The Cyber Effect (4 page)

The
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition
, or DSM-5, the most recent version of the standard classification of mental disorders used by mental health professionals worldwide, breaks down paraphilia into eight main types of disorders:
exhibitionistic disorder, fetishistic disorder, frotteuristic disorder, pedophilic disorder, sexual masochism disorder, sexual sadism disorder, transvestic disorder, and voyeuristic disorder. The behavior being described in most of these terms is probably not too difficult to figure out, since the clinical words have entered common speech, with the exception of
frotteurism
, a disorder in which a person derives sexual pleasure or gratification by rubbing himself, or his genitalia, against another person—usually in a crowd (a good reason to avoid overly crowded subway cars at rush hour).

Of the eight paraphilia disorders, by far the most common are:
transvestic disorder
, which refers to an individual who experiences erotic or sexual gratification while cross-dressing;
exhibitionistic disorder
, the behavior engaged in by a “flasher” who shows his genitals to unsuspecting strangers;
voyeuristic disorder
, the clinical term for the activities of a “peeping Tom” who is gratified by spying on naked women; and finally, and most disturbingly,
pedophilic disorder
, describing the behavior of an individual who is sexually aroused by children.

Some of these disorders tend to cluster, meaning an individual could have more than one paraphilia. It's not uncommon to find fetishism, transvestism, and sadomasochism together.

Many dozens of other paraphilias have been written about—ranging from sexual attraction to amputees (
acrotomophilia
), dead people (
necrophilia
), pregnant women (
maiesiophilia
), and stuffed toys and theme park characters (
plushophilia
). The most common fetishes include shoes, leather and latex items, and women's underwear.

How abnormal is this? Is Jordan Haskins just a regular guy with dreams and political ambitions whose curiosity online led him down a big psychological rabbit hole?

Like lots of other atypical behaviors, fetishes exist on a continuum, in gradations from mild—infrequently expressed tendencies—to full-blown regularly manifested behaviors. Many people may recognize or experience mild versions of these desires or “interests” (as DSM-5 delicately puts it), but they emerge only in private fantasies. If an individual has a specific fetish and expresses it with a willing partner, or the
behavior is integrated into normal sexual activity, then it is not considered a disorder.

Most fetishes are not harmful to anyone, but there can be legal implications. Interestingly, the crime most associated with the behavior is burglary—committed by an individual who needs to satisfy the urge for a fetish object, like a woman's bra or panties, and breaks into a neighbor's house to steal it. In the same way, what landed Jordan Haskins in jail wasn't cranking; it was trespassing and pulling spark plugs, which constituted damage to government property. The specific misdemeanor charge was “unlawful use of a motor vehicle.”

A fetish is considered a disorder if it provokes intense recurring fantasies and if partners are obligated or coerced to participate. Then it is considered behavior that can cause problems in a relationship and may escalate to becoming all-consuming and destructive. In clinical terms, the difference between a sexual preference and a diagnosable disorder comes down to one key word:
distress
.

To be diagnosed with a paraphilia disorder, a person must:

or

I am often asked why politicians and celebrities give in to this kind of behavior with such apparent frequency. My answer is that public figures with careers that thrive by amplifying their presence online are probably more exposed and noticeable. When you are standing on a stage, a much larger crowd will be seeing your act. I believe their struggles simply mirror the struggles of many others. Technology can make
it harder for anyone to control impulses and can facilitate and escalate problematic behavior.

Over the centuries—and probably throughout the history of humankind—there's been a small but consistent human interest in sadism as it relates to sex. The word
sadism
, or arousal from inflicting pain on another person, refers to a bisexual French aristocrat, libertine and prolific author, the Marquis de Sade—or Donatien Alphonse François de Sade—who died in 1814 and left behind a slew of erotic literary novels, short stories, plays, dialogues, and political tracts. A proponent of extreme freedom and unrestrained morality, the marquis spent years in prisons and asylums because of his own appetites and behavior, which his works are based on, and in which sexual fantasies involve criminality, blasphemy, and violence. Most of his works were suppressed until the mid-twentieth century, when the Marquis de Sade became a subject of interest to intellectuals, who called him, in turn, a nihilist, a satirist, and a precursor to Freud and existentialism. The French poet Guillaume Apollinaire described de Sade as “the freest spirit that has yet existed.”

Pain is the central interest of sadomasochism, either inflicting it or receiving it. And it appears to have ongoing appeal for a small percentage of the population. Over time, there has been a steady underground interest—but not quite acceptable for dinner-table conversation—in sadomasochistic “play” between consenting adults. In 1953 the pioneering American biologist and sexologist Alfred Kinsey determined that 12 percent of women and 22 percent of men admitted to
responding sexually to sadomasochistic narratives; twice as many males and almost equal numbers of women were found to have responded erotically to actual pain (in the form of being bitten). The results led Kinsey to the conclusion that “males may be aroused by both physical and psychologic stimuli, while a larger number of the females, although not all of them, may be aroused only by physical stimuli.” A study done two decades later, in 1974, in the midst of the so-called sexual revolution, found that 5 percent of men and 2 percent of women reported that they obtained
sexual gratification from inflicting pain.

An early study of Canadian men in 1976 found that 10 percent had
sadomasochistic sexual fantasies during sexual intercourse, and a more recent study of Canadian women in 2008 found that a large percentage—from 31 to 57 percent—were
reported to have rape fantasies. These are reported “fantasies,” not reported experiences. For 9 to 17 percent of women, these were a frequent or favorite fantasy experience. Another study found that 33 percent of women and 50 percent of men had sexual fantasies of
tying up their partner, although the participants were not asked if they'd ever done this. According to these studies, a fairly significant number of people are aroused by thinking of these scenarios or have participated in them to some degree, either once or repeatedly.

