Buggering Freud and Deleuze through a queer theory of masochism.

What is it about?

Both Freud's and Deleuze's understandings of masochism limit the transgressive and subversive forces of masochism because they both take sexual difference for granted. Drawing on Helmut Newton's fashion photography and on feminist interrogations of Freud, Deleuze, and masochism, this paper therefore seeks to develop an alternative and queer understanding of masochism as a matter of 'sexual indifference'.

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Why is it important?

The paper hopes to open up and reimagine masochistic desire beyond the heteronormative relations between men and women with which it is typically associated.