Bound to be Free: The SM Experience. - book reviews

Journal of Sex Research, Feb, 1998 by Robert Bienvenu

By Charles Moser & JJ Madeson. New York: Continuum, 1996, 209 pages. Cloth, $24.95.

Reviewed by Robert Bienvenu, M.A., Doctoral Candidate, Department of Sociology, Indiana University, Ballantine Hall 744, Bloomington, IN 47403. E-mail: bienven@indiana.edu.

Once addressed almost exclusively through academic and moral discourse, in recent years sexual subcultures have developed their own voice in a variety of media. The two works reviewed here make distinct contributions to the literature on "alternate" sexualities. Alternate Sources gathers in one user-friendly database more than 10,000 current and historical references that are related to "kinky" sexualities. Bound to be Free: The SM Experience is a recent addition to an emerging body of published works about SM written from a practitioner perspective. The book provides a first-person introduction to SM as it is experienced (literally) by practitioners in 4' the subculture today. Although neither is a conventional scholarly work, in different ways Alternate Sources and Bound to be Free can be of use to educators, academic researchers, and other professionals who address alternate sexualities in their work.

Alternate Sources is designed to be "a single, global resource directory for all the alternate sexes and sexualities" (p. i). This ambitious project was conceived several years ago by editor Trevor Jacques. Jacques is a systems analyst trained as a physicist, educator in the SM community, and the primary author of one of the best of the recent "safe, sane, consensual" guides to SM practices (Jacques, Dale, Hamilton, & Sniffer, 1993). Jacques' technical and subculture background is evident in this nicely designed product, and there is little doubt that Alternate Sources provides very good coverage of its vast and polymorphous domain. Alternate Sources is published in two forms: a CD-ROM database, which includes all software required to run the package with either a Windows or Macintosh operating system, and softcover book. I focus on the CD-ROM, as readers of JSR are likely to find more uses for the searchable electronic database.

The database's two search screens allow users to retrieve, sort, print, and annotate records. The first profiles a particular record, e.g., an organization such as a publisher (1,072 listed) or BDSM accommodation (e.g., a bed and breakfast with dungeon; 19 listed). The second provides a column list of found records. For each record Alternate Sources provides contact information such as address, telephone, fax, e-mail, internet address (including, for Macintosh users, URL live links to Netscape), and a narrative description. Fields can be searched and sorted. The screens are navigated with clearly labeled buttons that guide the user through various operations and include on-line help. Most users will master the mechanics of the program within minutes.

One of the most interesting features of Alternate Sources is its system of type categories, which are to some degree inductively derived from practitioner usage. Each entry is classified according to 1 of 12 gender and sexual orientation categories and also according to a hierarchical system of type categories. The most broad categories include organizations, publishers, manufacturers, mail order, store, health services, helpline, and internet. These are further specified in subcategories that allow grouping of related categories, as well as pinpoint searches. The categories can be used as search criteria; for example, a search for gay foot fetish organizations produced five entries, three in the U.S., one in England, and one in Switzerland.

The database also includes historical information from the catalog of the Leather Archives and Museum (LA&M) in Chicago, a BDSM/fetish community archive. Approximately 250 entries include holdings information at the Leather Archives, which are listed on the primary search screen. Although generally brief, the LA&M holdings description provides additional information about these organizations.

To illustrate how the system works: of 10,400 total entries, Alternate Sources lists 4,075 organizations worldwide, with 2,217 in the United States. The first-level category organizations has 43 subcategories, such as AIDS, fetish, and BDSM. A search for Organizations: Fetish produced 74 such organizations, with 40 in the U.S. A more focused search in the subcategory Organizations: Fetish: Mess, which was new to me, produced three such organizations in the United States, all gay male in orientation: Mud Buddies (CA), Sludgemaster (TX), and Club Mud (CA). The Leather Archives and Museum in Chicago has documents on file from Club Mud, including a copy of their Mud Mania magazine and other documents that indicate that the club slogan is "mudsex=safesex." Any information can be printed.

Beyond travel and other personal uses, one can imagine many possible applications for Alternate Sources. The previous information would be a very good starting point for, say, a student doing a paper on mess fetishism, a reference librarian answering a query, or a researcher exploring taxonomies currently used in sexual subcultures. In my historical research on SM subcultures, I have used Alternate Sources to discover and locate various organizations. The Professional version, a custom implementation designed to fit the needs of a particular user, has been used by businesses to generate focused mailings and track correspondence. Survey researchers and sexuality libraries soliciting donations could use Alternate Sources in the same way. Educators who use electronic media such as the internet in their classes could use Alternate Sources to introduce students to the diversity of human sexuality. Instructors may find the text-based Alternate Sources to be a less problematic teaching aid than the visually explicit internet.