Professional+Domination

= Sex work and BDSM in the US: Professional Domination =

**[[image:domme.jpeg width="238" height="375" align="right" link="@http://www.washingtonian.com/blogs/capitalcomment/images/2012-06-01-dominatrix4498.jpg"]]Overview**
BDSM stands for bondage/discipline, dominance/submission, and sadism/masochism. Professional Dominatrices (pro-dommes) are those who receive money to physically and verbally dominate clients (Lindemann, 2010). Professional domination is considered the giving of physical and psychological pain for erotic pleasure, in trade of money. Those who are not as familiar with professional domination consider it to be prostitution, the current academic literature considers professional domination to be erotic labor because “real” sessions do not include oral sex, manual sex, and intercourse (Williams & Storm, 2012). Although professional domination is the most usual form of for-profit BDSM work, there are also professional submissives (pro-subs) and professional switches (pro-switches). This wiki will not delve into these other categories because they are not very common and there is little information on them.

**Legality**
The legal status of professional domination has not been decided upon; there is a lack of legal consensus and decision regarding the practice. This allows for individual interpretation. For example, police officers who come upon a pro-domme and client scene may not understand what is happening and therefore see that the flogging is harmful and should be stopped and prosecuted against. Ridinger (2006) argues that there will not be a single legal rule concerning this practice until there is legal ruling on the concepts of consent, privacy, and protection, most likely through a redefinition via court case decisions. (Ridinger, 2006).

==**A Scene**== A session is when a pro-domme and client enact a scene typically involving spanking, flogging, verbal humiliation, bondage, and/or cross-dressing (Lindemann, 2010). In an upstanding session, these activities will be safe, sane, and consensual (SSC), or risk aware consensual kink (RACK). These scenes will usually be held in themed rooms. The most common room will have a spanking bench and/or St. Andrew’s cross in which a person is restrained in a spread eagle position. In a dungeon, there are a number of themed rooms, the most common resembling a medieval dungeon, and others including a classroom and medical examination room.

**A Business Interaction**
As Lindemann (2010) found in her study, there are two types of pro-dommes, those who work in dungeons and those who work independently. Her primary sample in this study included independents, who referred to themselves as “indies,” therefore the following information is through the indies point of view. The indies typically were in the profession for longer, have gained an upstanding reputation, and have a client following in their profession as compared to dungeon dommes. Many times indies began their careers by working in dungeons. Dungeon dommes, are many times referred to as “hoochies” by indies because they tend to be focussed entirely on financial gain. These dungeon domes are more likely than indies to lack expertise, be economically motivated, watch the clock, be less motivated by having honor in the profession, not as focused on the art of domination, and engage in sexual acts (LIndemann, 2010). In San Francisco and New York City, during 2010, an Indie charged on average $250 while a session with a Dungeon Domme cost around $200, of which, the Dungeon Domme would take home about half (Williams & Storm, 2012).

**The Client**
A typical client was described as a well educated, upper-middle class, white man in a position of power. One way to explain why these powerful men seek pro-domme services is called the Spiderman Effect, which states that with great power comes great responsibility – pro-dommes commonly argue that clients in high-status occupations pay them for the relief of having the burden of power temporarily removed (Lindemann, 2011).

**As Therapy**
Current academic literature by Lindemann (2011) supports the changing societal belief that professional domination is not a psychopathology and is instead psychologically healthy. Instead of an underlying mental disorder, many of the more experienced and educated pro-dommes see their work as therapeutic to their clients. These therapeutic scenes are of three types: penance for misdeeds, humiliation, and race play. When a client feels guilty about something, a scene is set up so that they pay penance for whatever they did to feel guilty. For example, the client and pro-domme loosely script the scene to be a domestic discipline scene. The pro-domme may take on the role of the wife or mother and use corporal punishment to “punish” the client so that they are able to free themselves of their guilt. Instead of seeking atonement from the wrongs they did, clients in a humiliation scene relive the wrongs that were done to them. These sencees usually follow a humiliation script in which the pro-domme provides a safe environment for the client to relive the traumatic event on his own terms, and therefore take the first step to work past the trauma. A race play scene is similar to a humiliation scene in that the client is able to work through a traumatic event on their own terms, however, these scenes take on their own category because the nature of the issue is racially based. New York Dommes in Lindemann’s study (2011) were more likely than San Francisco dommes to see men of color asking for race scenes. These scenes tended to include clients who were Black, Hsipanic, Indian, and Hasidic Jews. As one pro-domme in San Francisco said, “Of course it’s therapeutic! It’s not therapeutic to, like, hide a part of yourself forever because society says it’s wrong” (Lindemann, 2011).

Written by Sarah McMurchie 4/29/2014

Lindemann, D. (2010). Will the real dominatrix please stand up: artistic purity and professionalism in the s & m dungeon. //Sociological Forum//, 25(3), 588-606. doi:10.1111/j.1573-7861.2010.01197.x

Lindemann, D. (2011). BDSM as therapy?. //Sexualitie//s, 14(2), 151-172. doi:10.1177/1363460711399038

Ridinger, R. B. (2006). Negotiating limits: the legal status of sm in the United States. //Journal of Homosexuality//, 50(2/3), 189-216.

Williams, D. J., & Storm, L. (2012). Unconventional leisure and career: insights into the work of professional dominatrices. //Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality//, 151. Retrieved from http://www.ejhs.org/volume15/BDSM.html