‘Sex Play and Social Power’ Subject of Lecture March 28

From staff reports

Margot Weiss

Margot Weiss, assistant professor of women’s studies at the College of William & Mary, will present a lecture, “Sex Play and Social Power: Race, Gender and the Politics of SM,” at 7 p.m. Friday, March 28 in the Pannell Gallery at Sweet Briar College.

A reception will follow and admission is free.

Weiss, a former visiting assistant professor of anthropology at Sweet Briar College, specializes in queer and feminist studies. She holds a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology, and her ethnographic research focuses on contemporary U.S. sexual cultures and activisms.

Her forthcoming book, “Techniques of Pleasure, Scenes of Play,” explores the relationships between late-capitalism, neoliberalism, and gendered and raced performance in San Francisco’s BDSM communities.

Weiss has published articles on the politics of BDSM media visibility; on labor, leisure, and commodified sexuality; on the performative effects of BDSM interrogation scenes and the Abu Ghraib photographs, and on neoliberalism, homonormativity and new queer activisms.

According to Weiss, “the acronyms ‘SM’ and ‘BDSM’ interchangeably connote the adult consensual kink scene, which includes consensual bondage, power exchange, pain/sensation play, leathersex, role-playing and fetish.”

For more information on the lecture, contact Alice McLean, honors fellow, at Ext. 6366 or amclean@sbc.edu .