V for Vicious Project:
Embodied Research.
Erotic Performance.
“Although the erotic relationship may seem to exist freely, on its own terms, among the distorted social relationships of a bourgeois society, it is, in fact, the most self-conscious of all human relationships — a direct confrontation of two beings whose actions in the bed are wholly determined by their acts when they are out of it.”
— Angela Carter, The Sadeian Woman
About.
Angela Carter’s The Sadeian Woman provides the critical lens through which to examine the foundation of V for Vicious Project (V4V):
If who we are in the bedroom is who we are everywhere else, then Erotic Identity (Creative Power) functions in practicality as the aggregate of social, economic, political, psychological, biological, and technological forces converging to produce a highly curated image — one that is both symbol and symptom of a deeper cultural pathology, which yields itself in perpetuity to the established hierarchies of class, race, gender, and labor (Ascribed Status).
If Ascribed Status is inseparable from Erotic Identity, then it is also inseparable from Sexual Identity, Orientation, and Practice.
If Ascribed Status impacts the formation and function of Sexual + Erotic Identity, how might their combined analysis offer new insight into the Social Mobility Quandary?
Social Barometers.
BDSM and the Commercial Kink Sector (CKS) are V4V’s ideal Socio-Economic-Political Barometers for observing:
How Ascribed Status, Erotic Identity, Sexual Identity/Orientation, and Intimate Partner Dynamics (IPD) are determined and molded by established hierarchies.
The subconscious architecture of Ascribed Status, Erotic Identity, Sexual Identity/Orientation, and IPD.
The psychological, physical, and financial impact of Erotic Identity as Commodity, Sexual Identity/Orientation as Commodity, Ascribed Status as Commodity, and IPD as Commodity.
The feedback loop between Ascribed Status, Erotic Identity, Sexual Identity/Orientation, IPD, and Social Mobility in real time.
Performance vs. Performativity.
Self-Determination and Empowerment begin with Social Mobility: access, opportunity, resources, community, and most importantly, financial stability.
The Internet offers a version of that access, opportunity, resources, community, and most importantly, financial stability.
V4V explores the shift from Erotic Identity toward Branded Identity, the Commodification of Liberation and Empowerment, and the ins and outs of the Intimate Partner Dynamics in the Internet Age and the evolving Labor Market, examining the unique social, economic, political, and psychological variables that define Ascribed Status, Erotic Identity, Sexual Identity/Orientation, and IPD in virtual spaces: internet-shaped perception, self-optimization, performativity, ascribed desire, appropriation, and the pleasure gap. The project treats these variables as lived somatic realities which reflect Ascribed Status, access to Social Mobility, and may perpetuate oppressive patriarchal values, beliefs, and internalized misogyny — particularly by creating social systems that police perception, punish deviation, and reward obedience with proximity to Power.
In the Internet Age, to be is to be constantly optimizing, catering to the market, and prioritizing the consumer.
Nuance.
The exploration of Power calls for a more Nuanced view of the Human Condition, one that values the complexity of Lived Experience, Shared Experience, and Identity while prioritizing curiosity, agility, and accountability.
The project asks questions it does not distribute solutions or judgements. It’s a framework for sharing stories in the Language of Body, observing and talking about the Identities we may perform or inherit, and documenting the Lived Experience of navigating the Commercial Kink Sector in the Internet Age, not an evaluation, doctrine, philanthropy, or moral corrective. V4V is documentation, observation, reflection, and communion.