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101-639: When the NLA was formed, prosecutions against sadomasochistic media and even individuals who practiced it consensually and in private, such as in the 1990 UK Operation Spanner case, had increased. Organisations such as the National Leather Association were a response to this environment, and the NLA played a leading role in raising funds for the Spanner defendants. Competing in the 1986 International Mr. Leather (IML) contest inspired Steve Maidhof to organize

202-440: A bare-knuckle boxing match were found guilty of assault despite their consent to take part, and R v Donovan , a 1934 case in which a man was convicted of assault for caning a woman with her consent. After Judge Rant's ruling, the defendants changed their pleas to guilty, and were convicted on 7 November. The remainder of the trial was dedicated to sentencing. Beginning on 11 December 1990, prosecutor Michael Worsley QC detailed

303-451: A psychoanalyst and a contemporary of Krafft-Ebing, noted that both were often found in the same individuals, and combined the two into a single dichotomous entity known as "sadomasochism". French philosopher Gilles Deleuze argued that the concurrence of sadism and masochism proposed in Freud's model is the result of "careless reasoning," and should not be taken for granted. Freud introduced

404-770: A 'community,' 25 years ago. Today, we use the term as if we’ve always thought of all the myriad parts of our BDSM/kink/rubber/leather/fetish/whoozits groups as somehow connected. But it was NLA that gave us that truly radical notion--that the kinksters in Butte had something in common with the players in Raleigh, and with the clubs in New York City." Living in Leather thrived as an event, attracting more people each year as it moved from Seattle (LIL 1, 2, and 3) to Portland (LIL 4 and 5), and then Chicago (LIL 6 and 7). Attendance topped 700 and LIL became

505-516: A British court". The National Campaign for the Reform of the Obscene Publications Acts called the article "heavily propagandist" and filed an official complaint against Hames. On 19 December, Judge Rant sentenced the men, handing down eight prison sentences of between 12 months and 4 + 1 ⁄ 2 years. Passing the judgement, he said: Much has been said about individual liberty and

606-666: A case of a woman who submitted herself to the whipping and beating of the followers of Pan . Early libertine writers like John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester espoused ideals that modern times are associated with sadomasochism. The modern conceptualization of sadomasochism was introduced to the medical field by German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing in his 1886 compilation of case studies Psychopathia Sexualis . Pain and physical violence are not essential in Krafft-Ebing's conception, and he defined "masochism" (German Masochismus ) entirely in terms of control. Sigmund Freud ,

707-456: A code employed usually among gay male casual-sex seekers or BDSM practitioners in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe. Wearing the handkerchief on the left indicates the top, dominant, or active partner; right indicates the bottom, submissive, or passive partner. Negotiation with a prospective partner remains important as people may wear hankies of any color "only because the idea of

808-413: A conference for members of the growing SM, leather, and fetish community. Unlike IML, this conference would focus on education and political activism. To host this conference, named Living in Leather, Maidhof recruited several friends and leading members of Seattle 's leather community including: Cookie Andrews-Hunt, Wayne Gloege, Billy Jefferson, Jan Lyon, George Nelson, and Vik Stump. Together, they formed

909-505: A crackdown on gay pornography. Its critics accused it of having a Christian fundamentalist agenda, while the Lesbian and Gay Policing Association said its activities "damaged relations" between the LGBT community and the police. In October 1987, Greater Manchester Police acquired a videotape, codenamed 'KL7', depicting consensual sadomasochistic sexual activity between a group of men, including

1010-619: A disorder when the sexual interests cause no harm or distress. Sexual sadism disorder however, listed within the DSM-5, is where arousal patterns involving consenting and non‐consenting others are not distinguished. On 18 June 2018, the WHO ( World Health Organization ) published ICD-11 , in which sadomasochism, together with fetishism and fetishistic transvestism ( cross-dressing for sexual pleasure) were removed as psychiatric diagnoses. Moreover, discrimination against fetish-having and BDSM individuals

1111-439: A group whose "nucleus" of key members "corrupted" others into attending "sessions of violence", where sadistic "masters" assaulted submissive "victims". Despite criticism that this framing misrepresented the nature of sadomasochism, his words were echoed in the press, with The Daily Telegraph branding the group a "torture vice gang" and The Times identifying the "leaders of [a] vicious and perverted sex gang". Meanwhile,

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1212-421: A growing number of heterosexuals attended LIL conferences and joined the NLA, which became a pansexual organization. From its origins, the NLA was a meeting place for a diverse array of people exploring the boundaries of their sexuality. At the request of members living outside the United States, the organization changed its name to "National Leather Association - International" in 1991. The NLA helped organize