What else does this information tell us? It provides a possible scientific explanation for the wild popularity of the novel
Fifty Shades of Grey
. Since its release in 2011, and the publication of its many sequels, it has become the bestselling book of all time excluding the Bible, with sales now exceeding 100 million copies worldwide. That is a big number. And a lot of readers.

I guess most people on the planet know by now that the book tells the story of a young entrepreneur, Christian Grey, and a literature student, Anastasia Steele, who become romantically involved, but only on Grey's terms—which means participating in bondage, dominance, and sadomasochism, which is referred to nowadays as BDSM. The book introduced a couple of serious paraphilias,
sexual sadism disorder
and
sexual masochism disorder
, to the general reading public as a fun and fascinating pastime.

Certainly there have been other attempts to mass-market paraphilia—from Madonna's bestselling coffee-table book,
Sex
, in 1992 to
Belle de Jour
, the 1967 Luis Buñuel classic film about a young woman who engages in fetishistic behavior. Catherine Deneuve stars as the newlywed who's obsessed with her father and fantasizes about whips, crops, domination scenarios, and bondage. Even though she really loves her new husband, a nice doctor, she can't bring herself to be intimate with him. To seek pleasure and fulfill her fantasies, she begins to spend midweek afternoons as a prostitute while her husband is at work. And who could forget the BDSM scenes in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film
Pulp Fiction
—or the line “Bring out The Gimp”?

It's fascinating to read about rebels and libertines. They deliver vicarious thrills and fulfill our fantasies of living large and wild—and not caring what society thinks. The “forbidden” and even
disturbing aspect of
Fifty Shades
is clearly part of its popularity. Curious to see what this book offered the general public, I launched into my first
Fifty Shades
novel with some trepidation. In full immersive ethnographic research mode, I set out to read the trilogy in order to critique it, but after sampling thirty or forty pages of the first installment, I stopped hunting for irresponsibly lighthearted treatment of a serious mental disorder and found myself worrying about the psychological disposition of the writer, E.L. James. But then, I always do that.

Another ten pages and I had to give up. It's hard enough to study reports of actual clinical psychopaths or the criminally insane. Reading fictional accounts of torture and brutality was, for me, even more disturbing. But my greatest concern is the underlying message: This behavior might be fun, or even romantic.

Twenty or thirty years ago, a person with a fetish or guilty pleasure of his or her own had to dig around in the public library for a copy of the Marquis de Sade's writings, go to an art-house cinema to see
Belle de Jour
, or go to a theater that featured pornographic films. Those in dire need of this material could turn to commercially available pornography. How difficult was it to find? An analysis of the covers of heterosexual porn magazines in the 1980s showed that more than 17 percent depicted
bondage and domination imagery. In other words, even in porn magazines, there was limited access to this type of enticing material. The potential for escalating and reinforcing the behavior was somewhat limited. Now technology has changed that.

Is it a coincidence that in the years following the publication of the Fifty Shades trilogy,
Internet searches for BDSM porn worldwide have risen by 67 percent and searches for terms like “sex slave” and “master” have increased nearly 79 percent and 72 percent, respectively?
Membership in FetLife, a Vancouver-based pansexual social-networking site that serves the BDSM lifestyle, has more than tripled; there are more than 3.5 million members of the FetLife community, and they've shared more than 19 million photos and 172,000 videos, participated in 4.7 million discussions, and created 1.7 million blog posts.

FetLife describes itself as “similar to Facebook and MySpace but run by kinksters like you and me. We think it's more fun that way. Don't you?”

There are risks in practicing sadism for sexual pleasure—and obviously part of the excitement is the risk itself. But the main thrill comes from inflicting pain, apparently using an array of implements: paddles, wooden spoons, electric cattle prods, skewers, and knives, along with the traditional whips. According to an article by William Saletan in the online magazine
Slate
, even women who have appeared in BDSM pornography have reported being injured in the production of the scenes—receiving electrical burns, injuries requiring surgery, and permanent scars from beatings.

Saletan goes on to say, “While these injuries were accidental, the BDSM subculture doesn't regard intentional harm as wrong. According to the ‘Statement on Consent' developed by the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, injury is wrong only if it ‘was not anticipated and consented to.' ”

To me, this seems an unusual notion of freedom:
the right to be hurt
.

Sadomasochistic relationships run the range from mild to severe, depending on the power/control needs and expression of passivity/vulnerability. There is
comorbidity
between sadism and psychopathy, which means that these two traits are often found together. But let's remember there are also a significant number of studies in the past thirty years showing that
individuals who practice sadomasochism demonstrate evidence of good psychological and social function, as measured by higher educational level, income, and occupational status compared with the general population. In one of these studies, U.S. sociologist Dr. Thomas S. Weinberg concluded that “
sociological and social psychological studies see SM practitioners as emotionally and psychologically well balanced, generally comfortable with their sexual orientation, and socially well adjusted.”

While an interest in BDSM doesn't necessarily point to larger problems, given the explosion of BDSM lifestyle material online in the past
ten years, and the normalizing of the behavior generally, I have to wonder about the overall impact this has on vulnerable people—those with mental health conditions and disorders. There have been troubling stories and tragedies along these lines, related to how quickly partners for BDSM scenarios can now be found. Masochists sometimes say that it's hard to find a “good sadist”—or one who understands their preferences. The Internet comes in handy in terms of BDSM matchmaking, just a few keyboard clicks away.