1. AWP 2015: Subculture Within A Subculture: Women of Color in Bay Area in the Fetish Lifestyle!
A Spectrum of Gender Orientations and Divergent Interests 1 of 2
April Martin Chartrand, M.S. College/Career Counseling Candidate | San Francisco State University
Contact: April.Martin.Chartrand@gmail.com | Find me: Linkedin, Academia.edu, & Youtube
Copyright 2015 All rights reserved
Assoc iation for Women in Psycholog y
Feminism & Restorative Justice Repairing, Restoring, and Reintegrating
March 5-8, 2015 | Holiday Inn | 1500 Van Ness Avenue | San Francisco, CA 94109
Abstract: The objective of this ethnographic research is to offer an introductory summary of a Subculture
Within A Subculture... This research will endeavor to offer powerful social and historical content for the
subject’s social emergence, seek to demystify Fetish/Kink/Bondage, Dominance, Sadism, Masochism (BDSM),
to challenge the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5) Paraphilic and Paraphilic Disorder, reframe the A & B
diagnostic criteria classifications, to explore the subject’s underground lifestyle from a psychosocial point of
view, to offer sixteen (N=16) personal interview findings from sexually variant women of color in the
fetish/BDSM lifestyle, and to advocate for inclusive sex-positive awareness acceptance.
WHAT IS A SUBCULTURE?
Our differences in race and culture are much like many squares of unique fabric. One fine pile
of separateness, each piece representing a culture, its art, and the beliefs of its people.
~Tina M. Carroll. Sacramento, CA (2009)
DEFINITION OF PARAPHILIC (CRITERIA A) – DSM-5
1. Misunderstood and [under researched and when researched it is with bias and viewed
through a Hetero-normative lens] is used as a catch-all definition for any unusual [atypical]
consensual sexual [negotiated power-exchange kinky] or kinky/fetishistic behavior
2. A Paraphilia is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for having a Paraphilic [D/O] (686)
3. Paraphilic by itself does not necessarily justify or require clinical intervention (686)
4. Paraphilias are not ipso facto mental disorders (816)
DEFINITION OF PARAPHILIC DISORDER (CRITERIA B) – DSM-5
1. Impairment/distress about their interest, not merely distress resulting from society’s
disapproval
2. Sexual desire or behavior that involves another person’s psychological distress, injury, or
death
3. A desire for sexual behaviors involving unwilling persons or persons unable to give legal
consent [pedophilia and frotterism]
Photo: A. M.
Chartrand
RESEARCH DESIGN
1. The standardized targeted e-mail method was utilized
2. Previous personal contact: Social Media, referrals, & indirect
3. Twenty eight sent and Sixteen (N=16) subjects responded to the e-mail OEQ surveys
4. Each sample received eight (8) OEQ qualitative questions
5. Explorative or descriptive in nature rather than testing a hypothesis
6. Provide insight to inform subsequent studies, and future qualitative research
7. Clarifies the respondent’s positions and experiences
8. Provides descriptive detail and depth for exploration rather than testing a hypothesis

2. AWP 2015: Subculture Within A Subculture: Women of Color in Bay Area in the Fetish Lifestyle!
A Spectrum of Gender Orientations and Divergent Interests 2 of 2
April Martin Chartrand, M.S. College/Career Counseling Candidate | San Francisco State University
Contact: April.Martin.Chartrand@gmail.com | Find me: Linkedin, Academia.edu, & Youtube
Copyright 2015 All rights reserved
9. Allows new insight into the attitudes and perceptions
10. Provides the reader with targeted information normally unavailable in periodicals
OEQ RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. What is your sexual orientation? What is your sexual preference? What is your lifestyle orientation?
2. What ethnic identifiers do you use to identity yourself as a Women of Color?
3. How long have you been in the community or practicing the Fetish/Kink/BDSM and alternative-loving
lifestyle arts?
4. What types of lifestyle educational modalities have you sought out?
5. Describe your play style and your top three (3) lifestyle interests (play, teaching, and or organizer . . .)?
6. What types of stereotypes or stigma have been directed at you or what types of discrimination have you
encountered from individuals within or outside of the lifestyle?
7. Are you out to your family, vanilla (straight lifestyle) friends, and work life? If no, why? If yes, how and
when were you out
8. Has engaging in this type of play/lifestyle empowered you as woman of color? If yes, how has it empowered
you? If not, how?
SEX POSITIVE INSIGHTS & FINDINGS
1. Helping professions need to educate themselves on BDSM/Fetish/Kink populations who engage in
“Safe, Sane & Consensual” play
2. Be aware of your bias/counter-transference BDSM/Fetish/Kink
3. Adult play is not 100% trauma related
4. Creative & Consensual Fetish/BDSM enactments can be healing tools
5. This lifestyle can be viewed as a valid and distinct subculture
6. DSM-5 revisions continues to stigmatize non-binary, non-hetero-centric, and atypical
(consenting) populations
DISCRIMINATION FINDINGS
1. Lifestyle stereotypes and stigma
2. Discrimination inside the lifestyle(s)
3. Discrimination outside of the lifestyle(s)
4. Tribalism (segregation)
CONSENSUAL KINK POPULATIONS
1. 10% USA Adult Population (Safe, Sane, & Consensual).
National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (2013)
2. 400,000 Kinksters attended the 2012 Folsom Street Fair
3. *5-10% of the U.S. population engages in sadomasochism for
sexual pleasure
Resources: *Reinisch, J.M. (2002/1990); Kinsey Institute (2014); NCSF.
(2013); Folsom St. Fair. (2013).
ABBREVIATED REFERENCES
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th
ed.).
Arlington, VA: American Psychiatry Publishing, pp. xxxiii, 685-686, 694-697, and 816.
Connell, K. & Gabri, P. (2008). The power of broken hearts the origin and evolution of the Folsom Street Fair.
San Francisco, CA: Folsom Street Events. Retrieved from http://folsomstreetfair.org/history
Henkin, W. & Holiday, S. (1996). Consensual sadomasochism: How to talk about it and how to do it safely.
San Francisco, CA: Daedalus Publishing Company, pp. 36-104.
The Alternative Sexualities Health Research Alliance (TASHRA). (2013, September) TASHRA: Addressing
the healthcare of sexual outsiders. Retrieved from www.tashra.org/