1313-487: A national conversation about the limits of consent and the role of government in sexual encounters between consenting adults. It also spawned two activist organisations dedicated to promoting the rights of sadomasochists: Countdown on Spanner and The Sexual Freedom Coalition , and an annual SM Pride March through Central London . In 1996, Countdown on Spanner received the Large Nonprofit Organization of

1414-691: A peripheral rivalry that has developed around the actual love-object. Rejection is not desired by a primary masochist in the same way feigned rejection occurring within a mutually consensual sadomasochistic relationship is, or during instances where the masochist is the one having actual initiative power . In Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World , René Girard attempts to resuscitate and reinterpret Freud's distinction of primary and secondary masochism, in connection with his own philosophy. People find sexual sadomasochism pleasurable for reasons dependent on

1515-644: A preference towards sadism. In contrast to frameworks seeking to explain and categorise sadomasochistic behaviours and desires through psychological, psychoanalytic, medical, or forensic approaches, Romana Byrne suggests that, in the context of sexual behaviours, such practices can be seen as examples of " aesthetic sexuality", in which a founding physiological or psychological impulse is irrelevant. Rather, according to Byrne, sadism and masochism may be practiced through choice and deliberation, driven by certain aesthetic goals tied to style, pleasure, and identity, which in certain circumstances, she claims can be compared with

1616-455: A recording of the episode and recognised their suspect in a sequence depicting a "special service of blessing" performed by a Church of England reverend for a gay couple. The man's joint deformity was visible in a close-up shot of his partner placing a ring onto his finger. A week later, on 7 April, police interviewed the man at a cafe in Evesham , and proceeded to search his home. He identified

1717-560: A report naming 43 individuals, of whom the Director of Public Prosecutions chose to prosecute 16 men for assault occasioning actual bodily harm , unlawful wounding and other offences related to consensual, private sadomasochistic sex sessions held in various locations between 1978 and 1987. A resulting House of Lords judgement, R v Brown , ruled that consent was not a valid legal defence for actual bodily harm in Britain. The case sparked

1818-421: A secondary masochism, by contrast, the masochist experiences a less serious, more feigned rejection and punishment by the model. Both Krafft-Ebing and Freud assumed that sadism in men resulted from the distortion of the aggressive component of the male sexual instinct. Masochism in men, however, was seen as a more significant aberration, contrary to the nature of male sexuality. Freud doubted that masochism in men

1919-499: A sequence in which one man passed a nail through a piercing in another man's foreskin and hammered it into a block of wood, before making a series of incisions into the man's penis with a scalpel. Greater Manchester Police launched an investigation into the KL7 tape and began looking for the men featured in the video. Their enquiries expanded as further tapes featuring whipping , spanking and wax play were seized, eventually leading to

2020-593: A store room at Scotland Yard and handed cash. Over the next two years, 13 officers were jailed, earning the Obscene Publications Squad its nickname: The Dirty Squad. In the wake of the scandal, officers of the Obscene Publications Squad were limited to two years of service, later extended to three, in an effort to combat corruption. The reformed squad allied itself with the socially conservative campaign group National Viewers' and Listeners' Association and its controversial founder Mary Whitehouse , with

2121-441: Is a portmanteau of the words sadism and masochism . These terms originate from the names of two authors whose works explored situations in which individuals experienced or inflicted pain or humiliation. Sadism is named after Marquis de Sade (1740–1814), whose major works include graphic descriptions of violent sex acts, rape, torture, and murder, and whose characters often derive pleasure from inflicting pain on others. Sade

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2222-425: Is an integral part of human culture. Some propose that it was already present among non-human primate and primitive human communities before emerging in ancient cultures. One of the oldest surviving narratives citing its practice is an Egyptian love song, sung by a man expressing a desire to be subjugated by a woman so he could experience pleasure as she treats him like a slave. Roman historian Juvenal described

2323-516: Is commemorated in the AIDS Quilt . NLA chapters are currently active in: Sadomasochism Sadism ( / ˈ s eɪ d ɪ z əm / ) and masochism ( / ˈ m æ s ə k ɪ z ə m / ), known collectively as sadomasochism ( / ˌ s eɪ d oʊ ˈ m æ s ə k ɪ z ə m / SAY -doh- MASS -ə-kiz-əm ) or S&M , is the derivation of pleasure from acts of respectively inflicting or receiving pain or humiliation . The term

2424-787: Is considered inconsistent with human rights principles endorsed by the United Nations and The World Health Organization . The classifications of sexual disorders reflect contemporary sexual norms and have moved from a model of pathologization or criminalization of non-reproductive sexual behaviors to a model that reflects sexual well-being and pathologizes the absence or limitation of consent in sexual relations. The ICD-11 classification, contrary to ICD-10 and DSM-5, clearly distinguishes consensual sadomasochistic behaviours (BDSM) that do not involve inherent harm to self or others from harmful violence on non‐consenting persons (coercive sexual sadism disorder). In this regard, "ICD-11 go[es] further than

