Pat Califia's A Secret Side Of Lesbian Sexuality

The lesbian feminism group in the late 90s largely rejected the concept of sadomasochism due to its highlight of passive and dominating roles mirroring heterosexual couples. It was also seen as an inequality of power among them. Pat Califia, an important figure in the pro-sex movement and a strong proponent of sadomasochism, was one of the founders of Samois, an organization about sadomasochism groups. In her excerpt, “A Secret Side of Lesbian Sexuality”, she unravels the ‘true’ meaning of the practice and outlines in detail the necessary requirements to attain the highest degree of pleasure without giving one’s self up. She argues that it was not a subversive of dominant power controls, but basically an unconventional sexual practice to give the supposed ‘powerless’ participant the utmost gratification. She had two reasons for revealing such intimate moments concerning her sexual behavior. …show more content…
Secondly, her disclosure serves to dispel inaccuracies about the practice being related to pornography, and as a form of violence against women. Indeed, pornography is the depiction of erotic behaviors intended to excite sexual behaviors. If SM were a form of pornography, then any other sexual acts would also be considered pornographic. As for the assertion of violence, SM does play with a dominant and a submissive theme, but the difference is that top is not meant to instill a sense of fearful domination- it is meant to adhere to the desires of the receiver. Not only does Califia feel that SM has the capabilities to deconstruct preconceived ideas of organizations of power, she thinks it also challenges and exposes the corruption of