Harming or Healing? The Meanings of Wounding among Sadomasochists Who Also Self-Injure

Abstract

This chapter draws on the representation of self-injury¹ and sadomasochism (SM)² in the film Secretary (Shainberg, 2002) as a starting point from which to explore the narratives of women who, like the central character ‘Lee’ in Secretary, have engaged in both self-injury and SM (either historically or currently). I focus specifically on participants’ relationship to wounding in those contexts, particularly the aesthetics of breaking the skin. The chapter begins by outlining academic approaches to self-injury and SM, and then describes the narrative of self-injury and SM offered in Secretary. Having thus contextualised the empirical work, the analysis focuses on the conflicting narratives of self-injury and SM that emerged in the research. Participants engaged either with a discourse of self-injury and SM as completely separate, or one which positioned them as similar with SM being a more ‘healing’ way of exploring emotions associated with self-injury. Finally, the chapter addresses the aesthetics of wounding and scarring, where participants drew on similarly conflicting discourses of harming and healing.