2525-509: Is drowned out by the "abyss of the Other's subjectivity". Given that the "For-itself" desires to attain a point of view in which it is both subject and object, one strategy is to gather and intensify every feeling and posture in which the self appears as an object to be rejected, tested, and humiliated; in this way, the For-itself strives toward a point of view in which there is only one subjectivity in

2626-435: Is incidental and violence which is inflicted for the indulgence of cruelty. The violence of sadomasochistic encounters involves the indulgence of cruelty by sadists and the degradation of victims. ... Society is entitled and bound to protect itself against a cult of violence. Pleasure derived from the infliction of pain is an evil thing. Cruelty is uncivilised. In February 1997, three of the defendants took their case before

2727-462: Is named after the Marquis de Sade , a French author known for his violent and libertine works and lifestyle, and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch , an Austrian author who described masochistic tendencies in his works. Though sadomasochistic behaviours and desires do not necessarily need to be linked to sex, sadomasochism is also a definitive feature of consensual BDSM relationships. The word sadomasochism

2828-443: Is not diagnosed as a paraphilia unless such practices lead to clinically significant distress or impairment for the individual. Sadomasochism performed within the context of mutual and informed consent is distinguished from non-consensual acts of sexual violence or aggression. Individuals may identify as and partake in the sadistic, masochistic, or "switch" (performing both or changing) role. There have been occasions where

2929-639: The AIDS pandemic worsened their stigmatisation. The Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher made opposition to LGBT education a pillar of its 1987 general election campaign, issuing posters accusing the Labour Party of promoting the book Young, Gay and Proud in British schools. At that year's Conservative Party Conference, Thatcher warned that children were being taught "that they have an inalienable right to be gay". In 1988, Section 28 of

3030-546: The Crown Prosecution Service said were "rare, except in cases where injuries were allegedly inflicted for a false insurance claim". In addition, one man was charged with bestiality and two were charged in relation to an indecent photograph of a child . On 9 October 1989, the men appeared before Camberwell Magistrates' Court to face the charges against them. They were remanded to reappear at Lambeth Magistrates' Court on 20 November. The charges brought against

3131-700: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) has always been separate; sadism was included in the DSM-I in 1952, while masochism was added in the DSM-II in 1968. Contemporary psychology continues to identify sadism and masochism separately, and categorizes them as either practised as a lifestyle, or as a medical condition. The current version of the American Psychiatric Association 's manual, DSM-5 , excludes consensual BDSM from diagnosis as

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3232-577: The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg , arguing that their convictions had violated their right to "respect for their private lives through the expression of their sexual personality" as guaranteed by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights . In a landmark ruling, nine judges upheld that the laws under which the men were convicted were " necessary in a democratic society for

3333-471: The Local Government Act prohibited local authorities from "intentionally promoting homosexuality". The measure received broad support from Conservative MPs including Peter Bruinvels , who commented that "Clause 28 will help outlaw [homosexuality] and the rest will be done by AIDS". In the years that followed, further legislation was proposed to discriminate against LGBT foster carers and to increase

3434-576: The Samois award for anthology. Past recipients include, among others, Laura Antoniou , Gloria Brame , Rachel Kramer Bussel , Jack Fritscher , Gayle Rubin , David Stein, Cecilia Tan , Tristan Taormino and L M Somerton . In 2019 NLA-I created the Erotic Art Awards. The categories are: Chéri Hérouard - Realism, Clovis Trouille - Surrealism , Gene Bilbrew - Animation, Aubrey Beardsley - Abstract, and Michael Kirwan - Expressionism . In 1992

3535-489: The "Contract": the process by which he can control another individual and turn the individual into someone cold and callous. The sadist, in contrast, derives pleasure from the "Law": the unavoidable power that places one person below another. The sadist attempts to destroy the ego in an effort to unify the Freudian id and super-ego , gratifying the most base desires the sadist can express while ignoring or completely suppressing

3636-516: The 2020s is thought to have increased with the prevalence of easily accessible hardcore pornography and a decrease in social taboo surrounding the subject. In 1995, Denmark became the first European Union country to have completely removed sadomasochism from its national classification of diseases. This was followed by Sweden in 2009, Norway in 2010, Finland in 2011 and Iceland in 2015. Medical opinion of sadomasochistic activities has changed over time. The classification of sadism and masochism in

3737-511: The British consulate in Chicago and spearheaded American fundraising activities that raised more than $ 50,000 and paid more than half the Operation Spanner defendants' legal expenses. Befitting the recent name change to NLA-International, the NLA began acting internationally. In the late 1990s, the NLA's leaders increasingly struggled to redefine their organization to meet the changing needs of

3838-677: The Large Event of the Year award as part of the Pantheon of Leather Awards . The NLA fought against censorship, raised awareness about domestic violence, supported SM/leather clubs and people harassed by the police, and raised funds for local and national political causes. Chuck Higgins led the NLA's best known initiative of these years: raising funds for the appeal of the Operation Spanner defendants, 18 British men convicted and imprisoned for engaging in consensual SM activities. NLA members demonstrated outside

3939-637: The Leather Pride flag, and the union of Leather people for which it stands, with safety, sanity and consent for all.” As well, the Dallas chapter hosted LIL in 2002, but this proved the last LIL. Lacking leadership and direction, the organization neared collapse over the next two years, but its local chapters kept it afloat, particularly those in Columbus, Dallas, New England, and Oklahoma City. A succession of interim presidents stabilized NLA-I and paid off its debt, paving

4040-544: The Metropolitan Police sought to replace the head of the squad, Detective Superintendent Leslie Bennett, after he was found to have used the Police National Computer to look up the license plate of his ex-wife's new partner. Over the course of the investigation, in excess of 400 videotapes were seized, though a large number of these were commercial releases, and in some cases non-pornographic. The cost of

4141-480: The NLA a presence in practically every major U.S. city. At its peak, the NLA (later NLAI) had chapters in every major American city including New York, Chicago, Detroit, Seattle, Portland, and Los Angeles, as well as Vancouver and Toronto in Canada. The NLA aimed to bridge gaps of geography, experience, gender, and sexual orientation. As Laura Antoniou recently noted: "It was NLA that dared to believe we could call ourselves

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4242-537: The NLA received the Large Nonprofit Organization of the Year award as part of the Pantheon of Leather Awards. In 1993 Pride Night by NLA: Metro New York, The Eulenspiegel Society , Excelsior MC, GMS/MA, and LSM received the Large Event of the Year award as part of the Pantheon of Leather Awards. In 1994 Living in Leather VIII received the Large Event of the Year award as part of the Pantheon of Leather Awards. The NLA

4343-509: The National Leather Association (NLA), which officially incorporated in the summer of 1986. In October, they hosted the first Living in Leather (LIL) conference in Seattle. It was a rousing success that inspired SM/leather activism around the country. LIL became an annual event and sparked the formation of NLA chapters in Vancouver and Portland . While publicly described as a gay/lesbian organization,

4444-509: The Old Bailey began on 29 October 1990 before Judge James Rant . The judge heard legal arguments from some of the accused that they could not be guilty because everyone involved had consented to what took place. However, Judge Rant rejected the argument and ruled that consent was not a defence, commenting that "people must sometimes be protected from themselves". His decision relied heavily on R v Coney , an 1882 case in which participants in

4545-502: The Pantheon of Leather Awards. On 28 November, the inaugural SM Pride parade was held, with more than 700 people marching through Central London. In 1995, the Spanner Trust was established to provide assistance to the Spanner defendants, lobby for a change in British law to legalise sadomasochism, and provide assistance to any person subjected to discrimination because of their consensual sexual behaviour. That December, following

4646-496: The Psychology of Sex , argued that there is no clear distinction between the aspects of sadism and masochism, and that they may be regarded as complementary emotional states. He states that sadomasochism is concerned only with pain in regard to sexual pleasure, and not in regard to cruelty, as Freud had suggested. He believed the sadomasochist generally desires that the pain and violence be inflicted or received in love, not in abuse, for

4747-584: The SM/leather/fetish community. New organizations filled needs previously met by the NLA. The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (which the NLA was one of the founding coalition partners of) helped members of sexual minorities with legal problems, while the Leather Leadership Conference provided a forum for political discussion and activism. Attendance at both LIL 14 (Fort Lauderdale, 1999) and LIL 15 (Seattle, 2000) proved disappointing, and

4848-634: The Shropshire address, sniffer dogs were taken around the property's garden, with police claiming to have reason to think that individuals may have been killed during the making of the tapes. Activists and defence lawyers later questioned the likelihood of the men's consensual home sex videos being mistaken for snuff films , leading Detective Superintendent Michael Hames of the Obscene Publications Squad to admit that he could not explain how such an error could have been made. Nonetheless, he later insisted, "such reckless and escalating violence, left unchecked,

4949-567: The World Health Organization, on June 18, 2018, removed Fetishism, Transvestic Fetishism, and Sadomasochism as psychiatric diagnoses. According to Anil Aggrawal , in forensic science , levels of sexual sadism and masochism are classified as follows: Sexual masochists: Sexual sadists: The difference between I–II and III–IV is consent. Sadomasochism is a subset of BDSM , a variety of erotic practices including bondage , discipline , dominance, and submission. Sadomasochism

