Woensdag 12 maart vindt in het Bushuis aan de Kloveniersburgwal 48 (VOC/Heren 17 room) in Amsterdam een Mosse lezing plaats. Laura Zambelli, PhD aan de Universiteit van Milaan, verzorgt de lezing over BDSM in Italië, met hulp van Pieter Clays. De lezing duurt van 17.00 tot 19.00 uur en de voertaal is Engels (bron: persbericht). De inhoud van de lezing:
‘In this seminar I will focus on the Italian BDSM scene, as emerged from the fieldwork of my PhD research. After having defined what we mean in general with BDSM, I will focus on the Italian context. It is peculiar since notwithstanding the presence of a quite developed BDSM scene, there is no academic work about this topic. The presence of a patriarchal culture and the influence of the Catholic Church made this phenomenon quite hidden and showing controversial elements. On one side, BDSM could be a place where stereotypes could be deconstructed, on the other side, main stereotypes about gender roles present in Italian culture are reinforced again. The international feminist debate about BDSM is neither present in Italy. BDSM in Italy shows few links with the feminist movement. Related to the feminist debate and sexual revolution is the issue of polyamory; it appears that the interest in this practice is nowadays flourishing, especially in the BDSM scene. A particularity of Italy is the co-presence of BDSM and polyamory. In the debate on sexual citizenship and BDSM, the second is often seen as a boundary category for the first. Nevertheless, the debate on sexual citizenship and BDSM is absent in Italy.
The topic of negotiation, based on consent among practitioners, element on which these practices are constructed, will be discussed. In other Western contexts (e.g. US) it appears to be the core of BDSM: contracts are drawn and limits discussed. Differently, within the Italian context this negotiation is mainly implicit and happens during the play, showing some concerns about the continuum between consent and abuse. Another peculiarity regards the social and spatial segregation between homosexuals and heterosexuals within the BDSM scene. Nevertheless, younger generations of practitioners seem to show several differences with the ‘old guard’ with regards to the themes presented. More fluidity about roles within the game, labels to describe oneself and less concerns about their privacy, marking a generational difference in the scene, as elsewhere in Western culture.’
Laura Zambelli is a PhD Student in Applied Sociology and Methodology of Social Research at University of Milano Bicocca. She graduated in Political Science in Bologna with a thesis about the one-child-policy in China; she did her MA in Political Science in Turin with a thesis about the visibility of lesbians in Italy. She’s currently studying the BDSM scene in Italy for her PhD project. Her research interests are sociology of gender and sexuality, cultural studies, queer studies, methodology of social research, qualitative methods, and micro-sociology of interactions.
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