Queering legal spaces: regulating sadomasochistic desire in the court room

Abstract

Desire for non-normative sexual practice such as sadomasochism poses an inconvenient provocation within legal discourse. This paper interrogates the intricacies of legal discourse as they emerge in the physical setting of the court room, positing that queering legal discourse can offer some inroads to understanding, and transforming justice outcomes when non-normative sexual practice rubs up against criminalisation. Here, I expose how regulation of non-normative sexual practices occurs within the courtroom, with a specific focus on the often-marginalized realm of sadomasochism. Through analysis of court transcripts of cases where sadomasochism has come before the criminal courts, this study unveils the ways in which heteronormativity manifests and regulates non-normative sexual practice.

The courtroom, conventionally seen as a bastion of justice, is revealed as a contested space, where regulatory mechanisms become tools of exclusion. By examining the language and dynamics present in court transcripts, this paper exposes how the courtroom becomes a site where normative sexual practices are reinforced, produced by (and productive of) contemporary rape culture in the global North.
The analysis centres on how expressions of inconvenient sexual desires are subject to problematic justice outcomes. The paper contends that the courtroom, far from being an impartial arena, becomes a stage where sexual practices are scrutinised through a heteronormative, unqueer lens which reinforces gendered injustice for sexually minoritised people. The paper contributes to the ongoing discourse on legal spaces and their role in perpetuating societal norms, urging a reconsideration of the intersection between law, desire, and justice in the contemporary global landscape.