5050-592: The Year award as part of the Pantheon of Leather Awards. The 1980s was a period of rising negative sentiments towards homosexuality in Britain, peaking in 1987 when the British Social Attitudes Survey found that 75% of the population thought that homosexual activity was always or mostly wrong. That year, a high-profile public information campaign Don't Die of Ignorance saw the delivery of an educational leaflet about HIV/AIDS to every household in Britain. The association of gay and bisexual men with

5151-532: The activities involved was "immaterial". However, Lord Lane acknowledged that the men did not appreciate that their acts were criminal, and therefore reduced five of the prison sentences handed down by Judge Rant, cutting the longest down to six months. Lord Lane granted the men leave to appeal to the House of Lords , which at the time was the UK's highest court of appeal, saying there was a "general public importance" in settling

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5252-405: The age of 15, while the majority of females (78%) developed their interest afterwards. The prevalence of sadomasochism within the general population is unknown. Despite female sadists being less visible than males, some surveys have resulted in comparable amounts of sadistic fantasies between females and males. The results of such studies indicate that one's sex may not be the determining factor for

5353-468: The case should not have been brought to trial, including the fact that no complaint was ever made to police, no serious or permanent injuries resulted from the activities, and participation in the acts was controlled, and limited to those wishing to take part. The appeal was dismissed by a 3–2 majority of the Lords, with Lord Templeman declaring that: In principle there is a difference between violence which

5454-626: The changes made for DSM-5 … in the removal of disorders diagnosed based on consenting behaviors that are not in and of themselves associated with distress or functional impairment." In Europe, an organization called ReviseF65 worked to remove sadomasochism from the ICD. On commission from the WHO ICD-11 Working Group on Sexual Disorders and Sexual Health, ReviseF65 in 2009 and 2011 delivered reports documenting that sadomasochism and sexual violence are two different phenomena. The report concluded that

5555-472: The character of Severin has become embittered by his experiment in the alleged control of masochism, and advocates instead the domination of women. René Girard included his account of sadomasochism in Things Hidden Since the Foundation of The World ( 1978), placing masochism as a coherent part of his theory of mimetic desire . In this view of sadomasochism, the violence involved is an expression of

5656-524: The conference created a new organization named Safe Sane Consensual Adults (SSCA). Burdened by the political infighting of Dallas, the SSCA failed to gain support and merged with the NLA, the only functioning, national BDSM organization. Over the past 26 years, roughly three dozen NLA chapters formed, though only about a dozen of these are currently active. In 1989, a deaf chapter of the NLA called “NLA: Deaf Chapter”, which eventually became International Deaf Leather,

5757-461: The course of the investigation. Two further raids were carried out on 16 November, at homes in Welwyn Garden City and Hampstead . That month, the first reports of the investigation appeared in the gay press. One man questioned by police in relation to Operation Spanner told Him magazine that officers were working from a diary seized during an earlier raid, and had mentioned snuff films in

5858-449: The course of their questioning. An officer with Greater Manchester Police denied that the operation was related to snuff films but went on to falsely speculate that the investigation may be connected to an unsolved 1985 murder in Leeds . By the beginning of 1988, police still did not know the identities of the two men on the KL7 tape, despite having unknowingly interviewed the man who filmed

5959-410: The creation of art. Surveys from the 2000s on the spread of sadomasochistic fantasies and practices show strong variations in the range of their results. Nonetheless, researchers assumed that 5 to 25 percent of the population practices sexual behavior related to pain or dominance and submission. The population with related fantasies is believed to be even larger. Interest in sexual sadomasochism in

6060-466: The defence argued for the consideration of a number of mitigating factors , including the fact that all those involved had consented to what took place, that they were all above the age of consent , and that none had at any time sought or required medical treatment. Anna Worrall QC, representing one of the defendants, objected to a number of points raised by the prosecution, including the HIV status of some of

6161-469: The defendants was hospitalised with broken wrists after allegedly being pushed to the ground and kicked by press photographers as he left the court. Two days before Judge Rant was due to sentence the men, Detective Superintendent Michael Hames, head of the Obscene Publications Squad, published an article in the Daily Mail in which he called the defendants "the most horrific porn ring ever to appear before

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6262-418: The defendants' behaviour, which he characterised as "brute homosexual activity in sinister circumstances, about as far removed as can be imagined from the concept of human love". He explained that the state's evidence came not only from the men's own testimony, but also the many home videos seized during the investigation, though he conceded that these tapes had not been intended for distribution. He described

6363-431: The feeling of power and authority that comes from performing a dominant role or from receiving pleasure vicariously through the suffering of the masochist. Sexual sadomasochistic desires can appear at any age. Some individuals report having had them before puberty, while others do not discover them until well into adulthood. According to a 1985 study, the majority of male sadomasochists (53%) developed their interest before

