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. 2023 Jul 8;78(3):270-303.
doi: 10.1093/jhmas/jrad012.

Visualizing BDSM and AIDS Activism: Archiving Pleasures, Sanitizing History

Affiliations

Visualizing BDSM and AIDS Activism: Archiving Pleasures, Sanitizing History

Ketil Slagstad. J Hist Med Allied Sci. .

Abstract

The visual archive of AIDS and fetish activism is a rich resource for studying interlinkages between art and science, activism and public health, politics and medicine, pleasure and sexual health prevention. This article explores AIDS and fetish activism imagery from the first two decades of the Norwegian AIDS crisis. Interrogating the materiality and visual context of images - photographs, posters, flyers, and safer sex instructions - it maps out visualization practices in leather, BDSM and AIDS activism. AIDS and fetish imagery made some bodies, pleasures, and political goals visible - and rendered others unseen. The article explores the materiality of images and their visual, social, and historical context of production, and traces their social biographies and afterlives. Fetish images were vehicles for change and actors co-producing history. They took part in destigmatizing BDSM, challenging psychiatric classification, and creating infrastructure and networks between subcultures, communities, and authorities. The visualization of fetish activism was as much about communication strategies as it was about aesthetic, style, and motive. The politics of visibility in Norwegian fetish activism point to the vulnerable project of fighting for acceptance through "respectability," while preserving the individuality and "otherness" of leather and fetish culture.

Keywords: AIDS and fetish activism; HIV/AIDS; diagnosis and stigma; harm reduction; psychiatric pathologization; sexual subcultures; social biography of images; visualization.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Crucified leather man exposing the buttocks. Safer sex poster by the Gay Health Committee, 1996 by Fin Serck-Hanssen and Tron Hirsti. Courtesy of Fin-Serck Hanssen and Helseutvalget.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
SLM-info no. 2, 1982. Courtesy of Svein Skeid.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
SLM-info no. 2, 1983. SKA/A-0078 Helseutvalget, Skeivt arkiv.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
The fetish man photo from the 10 blå menn exhibition, photo by Fin Serck-Hanssen. Courtesy of Fin Serck-Hanssen.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Fetish party flyer, 1997. SKA/A-0078 Helseutvalget, Skeivt arkiv.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Fetish party poster, 1997. Design: Victorture, Co-pilot: ThorsRude. SKA/A-0078 Helseutvalget, Skeivt arkiv.
Figure 7.
Figure 7.
"Gjør ære på skinnjakka," SLM/Helseutvalget poster, 1991. SKA/A-0078 Helseutvalget, Skeivt arkiv.
Figure 8.
Figure 8.
"Bare fantasien setter grenser for sikrere sex," SLM/Helseutvalget poster, undated, probably 1991/1992. SKA/A-0078 Helseutvalget, Skeivt arkiv.
Figure 9.
Figure 9.
Illustration of body parts deemed safe and unsafe for spanking, Smia verksted February 23, 1996. Illustrasjon: SM Gays London. SKA/A-0022 Svein Skeids arkiv, Skeivt arkiv.
Figure 10.
Figure 10.
Fetish activists marching in the parade during Homodagene [Pride], 1991, under the banner "Out of the diagnostic lists – into SLM." Photo: Anne-Sissel Slaatsveen. SKA/A-0022 Svein Skeids arkiv, Skeivt arkiv.
Figure 11.
Figure 11.
Interview with Tore Stensby and Svein Skeid at their farm. Facsimile from VG, August 24, 1991. Courtesy of VG.
Figure 11.
Figure 11.
Interview with Tore Stensby and Svein Skeid at their farm. Facsimile from VG, August 24, 1991. Courtesy of VG.
Figure 11.
Figure 11.
Interview with Tore Stensby and Svein Skeid at their farm. Facsimile from VG, August 24, 1991. Courtesy of VG.
Figure 12.
Figure 12.
Snu skammen, op-ed by Tore Stensby and Svein Skeid in Klassekampen, February 15, 1992. Courtesy of Klassekampen.
Figure 13.
Figure 13.
Lær og kjærlighet, SLM poster, Homodagene 1991, Universitetsplassen i Oslo. Photo: Anne-Sissel Slaatsveen/Klassekampen. SKA/A-0078 Helseutvalget, Skeivt arkiv.
Figure 14.
Figure 14.
"Pleasure and Care," safer sex campaign by the Gay Health Committee, 1986. Courtesy of Skeivt arkiv, Bergen. Courtesy of Helseutvalget.
Figure 15.
Figure 15.
Two dotted arrows incorporating an "Okedio" condom and a bottle of lubricant pointing towards the jeans pocket of a bare-chested man. Safer sex poster by the Gay Health Committee, ca. 1995. Photo: Fin Serck-Hanssen. Design: En-Garde Design. Courtesy of Fin Serck-Hanssen and Helseutvalget.
Figure 16.
Figure 16.
Man with a pierced nipple immersed in water with his legs open to reveal his penis and buttocks. Safer sex poster by the Gay Health Committee, ca. 1995. Photo: Fin Serck-Hanssen. Design: En-Garde Design. Courtesy of Fin Serck-Hanssen and Helseutvalget.
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