Hjärta till hjärta: fetischisters livsvärldar, gemenskaper och självförståelser

Sammanfattning: Apart from the previous writings about fetishism within a paraphilic discourse in the medical and psychology fields, fetishism, from an individual perspective, is a rather under-studied field and somewhat of a blind spot in the adjoining field of BDSM-studies in both a Swedish and international context. Fetishism can be defined as the ability of feeling a sense of satisfaction when handling or being near a certain object or when being in a specific situation. This ethnographic bachelor thesis paints a wideranging picture of the experiences of selfdefined fetishists with a focus on sexual, social and political dimensions through semistructured interviews - based on a poststructural theoretical framework. We analyse our participants understandings of fetishism as a term, how fetishism relates to sexual orientation and how its negotiated in relation to conventional understandings of sexuality. We examine how a sense of belonging with other fetishists and a bigger 'kink-community' is considered by the participants’ and how different rooms can be considered as safe spaces, or as excluding due to hegemonic ideals. We conclude that fetishism should not be considered a clear construction but negotiated through historic and contemporary discourses, and that fetishism can deconstruct hegemonic notions of sexuality.