6464-545: The government £12 million, and the resulting prison terms an estimated £5.5 million. The Obscene Publications Squad was a branch of the Metropolitan Police tasked with enforcing obscenity law , most notably the Obscene Publications Act 1959 , which forbade the distribution of any article that "[tended] to deprave and corrupt" those who encountered it. In 1976, following a three-year internal inquiry, it

6565-576: The groundwork for the widely accepted medical perspective in the following decades. This led to the first compound usage of the terminology in Sado-Masochism (Loureiroian "Sado-Masochismus") by the Viennese psychoanalyst Isidor Isaak Sadger in his work Über den sado-masochistischen Komplex ("Regarding the sadomasochistic complex") in 1913. In the later 20th century, BDSM activists protested against these ideas , because, they argued, they were based on

6666-531: The group and identifying themselves on the seized tapes, unaware that they may have broken the law. Further raids were carried out on 10 November in Pontypridd , where a large quantity of sadomasochistic paraphernalia was seized, and on 11 November in Birmingham . The same day, the offices of the gay magazine Sir were raided. Other contact magazines including Gay Galaxy and Corporal Contacts were also raided during

6767-526: The hankie turns them on" or they "may not even know what it means". Operation Spanner Operation Spanner was a police investigation into same-sex male sadomasochism across the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. The investigation, led by the Obscene Publications Squad of the Metropolitan Police , began in 1987 and ran for three years, during which approximately 100 gay and bisexual men were questioned by police. The investigation culminated in

6868-482: The head of the squad becoming an annual speaker at Whitehouse's fringe meeting at the Conservative Party Conference throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. The squad gained significant notoriety during this period for its role in the ' video nasties ' moral panic—during which its officers raided video rental shops and seized horror films such as Evil Dead II and The Driller Killer —as well as

6969-399: The individual. For some masochists, taking on a role of compliance or helplessness offers an escape from the stresses of life, responsibility, or guilt. For others, being under the power of a strong, controlling presence may evoke the feelings of safety and protection associated with childhood. Others may derive satisfaction from earning the approval of a controlling figure. A sadist may enjoy

7070-429: The investigation was estimated at £2.5 million. Police were unable to find any participants who had not consented to the activities which took place, nor any who sustained lasting injuries. In September 1989, sixteen men were charged with more than 100 offences including assault occasioning actual bodily harm and unlawful wounding. Several were charged with aiding and abetting assaults against themselves, charges which

7171-490: The involvement of sixteen police forces including West Mercia Police and West Yorkshire Police . A meeting was held to discuss the organisational structure of the expanded probe, and it was decided that the Obscene Publications Squad of the Metropolitan Police should lead the investigation, now called Operation Spanner. On 4 November 1987, raids were carried out at the homes of men in Bolton , Shrewsbury and Shropshire . At

7272-403: The judiciary had "effectively imposed its morality on others" and argued the "unrepresentative make-up of the judiciary makes it ill-equipped to do this". The Pink Paper branded the case a homophobic "show trial" designed to "get a clear ruling on the illegality of S&M sex, especially amongst gay men". On 16 February 1991, an estimated 5,000 people marched through Central London to protest

7373-545: The latter event left the NLA deeply in debt. Membership fell, and LIL 16 was canceled for lack of registration. Morale plummeted. A ballot initiative to dissolve the NLA failed, but solutions to the NLA's problems proved elusive. However, one notable relevant positive event occurred at this time, when on December 12, 2000, NLA Florida presented a suggested pledge of allegiance to the leather pride flag at its holiday party in Fort Lauderdale , which reads, “I pledge allegiance to

7474-470: The law has focussed on the violent aspects of sadomasochistic behaviour while neglecting consensual sexual practices, such as during a case in England where 15 men were tried for a range of offences relating to sadomasochism. ( See also: Legality of BDSM ) Larry Townsend 's 1983 edition of The Leatherman's Handbook II states that a black handkerchief is a symbol for sadomasochism in the handkerchief code ,

7575-581: The leather conference that preceded the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights . Along with the creation of the NLA itself, that conference sparked the infamous Dallas Conference, which met in February 1988 to discuss creating a national SM/leather/fetish organization. Best remembered for vitriolic arguments that exposed divisions in the community between men and women, the East Coast and West Coast, old clubs and new, and those not affiliated with any club,

7676-577: The men included conspiracy charges, which as indictable-only offences can only be heard in Crown Court , so the case was referred to the Old Bailey . The fact that these charges were later dropped led to accusations that the government viewed the trial as a test case , and intentionally sought to have it heard in Crown Court, where legal precedent could be set in the event of a guilty verdict. The trial at

