Do You Feel Me? (Exploring Empathy) Handout

Empathy is often understood as one’s ability to recognize and sometimes share the feelings experienced by another. Oftentimes, empathy is an important tool in all kinds of contexts, from performing a scene to maintaining relationships informed by power exchange and authority transfer. Does empathy mean something else in kink and BDSM? Is empathy mandatory, and, if so, what does this mean for players who struggle with experiencing empathy? In “Do You Feel Me?” Leatherman and educator Devyn Stone explores and unpacks the role of empathy in the context of kink and BDSM. In this 90-minute discussion, attendees are encouraged to challenge and explore what they know and understand empathy to mean and be, and how we can perceive other ways of reading the feelings of others when we don’t experience empathy.