One problem with researching sexual practices is best understood by something a professor told me: "Are you planning to go to grad school? Because sex research doesn't get you in to grad school. You would be better advised to work on something more traditional. Perhaps you could do something about condom use? That research is being published..."

Psychology has been attempting to steer the field away from sex research since the potential for scandal/abuse/disturbing findings is so high. The first research about homosexuality occurred when psychologists, treating individuals with serious psychiatric disorders (schizophrenia, a personality disorder, psychosis, etc), took life histories and found that a shocking (to them) number of patients were gay! OMG! And so, they surveyed these gay patients and found that they were disturbed individuals...yeah, not a big surprise, but they decided this meant that their homosexuality was related to their psych problems. Then they were told that men in prison are sometimes homosexuals...and they said, "ahh, survey them!" and they did...and, big shock, the gay inmates were troubled (as most people in the prison probably). This is around the 30's/40's i think...

So, for years, homosexuality (particularly among men) was considered a sexual disorder, since it was seen as a rarity, which occurred among psychologically unsound men. But then a woman...Evelyn Hooker (1957) happened to come across a "normal" young gay man...and, curious about the fact that this man seemed less nuts than she expected from gay people...performed a study, which found that psychologists were not able to distinguish the sexuality of a person by looking at their psychological profiles (simplified...more extensive description here...http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbo...al_health.html)

A similar process describes the evolution of research into BDSM. So, if you look at serial rapists/killers...they are more likely than the average person to have viewed S&M themed porn, participated in S&M activities. Thus, S&M activities are associated with violent sexual criminals...even though the amount of pornography being sold for the last 40 years could not possibly be bought by the relatively few serial killers out there. Since S&M/BDSM appears to be nonconsensual, simulating rape/abuse/torture/battering/etc. Since witnessing real abuse DOES harm children raised in abusive homes, and ACTUAL abuse DOES harm people...it is easy to see how people out of the community get the wrong idea.

Here is something from a paper by gender theorist and philosopher Patrick Hopkins
"In significant ways, [BD]SM scenes parallel the experience of being on a roller coaster. There is intense emotion—fear, tension, anticipation, thrill. There is physiological arousal—adrenaline rush, headiness, gut twisting, a body high. All this because one has placed herself in the position of simulating plummeting to her death, of simulating flying off into space, of simulating the possibility of smashing into trees or metal railings. But is the best interpretation of the roller coaster rider’s desire that she really would like to plummet to her death or collide with another train? Is it the case that she genuinely desires to be crushed against the ground, but because the law and conventional morality attempt to prevent it, alas, she is not able? Is riding a roller coaster just a matter of settling for the weaker imitation, for the copy of plummeting to her death?"

Most of the research has been done on men, though there is support for BDSM's harmless effects on women. The Kinsey study estimated an 11% serious interest, though as many as 1/3 will experiment with it at some point in their lives...anyway...i've got to go now...one last link, and merry christmas!


here is an interesting internet survey project by Gloria G. Brame, PhD
Demographic BDSM/Fetish Survey
http://gloria-brame.com/domidea/survres.htm