Bound by BDSM: Unexpected Lessons for Building a Happier Life

Why are BDSM practitioners so happy? It turns out, BDSM isn’t just about whips and chains. With engaging stories and a warm, conversational tone, Bound by BDSM: Unexpected Lessons for Building a Happier Life reveals how BDSM practitioners use clear boundaries, enthusiastic consent, open dialogue, and a strong community to create fulfilling relationships and build richer, more intentional lives. Drawing on research from the largest scientific study of BDSM ever conducted, Alicia Walker and Arielle Kuperberg demonstrate that the BDSM community’s approach to trust and vulnerability offers a valuable model for building intimacy and fostering authentic connections. BDSM also allows practitioners to exercise their creativity and break the mold - whether it comes to trying out new practices in the bedroom or bending ideas about gender. Whether you’re vanilla, kinky, or just here for the life advice, this book —packed with humor and insight—is a refreshingly open-minded guide to building stronger relationships, deeper intimacy, and a more intentional approach to connection.

Alicia M. Walker is an associate professor of sociology at Missouri State University and the author of The Secret Life of the Cheating Wife: Power, Pragmatism, and Pleasure in Women's Infidelity and Chasing Masculinity: Men, Validation, and Infidelity. Her work has appeared in Redbook, CNN, New York Times, The Cut, Daily Mail, Bustle, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Vice, Men's Health, USA Today, Psychology Today, The Independent, The Sun, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, The Sun, and Business Insider.

Alicia Walker is assistant professor of sociology at Missouri State University.

Arielle Kuperberg is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Her research has been widely discussed in hundreds of media articles all over the world, including the New York Times, Fortune, Cosmopolitan, Time Magazine, Fox News, NBC, NPR, and The Atlantic.