Article The medicalization and demedicalization of kink: Shifting contexts of sexual politics Kai Lin University of Delaware, USA Abstract BDSM (also known as kink) has been stigmatized through medicalization since the late 19th century. However, the recent publication of the DSM-5 has significantly changed the definition of Paraphilia, which used to be the catch-all diagnostic category for atypical sexual behaviors. In this study, I examined multiple sources of qualitative data to tap into the ever-changing social contexts and power dynamics of the medicalization and demedicalization of kink. The analyses of this study reveal how both activist stra- tegies as well as approaches to social control evolve in the context of increasing reflex- ivity cultivated by the sexual politics of the past few decades. Keywords Alternative sexuality, BDSM, demedicalization, kink, medicalization In contrast to conventional sexual activities (or ‘‘vanilla sex’’), the practice of BDSM/kink 1 stands out as the aberrant ‘‘other’’ that experiences formal and infor- mal social control of various kinds. Sadism and masochism, which BDSM practi- tioners refrain from using as identity markers, have long been listed as sexual and psychological perversions by psychiatrists in their professional diagnostic manuals (e.g. in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder or the DSM, compiled by the American Psychiatric Association and in the International Classification of Diseases or the ICD, compiled by the World Health Organization). The risks of harm associated with BDSM practices sometimes make BDSM practices legally controversial (; Egan, 2007; Hanna, 2001; Klein and Moser, 2006; Ridiger, 2006; Weait, 2007; White, 2006). In other instances, BDSM is considered morally wrong. Sexualities 0(0) 1–22 ! The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1363460716651420 sex.sagepub.com Corresponding author: Kai Lin, MA, PhD student, University of Delaware, Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, 325 Smith Hall, 18 Amstel Ave., Newark, DE, 19716, USA. Email: kailin@udel.edu