Please Scream Quietly

A Story of Kink

Julie L. Fennell

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN: 9798881879099
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Human Sexuality in Psychology
• Index: Social Sciences

In Please Scream Quietly, professor and self-identified kinkster Julie Fennell offers an intimate, nuanced, and engaging portrayal of the lives and loves of a BDSM community. In this first-of-its-kind collective autobiography of the frequently misunderstood and often maligned BDSM subculture, Fennell's insider perspective shows that while most people are a little bit kinky, the BDSM community teaches its members to emphasize and cherish their kinky differences. Drawing from interviews, survey data, and years of observations, Fennell showcases kinksters' lives and loves in a captivating, vibrant, and authoritative story. She addresses questions such as: How do kinksters define their identities? How do BDSM community members construct socially meaningful identities for themselves? Are BDSM identities always experienced as sexual? How are kinky relationships and consensual nonmonogamy/polyamory experienced in the community? Fennell provides an unprecedented exploration of kinksters' community group norms and rules, analyzing the demographics along with the behavioral and attitudinal norms in—and out—of BDSM dungeons. Fennell analyzes the multiple ways kinksters construct positive and negative social status, illustrating how the social world of kinksters is frequently quite different from outsiders' perceptions of it.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: “Your Fantasy Is My Reality”
• Chapter One Becoming “Kinky”
• Chapter Two “Does This Look Sexual to You?”
• Chapter Three “Why Would We Still Follow Their Bullshit Rules?”
• Chapter Four The Love Language of Kink
• Chapter Five Learning the Ropes
• Chapter Six Welcome to the Dungeon
• Chapter Seven The Deviant Elite
• Conclusion
• Methodological Appendix
• References
• Index