--- Paul Echeverri <gomi at pollywog.com> wrote: > 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. Also, speaking of sf, Samuel Delany said in one of his essays that the causes of S&M are pretty well understood, and many sadists and masochists had a clear idea of how they got that way. So somebody's wrong here (but it could be Delany). Jerry Friedman __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - You care about security. So do we. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail