The History of BDSM

Link digest, April 2024

Apr 152024

The Kinsey Institute, probably the foremost institute of sex research in the world, continues its work after state lawmakers block taxpayer funding.
Podcast It Could Happen Here interviews Dev Montanez from the Kinsey Institute about its history and struggles in the current neo-puritan era.
The Bureau of Lost Culture podcast explores the history of Soho bibles, mimeographed and hand-stapled adult booklets made and sold in London’s Soho district up to the ’60s. They included fetishes like “fladge”, i.e. flagellation, and rubber clothing.
The Bureau of Lost Culture podcast interviews Julie Peakman about her new book, The Pleasure’s All Mine: A History of Perverse Sex.
Gynecocracy is an 1893 anonymous erotic novel, featuring female domination, flagellation and “forced” feminization.
Fetish fashion had a blip of visibility in 2021, and Grailed, Shift London and Russh explores the influence of fetish on high fashion.
More finds from the Internet Archive:

Mary Gaitskill’s “Minority Report”, 30 years after “Secretary”

Apr 112024

Mary Gaitskill’s short story “Secretary” (previously discussed) was first published in 1988, then was eventually adapted into the 2002 film Secretary. I’ve already discussed the differences between the script by Erin Cressida Wilson and the film directed by Steven Shainberg, so there’s a kind of family tree connecting the story and the movie.

Gaitskill herself has described the film as “the Pretty Woman version of my story.” (Gaitskill, Mary. “Victims and Losers: A Love Story; Thoughts on the Movie Secretary” Somebody With a Little Hammer: Essays, Pantheon Books: New York, 2017) Last year, the New Yorker magazine published (March 27, 2023) Gaitskill’s follow-up story “Minority Report”. It tells the story of Debby and her life after her encounter with “the lawyer,” now given the name of Ned Johnson.

“Minority Report” is less a sequel than a retelling of the same event from Debby’s changed perspective as a woman in her 50s, and her difficulty in understanding and expressing her experience. The title explicitly comes from the Steven Spielberg film of the same name, in which precognitive people experience flashes of future events while kept in a sedated state, and a team of detectives have to interpret these scattered, impressionistic glimpses of possible crimes and decide what to do.

Secretary: the script, by Erin Cressida Wilson: The Celluloid Dungeon

Celluloid Dungeon 1 Response »

Apr 092024

Secretary (2002) has taken up a disproportionate amount of time in researching and writing The Celluloid Dungeon. I already knew there were a lot of differences between Mary Gaitskill’s original short story and the finished film directed by Steven Shainberg, but I’ve since learned there were significant differences between Erin Cressida Wilson’s script and the finished product. (See Ariel Schudson’s “Secretary and Adaptation: the Telephone theory”) Thanks to inter-library loan, I’ve borrowed a copy of the script book, which also includes essays by Wilson and others.

BDSM under attack by Libs of TikTok

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Apr 042024

There’s not much comfort in saying, “I saw this coming.”

On March 5, social media influencer Libs of TikTok (aka Chaya Raichik) posted the following on X/Twitter:

BREAKING: The Senate Appropriations Committee released a spending bill which is being voted on tomorrow.

It includes $1M of your tax dollars to go towards renovating an LGBTQ Center in PA which boasts rooms to try BDSM and s*x f*tishes and hosts BDSM and s*x k*nk parties.… pic.twitter.com/PKkj6TEd2q
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 5, 2024

X/Twitter post from March 5, 2024 (See end of post for backup screen capture)

Elust 171

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Mar 172024

Elust is the only place where the smartest and hottest sex bloggers are featured under one roof every month.

Whether you’re looking for sex journalism, erotic writing, relationship advice or kinky discussions, it’ll be here at Elust.

Congratulations @Tiger_Lily_Toys, @SBestmassage and @s3xw0rkersearch winners of the three £50GBP prizes for February.

There are three prizes every month of £50 each for the first three people to publish a unique re-post of Elust.

To be eligible for one of the prizes, your re-post will need to include your own comments written in your own words.

Here’s an example of Elust 170 with a unique introduction and unique comments next to the links.

For SEO purposes, non-identical re-posts of Elust are much better for your search ranking, and it’s more appealing for your readers, so I’m trying to encourage people to write their own comments next to each of the links, or a paragraph for each category and/or write their own introduction.

🖤

Sex Work

The Silky Masseuse A Provider’s Guide To Dealing With Time Wasters Pt. 1

Fox Digital How To Use Twitter: A Strategic Guide for Sex Workers

Sandra Vitamin S

Oz Bigdownunder A Trio with Mistress Chatterley and TS Ama

Sex Worker Search Twitter (X) Shadowbans

Thoughts & Advice on Sex & Relationships

Funzze What’s the BEST Material for Adult Toys?

Musings of a Switch The Early Days

Buzzvibes Open Relationships: Understanding the Landscape of Modern Love

Erotic Non Fiction

Kristina J The Edge of Anticipation and Desire: A Journey into Sensual Surrender

Beyond Non-Binary Period Sex and Sleeping with the Divine Feminine

Erotic Fiction

Jasmine Gold The Unicorn

Jerusalem Mortimer Bedroom Eyes 33

FYHO The Polaroid

Thoughts & Advice on Kink & Fetish

barefoot sub Bend Me, Break Me (Please)

Body Talk and Sexual Health

Charlie and Margeaux On Squirting

Product Reviews

Sydney Screams Blush Wellness Eternal Wand Review

Princess Previews Odyssey Toys Coffin Grinder

Sex Toy DB Hankey’s Toys: Davy’s Tendrils Dildo

Books and Movies

History of BDSM Peter and TammyJo review S&M Sally (2015)

Link Digest, March 2024

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Mar 152024

Researching The Sheik made me realize how much the contemporary criticism of the book and film echoed modern criticism of the books and films of the Twlight saga and Fifty Shades, mostly for reflecting the masochistic fantasies of women. ContraPoints, aka Natalie Wynn, has posted a video exploring the Twilight series and the issues of hetero female masochism.
Every so often, high fashion borrows from fetishism. For Fall/Winter 2024, it’s all about gimp masks/hoods, as shown in this Hypebae article.
Maxim Lupin has a video on the History of Trans Men in the Leather Community.
The Betwixt the Sheets podcast interviews the authors of the new book Kink in the Rennaissance, who have a lot to say about defining “kink” in history.
The Dirty Sexy History podcast has one episode on the myths attached to corsetry, and another on the history of adult toys.
The student news site of the Iowa’s Grinnell College covers the Kink Gardner event, which was previously run by SHIC (Student Health Information Center) and is now run by QPOC (Queer People of Color) to make it more race and gender inclusive.
DAZED profiles the UK Fetish Archive.
Archive.org has scans of:

CSI S04E05 “Fur and Loathing”: The Celluloid Dungeon

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Mar 142024

The notorious “Fur and Loathing” (aired October 30, 2003) episode of CSI is supposed to be about the furry subculture, but it actually demonstrates the investigative procedural’s particular view of sexuality and identity.

A routine traffic accident leads Grissom and Willows to what they at first think is a coyote but is actually a dead man in a raccoon fur suit. This leads to PAFCon (Plushies and Furries Convention), which the deceased, Robert Pitt, attended.