2010/08/02 by Danielle J. Lindemann · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Social and Cultural Dynamics #Cultural Industries and Urban Development #Fashion and Cultural Textiles
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1573-7861.2010.01197.x
openalex publication_date 2010/08/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Professional dominatrices (pro-dommes) are a group that has received little sociological attention. I use Pierre Bourdieu’s claims about art as a tool for illuminating important tensions within this corner of social life, where I find evidence of an embattled purity regime that has implications beyond the walls of the dominatrix’s “dungeon.” In particular, I argue that pro-dommes’ discourse resonates with Bourdieu’s description of the “anti-‘economic’ economy of pure art,” employed by relatively autonomous avant-garde artists who disavow economic criteria for success as a means to legitimate themselves and symbolically distance themselves from the commercial end of the art world. Using this theory as a structural analogy for pro-domme/client relationships sheds light on claims to professionalism and the microdynamics of control within service-industry interactions more generally.