John Klein wrote: >On Tue, 15 Feb 2005, Charmian wrote: > >@> But this makes it in some ways less interesting, because IRL s/m is >@> generally understood as a psychological trait/taste preference, rather >@> than a biological thing. > >You know, I think most of the BDSM enthusiasts I know would disagree with >you. Although, honestly, it's difficult or perhaps even impossible to >disentagle genetic predisposition from behavioral conditioning anyway. > > With respect, most BDSM enthusiasts are not credible sources of information about the psychology of their enthusiasms. There is a significant membership overlap between Usenet sexual abuse recovery newsgroups and BDSM newsgroups. This overlap is either never discussed or its interest hotly denied, sometimes to the point of absurdity -- I recall at least one claim that the poster's abuse had *nothing to do* with their BDSM interests, while discussing a 'scene' that closely replicated the circumstances of the abuse as described in the recovery newsgroup. pe