CARAS Webinar: The Celluloid Dungeon: Kink/BDSM in Mainstream Film. Sunday, June 18, 2023
The Celluloid Dungeon: Kink/BDSM in Mainstream Film
Presenter: Peter Tupper
Sunday, June 18, 2023: 10am-noon (Pacific-Los Angeles) / 1-3pm (Eastern-New York) / 6-8pm (BST-London) / 7-9pm (Central European-Stockholm, Prague, Berlin) - two hours
To register for this webinar, please visit: https://forms.gle/7R84EbwwNomzcgAq9
Continuing education (CE) credit: n/a
Cost: Attendance is free for all CARAS subscribers, and $25 for others.
Pre-registration is required: Registration will close at 3pm (U.S. Pacific)/6pm (U.S. Eastern) on Saturday, June 17, 2023. Please register early!
Abstract
Dating from the earliest decades of film, one finds examples of sexual representations that we can classify under the modern term "BDSM" (bondage & discipline, dominance & submission, sadism & masochism, slave & master/mistress). This workshop will explore the sub-genre of kink/BDSM in mainstream film from the late nineteenth century to recent examples such as the Fifty Shades trilogy. While these film products were produced in different eras, during which modern kink/BDSM communities were concurrently evolving and occasionally contributing directly to the sub-genre (such as the 1962 film Satan in High Heels), from a mainstream perspective this sub-genre of film has consistently presented a challenge of sexual "deviance" and various responses including moral condemnation and policing.
Historian Peter Tupper will share examples of these films and offer a framework for understanding the evolution and changes in the sub-genre of BDSM in film. One point of evident continuity, consistent with the framework articulated by Gayle Rubin ([1984] 2011), is the hierarchicalization of sexualities and management of the boundary between acceptable and unacceptable sexualities. Another is a pattern of tropes found in representations of BDSM sexuality in film, such the harmless eccentric, psychopathic killer, or outcast. These provide resources that can help us to understand both the sub-genre as it has evolved historically and how, today, the boundary between "acceptable" and "unacceptable" sexualities continues to be redrawn in mainstream film depictions of kink/BDSM.
Please join us to view some rare and interesting examples of kink/BDSM in film, discuss their relevance to modern kink/BDSM communities, and how these cultural products continue to be contested today.
Learning Objectives
At the end of the webinar, participants will be able to:
Describe characteristics of "kink/BDSM" as found in film.
Describe at least one representative example of kink/BDSM film in each of the following periods: late 19th century to mid-twentieth century (c. 1896 to 1949); late 20th century (1950-2000); and early 21st century (2001 to today).
In mainstream film, assess how the presence of kink/BDSM has influenced debates about the boundary between acceptable and unacceptable sexualities.
Presentation Content Level: Basic - Intermediate. This webinar will provide an introduction to the topic but also provide an opportunity for discussion at a more advanced level that presupposes basic knowledge of alternative sexualities communities.
About the Presenter
Peter Tupper is a Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada) writer and historian. He is a two-time winner of the National Leather Association's Geoff Mains award for non-fiction, a co-founder of Metro Vancouver Kink, and author of A Lover's Pinch: A Cultural History of Sadomasochism (2018). He has presented at events across North America on the history of BDSM. He blogs at www.historyofbdsm.com
References
Allen, Steven. 2013. Cinema, Pain and Pleasure: Consent and the Controlled Body. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire [England]; New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Barrett, Jenny. 2007. “You’ve Made Mistress Very, Very Angry’: Displeasure and Pleasure in Media Representations of BDSM.” Particip@tions 4 (1) https://www.participations.org/04-01-03-barrett.pdf [Open Access]
Capsuto, Steven. 2000. Alternate Channels : The Uncensored Story of Gay and Lesbian Images on Radio and Television. New York: Ballantine Books.
Coulteray, George de. 1965. Sadism in the Movies. New York: Medical Press.
Khan, Ummni. 2009. “Putting a Dominatrix in Her Place: The Representation and Regulation of Female Dom/Male Sub Sexuality.” Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 21 (1): 143–75. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjwl.21.1.143
Khan, Ummni. 2014. Vicarious Kinks: S/M in the Socio-Legal Imaginary. University of Toronto Press.
Rubin, Gayle S. (1984) 2011. “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality.” In Deviations: A Gayle Rubin Reader, 137–223. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Russo, Vito. 1987. The Celluloid Closet : Homosexuality in the Movies Revised ed. New York: Harper & Row.
Filmography
Benedek, László dir. 1953. The Wild One.
DeMille, Cecil B. dir. 1932. The Sign of the Cross.
Foley, James dir. 2017. Fifty Shades Darker.
Foley, James dir. 2018. Fifty Shades Freed.
Friedkin, William dir. 1980. Cruising.
Intrator, Jerald dir. 1962. Satan in High Heels.
Marshall, Gary dir. 1994. Exit to Eden.
Park, Hyeon-jin dir. 2022. Love and Leashes (모럴센스).
Robinson, Angela dir. 2017. Professor Marston and the Wonder Women.
Ross, Craig Jr. dir. 2007 “Death in the Saddle” Bones.
Schroeder, Barbet dir. 1976. Maîtresse.
Sennet, Mack dir. 1913. Barney Oldfield’s Race for a Life.
Shainberg, Steven dir. 2002. Secretary.
Tarantino, Quentin dir. 1994. Pulp Fiction.
Taylor-Johnson, Sam dir. 2015. Fifty Shades of Grey.
Tuttle, Frank dir. 1933. Roman Scandals.
Urban, Stuart dir. 1997. Preaching to the Perverted.
White, James H. dir. 1896. Fatima’s Cochee-Cochee Dance.
About the CARAS Education Program
For information about the CARAS Education Program, please visit https://caras-researchlink.org/education