Abstract
Various scientific disciplines devoted to the study of sexual behavior are concerned with the understanding of sadomasochistic (SM) practices. However, only a fragmented body of theories, opinions, and studies is available, which limits the systematic study of this field. Empirical studies and tools for the assessment of SM tendencies are particularly sparse. Our aim was to develop a comprehensive tool for the assessment of an individual’s engagement in SM practices. A comprehensive 24-item checklist of different types of SM play was generated with the assistance of members of the German SM community, covering both a dominance scale and a submission scale. The sadomasochism checklist was administered in an online study to a sample of 652 adults (345 female, 307 male), with 527 participants being active members in the SM community. Both the frequency of SM behavior and the attraction to the types of SM practices were assessed. Results revealed a one-factor structure for the dominance as well as the submission scale. The distinction between different types of practices (soft play, domination/submission, beating, toys, breath and bodily fluids) was confirmed using principal component analysis. Cronbach’s alpha was appropriate. The total scores for the dominance and the submission scale distinguish between participants with different preferences for dominant and submissive practices. The newly developed scale is a reliable and valid tool for the assessment of the frequency of and attraction to SM behavior. It aims to provide the basis for future systematic studies on sadomasochism.
Highlights
The term sadomasochism (SM) finds its origins in two concepts: (1) sadism, which itself is linked to Comte marquis de Sade (1740–1814), whose writings covered sexual cruelty in an erotic sense, and (2) masochism, which derives from the writer Masoch (1836–1905), whose novels reflected erotic appeal by pain, submission, and humiliation (Cleugh, 1952)
The link with the invitation to participate in a study about sadomasochism and sexual diversity was sent to different e-mail distribution lists of student associations and social networks in order to recruit non-BDSM participants
At the beginning of the study, participants had to make a declaration about their SM self-perception, meaning whether they would describe themselves as‘‘dominants,’’‘‘submissives,’’‘‘switches,’’ or if they had no particular attraction to sadomasochism
Summary
The term sadomasochism (SM) finds its origins in two concepts: (1) sadism, which itself is linked to Comte marquis de Sade (1740–1814), whose writings covered sexual cruelty in an erotic sense, and (2) masochism, which derives from the writer Masoch (1836–1905), whose novels reflected erotic appeal by pain, submission, and humiliation (Cleugh, 1952). Most of the early knowledge gained on SM behavior can be traced back to the early psychoanalytic work of Freud (1938) or Kraft-Ebbing (1965) It mainly stems from clinical observations in patients suffering from their SM tendencies and not from observations in the general population (Weinberg, 2006). We claim that sexual science would benefit from a more systematic assessment of SM practices and in particular, from tools that allow representative observations. This would in turn help to increase the comparability of different studies and promote a more objective approach toward the understanding of the SM phenomenon
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