7777-415: The men, and the fact that police had taken sniffer dogs to the Shropshire raid, supposedly to search for buried bodies. She warned that "the world's press is listening to this" and that sensationalist reporting might "increase the punishment" of the defendants. Both details were indeed widely reported, with The Independent noting the men's HIV statuses in an article by Nick Cohen . Also widely reported

7878-404: The other man on the KL7 tape, and a raid was carried out on that man's Broadway home the same day. As the case began to come together, reporters were briefed that Operation Spanner "could be dealt with at the Old Bailey ", prompting speculation that indictable-only offences would be brought against the men. The Obscene Publications Squad continued to build their case throughout 1989, even as

7979-616: The outcome of the Spanner trial, as well as the proposed Clause 25 of the Criminal Justice Bill, which would have raised the penalties for cruising and cottaging . On 13 April, thousands more protested the same issues at the Liberation '91 march in Manchester . In August 1992, the campaign group Countdown on Spanner was formed in an effort to reverse the Court of Appeal ruling, and "demand

8080-516: The penalties for cruising . Although male homosexuality had been partially decriminalised in England and Wales in 1967, the offence of gross indecency was still widely used to criminalise sexual activity between men. An investigation by Gay Times found that police in England and Wales recorded 2,022 such offences in 1989, the highest rate since decriminalisation. That year, 30% of all convictions for sexual offences in England and Wales concerned consensual gay sex, with such prosecutions costing

8181-699: The philosophies of the two psychiatrists, Freud and Krafft-Ebing, whose theories were built on the assumption of psychopathology and their observations of psychiatric patients . Nomenclature in previous editions of the DSM referring to sexual psychopathology have been criticized as lacking scientific veracity. The DSM-V , however, has depathologized the language around paraphilias in a way that signifies "the APA's intent to not demand treatment for healthy consenting adult sexual expression". Sadomasochism has been practiced since ancient times with some scholars suggesting that it

8282-416: The pleasure of either one or both participants. This mutual pleasure may be essential for the satisfaction of those involved. Jean-Paul Sartre linked the pleasure or power experienced by a sadist in appraising the masochist victim to his philosophy of the "Look of the Other" . Sartre argued that masochism is an attempt by the "For-itself" (consciousness) to reduce itself to nothing, becoming an object that

8383-433: The premier event for SM education and organizing and attracted the community's best-known speakers and leaders. A particularly notable LIL event was held on October 11, 1991; at the opening ceremonies of that event, a Canadian version of the leather pride flag was presented, which added to the original flag's design a row of red maple leaves running horizontally through the white stripe. In 1994 Living in Leather VIII received

8484-631: The protection of health". The ruling followed pleas by the British government for the European Court to give greater consideration to individual nations' particular social mores. There was immediate criticism of the investigation and trial in 1990, with the Gay London Policing Group describing the sentences as "outrageous" and Andrew Puddephat, general secretary of Liberty , calling for a "right to privacy enshrined in law". Keir Starmer said

8585-527: The question of whether the prosecution must prove that a victim did not consent before it could obtain a conviction for assault or wounding. In March 1993, the five defendants appealed their case to the House of Lords. Ann Mallalieu QC , for the defence, argued that interfering in the private lives of consenting adults was justified only in cases where "private activity spills over into the public domain with adverse effects". She went on to list several reasons why

8686-404: The recognition that sadomasochism is a valid, sensual and legitimate part of human sexuality". The following month, it began publishing the newsletter Spanner People, and staged a public demonstration calling on Detective Superintendent Michael Hames, head of the Obscene Publications Squad, to resign. In 1996 Countdown on Spanner received the Large Nonprofit Organization of the Year award as part of

8787-438: The relationship, being both that of the abuser and the abused. Conversely, Sartre held sadism to be the effort to annihilate the subjectivity of the victim, meaning the sadist is exhilarated by the emotional distress of the victim because they seek a subjectivity that views the victim as both subject and object. In his 1967 essay Coldness and Cruelty (originally French " Présentation de Sacher-Masoch "), Gilles Deleuze rejects

8888-555: The rights people have to do what they want with their own bodies, but the courts must draw the line between what is acceptable in a civilised society and what is not. In this case, the practices clearly lie on the wrong side of that line. Five of the defendants appealed to the Court of Appeal in February 1992. Three judges, headed by the Lord Chief Justice Lord Lane , upheld the men's convictions, ruling that their consent to

8989-988: The sadomasochism diagnosis was outdated, non-scientific, and stigmatizing. The ICD-11 classification considers Sadomasochism as a variant in sexual arousal and private behavior without appreciable public health impact and for which treatment is neither indicated nor sought. Further, the ICD-11 guidelines "respect the rights of individuals whose atypical sexual behavior is consensual and not harmful." WHO's ICD-11 Working Group admitted that psychiatric diagnoses have been used to harass, silence, or imprison sadomasochists. Labeling as such may create harm, convey social judgment, and exacerbate existing stigma and violence to individuals so labeled. According to ICD-11, psychiatric diagnoses can no longer be used to discriminate against BDSM people and fetishists. Based on advances in research and clinical practice, and major shifts in social attitudes and in relevant policies, laws, and human rights standards",

