This ground-breaking book explores contemporary forms of BDSM where women dominate in relationships and professions, opening new paths for psychological research in commercial and non-commercial BDSM.

Based on a unique combination of qualitative investigation and academic research, it examines how BDSM has often crystalized conflicts in contemporary feminist debates, where sexually dominant women are pictured either as victims or agents of resistance to the gendered patriarchy. Nathalie Lugand argues that female domination in heterosexual BDSM is above all situated in a continuum structured by the values of care and by the circulation of money. Through a novel psychodynamic approach, Lugand demystifies BDSM relationships where women dominate, considering the impact of social relations of work in the construction of sexual identity and analyzing the difficulties that they cause in the erotic economy. The book affirms that to better understand the enjoyment taken in female domination practices and the difficulties for women to impose themselves as dominatrixes, it is necessary to shift the focus away from transgressive aspects and look towards the workplace and the organisation of work in women’s sexuality.

Using field immersion to comprehensively investigate the blurred boundaries between life and work in the BDSM community, Sexuality Between Pleasure and Work provides the opportunity for a new interpretation of sexuality, overturning the existing theoretical frameworks used in clinical psychology and psychoanalysis. It is essential reading for researchers and academics in psychology, gender studies, political and social sciences, and human sexuality, as well as activists defending the human rights of sex workers around the world.