This ground-breaking book explores contemporary forms of BDSM where women dominate in relationships and professions, opening new paths for psychological research in commercial and non-commercial BDSM.
Based on a unique combination of qualitative investigation and academic research, it examines how BDSM has often crystalized conflicts in contemporary feminist debates, where sexually dominant women are pictured either as victims or as agents of resistance to the gendered patriarchy. Nathalie Lugand argues that female domination in heterosexual BDSM is above all situated in a continuum structured by the values of care and by the circulation of money. Through a novel psychodynamic approach, Lugand demystifies BDSM relationships where women dominate, considering the impact of social relations of work in the construction of sexual identity and analyzing the difficulties that they cause in the erotic economy. The book affirms that to better understand the pleasure taken i
