ABSTRACT
This concluding chapter summarizes the development of the BDSM from scattered networks of sadomasochists to a unified, politically active community that used concepts like “safe, sane, consensual” to both police its members’ conduct and to fight for their political rights and inclusion in the LGBTQ movement by normalizing BDSM and winning mainstream acceptance for it. It explores critics of this acceptance through normalization process, and suggests future lines of historical inquiry on what remains an understudied community.
