Abstract
This analysis examines participation in BDSM sexual subcultures to ascertain how individuals translate bodily experience into durable self-concepts. BDSM practitioners with receptive preferences (so-called sexual “bottoms”) all (1) learned the norms of BDSM subcultural space sufficiently to attract and engage a “Dominant” partner, and (2) recognized a certain constellation of bodily sensations that would be intolerable in other contexts to be “painful pleasure” or, in the absence of pleasure, came to derive articulate appreciation for experiences they distinctly did not enjoy, what practitioners call being in “bottom space.” Some bottoms also (3) developed a self-concept that absorbed these receptive bodily and affective experiences into a durable idea of themselves as “submissives.” Submissive identities were particularistic and often encompassed that individual’s subjective position in the social order more generally. Whereas most instances of role acquisition in sociology constitute abandoning previously held positions, submission is a reflexive process of distilling and honing a sense of who one already is, while manipulating how one is that kind of person in relation to others. This analysis extends extant literature on “sexual fields” to examine the mundane actions that create the gendered and racialized nature of erotic life and the ever more nuanced reflexive work some individuals do in that context to remake not only their own dispositions (Bourdieu’s habitus), but also the ways they relate to others.
Keywords
Sexuality, Gender, Race, Identity, Embodiment
How to Cite
Meadow, T., (2026) “ Becoming a Submissive: BDSM, Articulate Intimacies, and the Erotics of Social Difference ”, Theory and Social Inquiry 2(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/tsi.18090