he spanks Lee 22 times, ordering her to continue whenever she inishes the letter. His last order is, however, whispered and strained, revealing his aroused state. He picks up the pace and Lee stops reading, giving way to exclamations of pleasure. To- gether, panting, they remain in position. Darren Langdridge , 92 explains: Edward spanking Lee with rendered sound effects.

In addition to this, the scene demonstrates efectively how SM sex can be pleasurable also to onlookers. I would extend her argument and maintain that the urge to hear a ilm and garner afective, titillating responses as a result is integral to cinesexuality. Usually, silence ensues during the scene when I show it in presentations. Similarly, extending audiovisuality to haptic perception in ilm theories provides a more multifaceted reading of this phenomenon. Tactility and hapticity are relatively new terms through which ilm music and sound efects can be analysed, but writing on ilm they have been discussed since cinema itself was born see Sobchack Such theory addresses how the image onscreen can afect the whole body, be it on the skin or at deeper, visceral levels.

Because of this, it seems that theorising SM-erotic ilms through multisensoral theories would provide some understanding as to how cinema can represent diferent erotic experiences. Film theorist Laura Marks has theorised hapticity and its erotic potential in ilm visuals. Researchers of audiovisual theories such as Michel Chion and John Richardson , 28 have already discussed the multi- sensory potential of audiovisuality in their work, including hapticity. Similarly to the intersubjectivity of Lee and Edward, then, another intersubjective ex- perience is created within the spanking scene between the audience and the ilm.

In this way, Secretary could be seen as promoting awareness of SM cultures at large: By all accounts, this interpersonal experience between Lee and Edward is depicted throughout the ilm as mutually enjoyable. In fact, I observed similar deadpan silence in a cinema audience during the sex scenes of the ilm Fity Shades of Grey on February 14th, While the rest of the ilm was mostly jeered and laughed at, the only scenes without a sound from the audience were the SM- sex ones. Peter Strickland is an independent ilm about two women in a SM-romantic relationship, a remarkable rarity in SM ilms, where the relationships depicted are usually between heterosexual or male homosexual couples.

In their daily lives, they are both lepidopterists: Evelyn is still studying, and Cynthia is a scholar in the ield. See especially section 2. Without trust between partners, the SM relationship is unlikely to be a successful one, and can even result in an experience of abuse.

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