9090-445: The scene the previous November. Though no faces were visible on the tape, the Obscene Publications Squad attempted to identify one of the men by a distinctive joint deformity on the index finger of his left hand, distributing a still image of the finger to police forces across the UK. On 29 March, an officer with Hampshire Constabulary reported that he had spotted the man on that week's episode of Panorama . Detectives consulted

9191-474: The term "sadomasochism" as artificial, especially in the context of Sacher-Masoch's Venus In Furs . Deleuze's counterargument is that the tendency toward masochism is based on intensified desire brought on or enhanced by the acting out of frustration at the delay of gratification. Taken to its extreme, an intolerably indefinite delay is 'rewarded' by punitive perpetual delay, manifested as unwavering coldness. The masochist derives pleasure from, as Deleuze puts it,

9292-562: The terms sadism and masochism into clinical use in his work Neue Forschungen auf dem Gebiet der Psychopathia sexualis ("New research in the area of Psychopathology of Sex") in 1890. The terms were first selected for identifying human behavioral phenomena and for the classification of psychological illnesses or deviant behavior. In 1905, Sigmund Freud described sadism and masochism in his Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie ("Three Papers on Sexual Theory") as stemming from aberrant psychological development from early childhood. He also laid

9393-407: The terms "primary" and "secondary" masochism. Though this idea has come under a number of interpretations, in a primary masochism the masochist undergoes a complete, rather than partial, rejection by the model or courted object (or sadist), possibly involving the model taking a rival as a preferred mate . This complete rejection is related to the death drive ( Todestrieb ) in Freud's psychoanalysis. In

9494-700: The way for renewed growth in chapters and membership. Since then, the organization has rebounded thanks for new members and chapters. In 2007 NLA-I inaugurated awards for excellence in SM/fetish/leather writing. The categories are: the Geoff Mains award for non-fiction book, the Cynthia Slater award for non-fiction article, the Pauline Reage award for fiction novel, the John Preston award for short fiction and

9595-406: The will of the ego or conscience. Thus, Deleuze attempts to argue that masochism and sadism arise from such different impulses that the combination of the two terms is meaningless and misleading. A masochist's perception of their own self-subjugating sadistic desires and capacities are treated by Deleuze as reactions to prior experience of sadistic objectification. The epilogue of Venus In Furs shows

9696-417: Was Judge Rant's "horror" at having to watch the videotapes admitted into evidence. He requested an adjournment after going "white in the face" during one viewing, and responded to a question about a sequence from the KL7 tape by saying, "I am not likely to have forgotten that film. I don't think any of us is likely to forget that particular film". At the end of the first day of the sentencing hearing, one of

9797-411: Was bound to lead to someone getting killed". Those interviewed during the raids described a loose knit circle of men who met through advertisements in gay contact magazines and gathered regularly in various locations for sadomasochistic sex sessions , some of which were recorded to video and shared among the group. Most cooperated fully with the police's enquiries, acknowledging their involvement in

9898-457: Was ever a primary tendency, and speculated that it may exist only as a transformation of sadism. Sadomasochism in women received comparatively little discussion, as it was believed that it occurred primarily in men. Krafft-Ebing and Freud also assumed that masochism was so inherent to female sexuality that it would be difficult to distinguish as a separate inclination. Havelock Ellis , in Studies in

9999-423: Was founded by Michael Felts , Philip Rubin, Bob Donaldson, Rolf Hagton, Jim Dunne, Bobby Andrascik and Charles Wilkinson. International Deaf Leather ended in 2021. The merger with the SSCA sparked a tremendous increase in the NLA's membership, which by the end of 1991 had grown to 827 members scattered across 46 US states and parts of Canada. Chapters increased from three to 16 and new ones continued to form, giving

10100-493: Was imprisoned multiple times for sexual crimes following affairs in which he inflicted and/or received pain during sex, hence engaging in sadomasochism himself. Masochism is named after Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1836–1895), whose novels explored his masochistic fantasies of receiving pain and degradation, particularly his novel Venus im Pelz (" Venus in Furs "). German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902) introduced

10201-456: Was revealed that the squad had been running a protection racket over the Soho sex industry for at least two decades, with Detective Superintendent William Moody alone receiving an estimated £25,000 a year in bribes. Prosecutors described a systemically corrupt organisation in which new recruits were coerced into attending 'Friday night shareouts', during which officers would be taken one by one into

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