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9780822351597

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I cannot emphasize enough how vital the analysis in Techniques of Pleasure is. Margot Weiss reveals the half-lie of 'safe space' in the BDSM world and, in doing so, artfully unveils the half-lies that propel ideas of 'agency' and 'choice' in neoliberal culture. Annalee Newitz, author of Pretend We're Dead: Capitalist Monsters in American Popular Culture Techniques of Pleasure is a wonderful, theoretically significant, and ethnographically rich book. Margot Weiss contextualizes the development of the Bay Area's BDSM scene, analyzing contemporary BDSM as bio-political practice. Examining the complex connections between discipline and freedom, subject formation and subjugation, power and play, Weiss extends feminist and queer theoretical debates about identity, community, sexuality, gender, race, and the nature of power. This book breaks new theoretical ground in relation not only to BDSM but also to questions of personhood, political economy, and embodiment in late capitalism. David Valentine, author of Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category Techniques of Pleasure, Weiss' book-length investigation of San Francisco's kink community, although there are other examples, ranging from father-daughter incest to Nazi guard-prisoner scenarios. These encounters aren't described in much detail - instead, they're used as passing evidence of the depths of politically incorrect play that she observed, or heard about, during the three years spent observing this world. Tracy Clark-Flory, Salon

I cannot emphasize enough how vital the analysis in Techniques of Pleasure is. Margot Weiss reveals the half-lie of 'safe space' in the BDSM world and, in doing so, artfully unveils the half-lies that propel ideas of 'agency' and 'choice' in neoliberal culture. --Annalee Newitz, author of Pretend We're Dead: Capitalist Monsters in American Popular Culture

Author Information

Margot Weiss is Assistant Professor of American Studies and Anthropology at Wesleyan University.

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