Cristian Gonzalez Arevalo

ABSTRACT: This article employs Foucault's concept of "sadomasochism" as a critical tool for rethinking the dynamics of power. In sadomasochistic scenes, the authority of the one occupying the dominant role is not absolute, but rather depends on the conditions, desires, and agency of the submissive partner. This interdependence destabilizes rigid, one-directional conceptions of power, revealing it as an unstable, performative process that is continually negotiated. The constant shifting of control between participants demonstrates that domination and submission are not fixed positions, but reversible configurations shaped by both tacit and explicit agreements. In this way, such practices challenge conventional power hierarchies and offer an analytical framework for understanding power as a two-way, ephemeral, and relational mechanism, rather than as an inherent or permanent attribute.

This study explores consensual sadomasochism (S/M) as a contemporary expression of Michel Foucault’s “care of the self ” (epi-meleia heautou), Greco-Roman practices aimed at cultivating auton-omy through conscious regulation of body, pleasures, and social rela-tions. Though historically distant, S/M shares self-regulation, ethical codification, and the fusion of pleasure and discipline. Emerging in the 1980s within gay subcultures amid HIV/AIDS and growing in-stitutional control over sexuality, it operates as a technique of subjec-tivation and micropolitics of resistance. Rather than merely opposing norms, S/M invents modes of life beyond institutional capture, mak-ing pleasure a formative, ethically governed dimension of existence.

This article explores the concept of subjectivity as developed in the work of French thinker Michel Foucault. It connects this concept to discussions about the governance of people living with HIV and the processes of subjectivation. The article highlights the analytical potential of Foucault's framework for studying human conduct in post-disciplinary societies. We use Foucault's late thoughts as a theoretical framework to examine HIV from a biopolitical perspective that considers the processes of subjectivation experienced by HIV-positive individuals. First, we introduce the concept of subjectification from Michel Foucault's perspective. Secondly, we illustrate how these processes are relevant to HIV-positive individuals.