Mapping kink : an archipelago of pleasure

Abstract

This dissertation explores the relationship with kink in a Maltese context. While tracing the history of kink in Malta is difficult, the emergence of fetish-adjacent public events since lockdown seemed to mark a turn. This is also greatly contrasted with the sharp increase in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) (ECDC, 2024; WHO, 2023) thought to be linked to chemsex parties (Gamoudi cited in Gauci Cunningham, 2024) which stand in direct opposition to the ‘safe, sane, consensual’ framework (Weiss, 2011) heralded by the imported kink scene. The questions this research seeks to answer are two-fold: how does the practice of kink inform and transform the practitioner’s relationship with their self-body concept? And how does the local context shape the way people engage with kink? Drawing upon ethnographic data gathered from unstructured interviews with kink practitioners and participant observation at fetish events, the discussion reveals the tensions between intimacy and public performance, individual identity and a fragmented sense of belonging. Using a lens informed by queer theory (Halperin, 1995; Probyn, 2016), queer theology (MacKendrick, 2018) and sociology of the skin (Ahmed and Stacey, 2001), I argue that for seasoned practitioners, the practice of kink is transformative. It gives rise to the experiential self as a form of becoming, informing a being-with-others through risk and trust. However, this does not always directly translate in a public context, resulting in a sphere that is marked by ambivalence. The club setting, interpreted as a heterotopic space (Foucault, 1986; Haywood, 2022; Lee, 2023), points to the contradictions between the perceived subversive ethos of kink and its place in an insular setting. The broader context of the market, neoliberal rationality (Harvey, 1992) and post-colonial identities (Bhabha, 2004; 2016) also play a role in the enacting and perception of kink. Kink becomes not only a site of personal transformation but also points to the limits and possibilities of intimate community-building within a late capitalist, postcolonial and insular setting. In this sense, bodies, too, drift apart.