Celluloid Dungeon – Page 2 – The History of BDSM

Dying for Sex S01E06: The Celluloid Dungeon

Nov 162025

Dying for Sex S01E06 “Happy Holidays”

After Molly, Niki and Sonya celebrate the one-year anniversary of Molly’s cancer return, she has another dom-sub session with Neighbor Guy. Along the way, Molly gets turned on with him, but her anxiety returns, represented by a vision of a man with a blurry face. She partially opens up to Neighbor Guy about her childhood sexual abuse, and that she’s never had an orgasm with another person. She tells him she wants to try to orgasm with him, and he’s eager to help.

Dying for Sex S01E05: The Celluloid Dungeon

Celluloid Dungeon No Responses »

Nov 062025

In S01E05, “My Pet”, Molly continues seeing (and dominating) Neighbor Guy, and starts seeing Pet, a man into puppyplay, complete with costume and collar. However, she hasn’t told either of them about her cancer. She orders Neighbor Guy to finish himself off and goes into the bathroom to finish herself off with a vibrator.

Dying for Sex S01E04: The Celluloid Dungeon

Celluloid Dungeon No Responses »

Oct 212025

Dying for Sex is a 2025 dramedy series about a woman, Molly, who is diagnosed with terminal cancer, and leaves her husband in search of sexual fulfillment.

In “Topping is a Sacred Skill”, the fourth episode of the first (and apparently only) season, Molly continues her exploration of her sexuality. In between episodes, she attended a BDSM play party and is intrigued by a dominant there known as G.

Dying for Sex S01E03: The Celluloid Dungeon

Celluloid Dungeon No Responses »

Oct 152025

Dying for Sex is a 2025 dramedy series about a woman, Molly, who is diagnosed with terminal cancer, and leaves her husband in search of sexual fulfillment.

In S01E03 “Feelings Can Become Amplified”, Molly starts taking a medication that gives her mood swings, while also struggling with vaginal dryness. She has a peculiar relationship with a man in her apartment building (aka “Neighbor Guy”): she’s disgusted by him, but she has a “mistake orgasm” by masturbating while she can hear him masturbating through their shared thin wall.

Pillion (2025): The Celluloid Dungeon

Celluloid Dungeon 4 Responses »

Oct 062025

Pillion is a 2025 romance/drama, directed by Harry Lighton and starring Alexander Skarsgard and Harry Melling IMDB

A shy gay man meets a handsome biker and becomes his submissive.

[Spoilers ahead]

Collin is an out but shy and inexperienced gay man. After singing in a barbershop quartet in a pub on Christmas Eve, he sees Ray, a tall, handsome biker who might have stepped out of a Tom of Finland illustration. Later that night, Ray is joined by a group of other bikers, some of whom are submissive to others. Ray discretely orders Collin to perform a small act of service. Collin complies, and Ray slips him his number.

Red Shoe Diaries S01E13 “How I Met My Husband”: The Celluloid Dungeon

Celluloid Dungeon No Responses »

Sep 222025

Red Shoe Diaries S01E13 “How I Met My Husband”, Aired June 26, 1993 IMDB

“How I Met” starts off like a cross between a music video and a fashion show. Mistress Miranda’s dungeon is having an exhibition, with women and men in fetish gear strutting on a catwalk while a female announcer talks about the outfits and how much they cost. The frame is “dressing for power”. “Remember, leather, rubber and steel equals power and control.” It’s very aspirational and consumerist, locating kink in a fantastic world of wealth and glamour.

Red Shoe Diaries S01E03 “You Have the Right to Remain Silent”: The Celluloid Dungeon

Celluloid Dungeon No Responses »

Sep 162025

Red Shoe Diaries S01E03 “You Have the Right to Remain Silent”, Aired July 14, 1992 IMDB

Zalman King, a former actor who produced Nine and a Half Weeks and a few other softcore mainstream films, created the anthology series Red Shoe Diaries which became the flagship of 1990s direct-to-cable-TV softcore erotica, free from the constraints of both the MPAA and Broadcast Standards and Practices. The framing device is that Jake (pre-X-Files David Duchovny) is haunted by the suicide of his fiancée. He found her diary and learned she was having an affair with another man. He places ads in newspapers asking women to tell him their stories of desire. The confessional mode, as an inquiry into the “truth” of female sexuality, is built into the series’ premise.

The Marburger list: BDSM in film and television, pre-1975

Celluloid Dungeon 4 Responses »

Jul 242025

Linda Evans is a damsel-in-distress in *Beach Blanket Bingo* (1965)

My most intriguing find in the Kinsey Archives was a 51-page mimeograph of a typewritten document from 1975, Bondage Fantasies in Popular Entertainment, attributed to “G. Allen Marburger.” It’s an idiosyncratic list of bondage scenes in mainstream film and television, possibly an unpublished magazine article, as there are references to kink-media company HOM (House of Milan).

Not a Love Story (1981): The Celluloid Dungeon

Celluloid Dungeon 5 Responses »

Apr 222025

Not a Love Story: A Film About Pornography is a 1981 Canadian documentary, directed by Bonnie Sherr Klein. It includes interviews with adult photographer Suze Randall, stripper Lindalee Tracey (aka “Fonda Peters”) and porn performer Marc Stevens. There are also interviews with and footage of second-wave feminist figures like Kate Millett, Robin Morgan, Margaret Atwood, Susan Griffin and more.

Obviously, a lot has happened in the 44 years since the film was released. In 1981, the home video revolution was just starting, almost no one had heard of AIDS, Times Square in Manhattan had porn theatres and live sex shows, and the Internet only connected a few universities and government agencies. Cruising came out the previous year, as did Linda Lovelace’s autobiography Ordeal, and the “lesbian sex wars” were just gearing up. However, the issues in this film are still very relevant, especially considering the neo-Puritan movements of the 2020s.

Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist (1997): The Celluloid Dungeon

Celluloid Dungeon No Responses »

Mar 262025

Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist is a 1997 documentary by Kirby Dick about the titular Bob Flanagan, an artist with cystic fibrosis and, unusually, lived into his 40s. Flanagan combined his performance art and artworks with his BDSM practice, including being the slave of his mistress and wife, Sheree Rose.

(Most of the Celluloid Dungeon project is about fiction films, but I will explore a few documentaries along the way.)