May 292018
Jul 232024
Thoughts & Advice on Sex & Relationships
The Sex Shed, How to Recognize Anal Safe Sex Toys in 8 Easy Steps
Blogging
Ramone Quides, Destroyer of Good Erotica!
LA Jayne, Against the Discourse
Erotic Non Fiction
Kristina J, The True Essence of Giving and Taking in Intimacy: The Wheel of Consent
Beyond Non-Binary, What do you Call a Gathering of Dominatrixes?
Product Reviews
Morgan Destera, TOY TEST – Funzze Glass Butt Plug with a Surprise
Betty’s Toy Box, Sharing is Caring: The Strapless Strap On Vibrator for Couples
Sydney Screams, Mr Hankey’s Toys Beowulf Fantasy Dildo Review
Princess Preview, Funzze Mini Realistic Dildo
State of the World
Witch of the Wands, Heat Up Your Travel: Pack and Play with Sex Toys on the Go
Interviews
Unicorn Hunting Blog, Zara Du Rose interview: ZDR events and how to become a celebrity on the UK party scene
Thoughts & Advice on Kink & Fetish
Buzzing Babe, Open the Doors to Light BDSM for a New Dimension of Pleasure
Sex Toy DB, 4 Ways to Use the Kiiroo Keon as a Mind Blowing Fucking Machine
Stan’s Swingers, Swinging and Exhibitionism/Voyeurism: Embracing Public Play
barefoot sub, A nipple and dreams of piss
Books and Movies
The History of BDSM, The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed (2023): The Celluloid Dungeon
Body Talk
Hannah McKnight, Behold, the Power of Forms
Peach Kisser, How to Feel Sexier – 5 Perspectives for a Body Positive Mindset
Sex Work
Sex worker Search, Best Business Practices For Sex Work Industry Websites According to VISA
Oz Bigdownunder, Just a Cock in a Cage
Sandra, Summertime Gangbang
Hellga, Malasana Pose Anal Action
The Siren Domme, Review: The Nest’ By Loonerfun
Jul 232024
- Messy Nessy Chic profiles L. Robert and Nativa Richard, who were pioneers of commercialized fetish/BDSM in 1920s and 1930s France, under the name “Yva Richard”. They started in 1914, just before the Great War started, and made their own leather wear and fetish photography, often with Nativa as the model. They operated both as a storefront in Paris and as mail order. The German occupation of France in 1943 ended their glorious run.
- More Archive.org finds:
- John Samson’s 1977 documentary Dressing for Pleasure, which gives a glimpse of the 1970s UK leather fetish culture.
- A PDF of the 2002 Mod Con: The secret world of extreme body modification, which looks into the underground of people who have consensually been castrated and other heavy body mods.
- The documentary Bloodsisters (1995) about lesbian sadomasochists in San Francisco.
- In The New Republic, they talk about the notorious “Project 2025” plan and particularly its emphasis on how “pornography should be outlawed.” The document doesn’t define pornography, but in practice it refers to anything that causes the “normalization” of “non-normative gender expression and identity among young people”. The neo-Puritan element is very strong in American politics right now, and I believe it poses a dire threat to not just queer people and abortion/contraception rights, but kinky people too.
- XBIZ reports how speakers on the National Conservatism Conference were quite explicit that banning pornography for minors is a step towards more restrictions down the road.
- The CARAS Reading Group: History and Theory of Kink and BDSM starts on August 4th, 2024. This will be a monthly meeting on Google Meet. Free for CARAS members, $100 US for others.
- The CineKink film festival is coming on August 1st, 2024.
Jul 152024
Femina Ridens (aka The Laughing Woman, The Frightened Woman) is a 1969 Italian psychological drama, starring Philippe Leroy and Dagmar Lassander, and directed by Piero Schivazappa. IMDB
Dr. Sayer kidnaps Maria, a young woman, and locks her in his prison-like apartment, saying he will psychologically torture her into loving him, then kill her. Maria, however, is much more than she appears.
Continue reading »Jun 292024
The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed is a 2023 comedy-drama, directed and written by Joanna Arnow and starring Arnow, Scott Cohen and Babak Tafti. IMDB
Ann, a thirty-something woman in New York City, seeks relief from the difficulties with her job and family through submission to various men.
Continue reading »Jun 172024
- The Chicago Reader profiles the House of Milan, one of the oldest and best known purveyors of fetish clothing and other products. It tells of how it began as a boutique clothing store called Futura Fashions in 1964.
- On Archive.org, I found what appears to be an English translation of Die Damen im Pelz (Those Ladies in Pelts), said to be a collection of German short stories published in 1920 by “Wanda von Sacher-Masoch”, aka Aurora von Rumelin, ex-wife of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. I can’t vouch for the authenticity of this text or the translation.
- Another Archive.org find is an excerpt from the 1967 pseudo-documentary exploitation film The Lusting Hours, featuring glimpses of flagellation and high-heel trampling.
- Sir Guy is organizing a virtual education event on August 7th on the history of people of color in Leather and BDSM. Fetlife event
- ACES-Knoxville is holding a virtual education event on June 26th about Leather History. Fetlife event
- Shunga Gallery magazine profiles the life and work of Robert K. Bishop, a prominent bondage artist in the 1970s and 1980s.
May 182024
- The Betwixt the Sheets podcast interviews Frenchie Lunning about her classic work on the history of fetish wear.
- The Authentically Kinky podcast interviews Lorelei Mission (aka Kristine Imboch) and Jon Woods of Harmony Concepts, one of the biggest and oldest kinky adult media production companies.
- The New Books on Sex, Sexuality and Sex Work podcast interviews Julie Peakman, who’s written extensively on 18th and 19th century European sexuality, about her new book.
- Savile Row Style magazine talks about the history of leather fashion.
- Mary Harrington is a self-described “reactionary feminist” who has some maverick ideas that critique the idea of modernity being a positive for women, along with anti-trans, gender essentialist arguments. She has some odd takes on the relationship between politics and BDSM, arguing that the popularity of BDSM in our supposedly egalitarian society suggests we really want hierarchical relationships, or even suggesting that because hormonal contraception and abortion on demand has made sex inconsequential, we want sex with a degree of risk. E.g. “like contraceptive sex is like vegan bacon and bdsm is just like the hot sauce that you add to make it taste more like the real thing” (transcript) She’s part of a liberal-apostate wing of the neo-Puritan movement in the USA and UK.
- Archive.org has a scan of an article from Bond magazine #3, published 1984, describing The Best S&M Show Ever at the Belle de Jour Theater in NYC.
May 182024
Remedy is a 2013 drama directed by Cheyenne Picardo and written by Picardo et al.
A young woman known only by her nomme de domme, Remedy (Kira Davies), explores the world of professional domination and submission. She has some experience with BDSM at a night club, where she met a woman named Astrid, who hooked her up with a dungeon in NYC. Her motivation isn’t clear, whether it’s money or something else. (She has an unseen boyfriend and works as a children’s tutor.)
Continue reading »May 132024
My Normal is a 2009 comedy-drama about a professional dominatrix living in NYC, directed by Irving Schwartz, written by Abdul Malik Abbott, Renee Garzon, Keith Planit, and Adam Sales, and starring Nicole LaLiberte.
Natalie (aka “Ashley”) juggles her work as a pro domme with pressures from her family to get married and have kids, and looking for love as a lesbian. She gets her break to work in the film industry but encounters a new set of problems.
Continue reading »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:
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.
Continue reading »
