From sex work to post-sexual labour: symbolic boundaries in professional dominatrix profiles

This paper examines how professional dominatrices in the Czech Republic construct symbolic boundaries in their online profiles in relation to other forms of sex work and how they sometimes construct BDSM (bondage, discipline, dominance, submission, sadism, and masochism) services as separate (post-sexual) practices that differ from traditional sex work. It focuses on the online self-presentation of women providing paid professional BDSM services in the Czech Republic. An analysis of 70 profiles of professional dominatrices on an online platform specialising in BDSM services was conducted, and the profiles were classified using Bourdieu's theory of symbolic boundaries into four categories reflecting varying levels of symbolic differentiation. Complementing this approach, a Foucauldian-inspired discourse analysis identified five key discourses as articulated in the textual self-presentations of the profiles, focusing on biopower, knowledge, ethics, discipline, and the symbolic distinction of BDSM services from other commercial forms of sexual labour. Conducted in the first half of 2025, this study demonstrates how professional dominatrices actively construct and maintain symbolic boundaries through the language used within their profiles, contributing to post-sexual discourses in BDSM services and to distinctive forms of discursive and symbolic differentiation.