The History of BDSM – Documenting my research in the history of consensual sadomasochism

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May 292018

The People’s Porn: A History of Handmade Pornography in America, by Lisa Z. Sigel

Oct 262024

Sigel, Lisa Z. 2020. The People’s Porn : A History of Handmade Pornography in America. London: Reaktion Books. Amazon

In the early 21st century, we think of pornography as a ubiquitous, mass-produced, and corporatized phenomenon. Sites like PornHub present the viewer with vast quantities, individually tagged according to theme and sexual act. Advances in video production and distribution technology means almost anybody can make and consume sexual content with a high degree of technical quality and specificity.

Sigel’s book explores an entire history of what might be called “craft” or “artisanal” erotica, produced in single items or small sets, and using a wide variety of media, from carved whalebone to modified mass-produced photos to handmade garments. Many of the items discussed in the book aren’t “erotica” in the usual sense, i.e. items intended to arouse the viewer, perhaps as an aid to masturbation. These artifacts, such as a carved wooden figure of Abraham Lincoln with an erection, might more accurately be described as “adult novelties”.

Link Digest, October 2024

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Oct 152024

PinkLabel.tv is streaming a series of BDSM films and documentaries for queer history month, including Remedy (2013), Bloodsisters (1995), Thee Debauchery Ball: Director’s Cut (2022), The Secret Love Life of the Urban Leopard (2019), The Wrong Airbnb (2024), and many others.
Going back to the 1990s, The Observer looks at Janet Jackson’s kinky 1997 album The Velvet Rope, and the role of BDSM in 90s pop and her career in particular.
Atlas Obscura profiles Chez Christiane, a Paris brothel specializing in “special passions”. Unfortunately, it closed in 1946 and all that remains now is a building facade.
The Betwixt the Sheets podcast discusses sex in ancient Mesopotamia. While only loosely related to BDSM, this discussion does examine how different practices of sex and gender can be in other societies, and how modern-day historians can project their own misconceptions into the past.
The American Medical Association’s Journal of Ethics published a brief history of how different editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual handled homosexuality, BDSM and other “deviant” sexualities.
Jessie Meadows wrote a critique of Anna Lembke’s book Dopamine Nation, which shows how “porn addiction” discourse ties into old Calvinist ideals of self-denial and hard work, and into modern neoliberal ideas of self-regulation. This is one thread going into the neo-puritanism rising in modern society.

Elust digest 178

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Oct 152024

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.

If you have a post included in Elust 177, please re-post the latest edition on your own blog, ideally with your own unique comments next to each link, or a paragraph for each category and/or write your own introduction.

For SEO purposes, non-identical re-posts of Elust are much better for search ranking, and it’s more appealing for readers.

Here’s an Example of Elust 177 published by Sandra with a unique introduction and comments next to the links.

Thoughts & Advice on Sex & Relationships

Musings of a Switch, Porn thoughts

Tantric Sexual Healing, Sacred Sex: A Path to Deep Connection and Spiritual Awakening

The Disorderly House, How to Fuck Yourself, An Ultimate Sexual Self Intimacy Guide

Betty’s Toy Box, Experience Your Ultimate Pleasure: 10 Types of Orgasm for You to Try

Poetry

Simone Francis, Watch Me

“Sado Machismo” by Edmund White (1979)

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Oct 042024

“Sado Machismo” is an essay written by Edmund White and published in New Times, 8 January 1979, reprinted in the collection The Burning Library (Knopf, 1994)

White wrote this at a very different time: Not even ten years after Stonewall, before Cruising and definitely before HIV. The collection notes this essay was “… published during the height of Anita Bryant’s anti-homosexual campaign in Florida and in the midst of the Briggs Amendment campaign in California.” Gays and lesbians fighting for their rights to work as teachers were in the news, but a certain kind of “queer chic” was in the air too.

Choke (2008): The Celluloid Dungeon

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Oct 012024

Choke is a 2008 dark comedy based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk, written and directed by Clark Gregg. Amazon

When I’ve asked leather guys whether they’d rather make it with a real Con Ed [repair] man or a lawyer who looks like one, the question baffles them. It lies outside the system of their fantasies. In their hearts they may know that the lawyer would be more adventurous and uninhibited lover, but their passion demands he at least appear to be a worker.
White, Edmund. 1979 “Sado Machismo”, from The Burning Library: Essays , Knopf, New York, 1994

Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell) is a recovering, self-described “sex addict”, who fakes choking in restaurants so that he can emotionally manipulate his rescuers, which is to pay for supporting his Alzheimer’s-afflicted mother Ida (Anjelica Huston). He also works as a Colonial American historical re-enactor, performing a sanitized version of historical times.

(Spoilers ahead)

Latex & Lingerie: Shopping for Pleasure at Ann Summers Parties, by Merl Storr (2003)

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Sep 272024

Storr, Merl. 2003. Latex and Lingerie : Shopping for Pleasure at Ann Summers. Oxford: Berg. Amazon

Ann Summers is a UK brand of lingerie and sex toys, sold by brick-and-mortar stores, by online retailing and by a system of “Ann Summers parties”, in which saleswomen organize parties and directly market goods to the (all female) attendees. These goods include lingerie, sex toys, and related items. In particular, they sell bondage cuffs, light impact implements and other BDSM equipment. The Ann Summers parties are a point where “the rubber meets the road”, where people (i.e. hetero, vanilla women) have their first direct contact with BDSM toys, and the concept of BDSM play in general. Merl Storr’s book, based on interviews with party hosts and participant observation, presents valuable insights into how vanilla/hetero identities can change to accommodate the purchase of BDSM gear, if not the actual use of such.

Strangeland (1998): The Celluloid Dungeon

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Sep 172024

Strangeland is a 1998 thriller/horror film written by and starring Dee Snider (of 80s glam metal band Twisted Sister) and directed by John Pieplow. Amazon

The Presbyterian Lash, 1661

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Sep 152024

The Presbyterian Lash is a short satirical play from 1661 by Francis Kirkman, a rogue-ish author, publisher and bibliographer, with an eye for capitalizing on scandal.

Link Digest, September 2024

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Sep 152024

Dan Young is doing a Zoom talk BDSM: The History of a Secret Culture on September 29th, 2pm CDT. It will reference a lot of my own work as well as that of Stephen K Stein. Register at Forbidden Tickets.
Etsy has joined the list of platforms that built their followings hosting BDSM/fetish/kink/queer content (e.g. Tumblr) and then banned it so they could attract investors.
Slave Play. Not a Movie. A Play. is a 2024 documentary about the production and reception of Jeremy O. Harris’ Slave Play. Currently streaming on HBO and Crave.
The Ukrainian city of Lviv not only has a statue dedicated to Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, author of Venus in Furs, it has a themed cafe and hotel in his name too. Cafe menu, hotel, tourist listing, merch
More finds on Archive.org (you may need to register to read some of these):
- Vincent Andrews published Synopsis of Homosexual publications surrounding Old Guard, which includes scans of articles from Drummer magazine in the 1970s and 1980s.
- Michael Grumley’s book Hard Corps: Studies in Leather and Sado Masochism with photos by Ed Gallucci (Penguin, 1977), which provides a look at the pre-HIV leather scene.
- Gilles Deleuze’s 1989 book Masochism: Coldness and Cruelty, which takes a high-level, philosophical look at masochism and Sacher-Masoch’s work.
- Concertina: The Lives and Loves of a Dominatrix by Susan Winemaker, 2007.