May 152018
- Goreans are an insular bunch. Vice got a few self-described “kajirae” (female slaves) to talk about their lives.
- The Dig History podcast has an episode on the culture of sex work in 19th century America. As far as I can tell, sexual flagellation was not popular in American pornography or sex work, and what little there was was produced overseas and imported. The podcast does include an intriguing reference to sex workers who provided “ropes and braces” (18:29), likely some form of bondage. Another common practice was living tableaus (26:40), in which women would adopt a pose and costume based on popular paintings or sculptures, one of which was Hiram Powers’ The Greek Slave. I suspect there were a lot of themes of capture and bondage in these displays.
- Another Dig History podcast episode spotlights that “hero in evil”, the Marquis de Sade.
- Jean Genet, a French playwright, included many queer and kinky themes in his works. The Balcony, one of his plays written in 1956, was one of a series of dramatic works produced for TV broadcast in a joint project between the Open University and the BBC between 1977 and 1981. This shortened version of The Balcony never made it to TV broadcast. The linked essay isn’t clear if the film survives in any form, other than a few stills, though a comment says that a brief clip appears in a documentary on Genet.
- A short essay on the meaning and history of the Phyllis riding Aristotle trope.
- The myth of “secret European kink training houses” has been around for a long time, even before the publication of Story of O. There’s never been, to my knowledge, credible evidence of them. That’s why I’m highly suspicious of this interview with Ernest Greene and Nina Hartley about Greene’s forthcoming book, The Truth about O, which claims that these elite, secretive organizations do exist.
- Episode 222 of the Kinkycast interviews Tori and Jeff of the Leather History Preservation Foundation. Leather history doesn’t preserve itself, you know.
- Speaking of preserving history, San Francisco will designate part of the South of Market (SOMA) neighborhood to be a “Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District.” It’s home to the Folsom Street Fair and many gay and kink bars and shops. The Washington Post says, “It will give the cultural district negotiating rights in future development and access to public money.”
- Dame magazine has a feature on the particular issues of kink for Orthodox Jews.
- D/s sometimes awkwardly rubs elbows with the Christian domestic discipline subculture. The Sexing History podcast has an episode on Evangelical Christian marriage manuals, and their efforts to expand the sexual opportunities within conservative marriage.
- In an echo of the Jian Ghomeshi incident from 2014, New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman has defended himself from accusations of abuse of women by claiming he had “engaged in role-playing and other consensual sexual activity,” within “the privacy of intimate relationships.” It is painful but necessary to again educate people on the basics of consent, and fortunately even mainstream publications like Lifehacker and the BBC have taken part in this education.
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[…] has become traditional to include the monthly BDSM link roundup from The History of BDSM in whichever of these #SOSS posts follows it. The roundup never […]