Link Digests – The History of BDSM

Link digest, December 2024

Link Digests No Responses »

Dec 162024

Art Vintagique has scans of fetish outfit designs made for the Diana Slip lingerie and adult products company in circa 1930. Artist unknown. I don’t know if any of these designs were ever actually made.
UK fetish model (and former Jehovah’s Witness) Ariel Anderssen talks about her path into kink as a sub woman, BDSM shame, and the business of custom fetish videos.
Bygonely has a brief bio and photos (which I suspect were airbrushed) of 60s/70s extreme corsetry model Cora Korsett.
M. Christian speculates on the fetishes of the coming decades
Archive.org finds:

Link Digest, November 2024

Link Digests No Responses »

Nov 152024

The re-election of Donald Trump as president of the United States may have far-reaching impacts on the production and distribution of distribution of pornography in the USA, particular kinky material. The US Supreme Court, now right-leaning, might overturn the 1972 Miller decision that protected material as art.
The Sex and Psychology podcasts interviews Esmee Louise James, author of the new book Kinky History, about the myth of the Victorian vibrator, and how the true history of the vibrator is actually stranger.
Richard Perez Seves has previously published biographies of kinky artists Charles Guyette, Eric Stanton, and Gene Bilbrew, and his magnum opus is his new biography of John “Willie” Coutts, artist, photographer, and publisher of Bizarre magazine.
The Nation interviews Anna Poletti, the author of the new novel Hello, World?, about a pair of people who, displaced from their former lives, enter a dominant-submissive relationship. In particular, it talks about how their genders and political backgrounds influenced their kink (e.g. the sub is a man from a privileged background in Orban’s Hungary). It also comes a little too close to the idea of bdsm-as-therapy.
Archive.org is back online, thankfully, and here are a few new finds:

Link Digest, October 2024

Link Digests No Responses »

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.

Link Digest, September 2024

Link Digests No Responses »

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.

Link Digest, August 2024

Link Digests No Responses »

Aug 202024

The Rialto Report podcast interviews Dian Hanson, famed writer and editor of Leg Show fetish magazine, among many others, and now editor of high end erotica books for Taschen. 4 parts.
Justin Lehmiller’s Sex and Psychology podcast interviews Andrea Zanin about the use of BDSM as a bogus defense in legal cases.
Short video on bondage-themed comic book covers over the years.
Atlas Obscura provides a brief history of lesbian sadomasochism.
Archive.org has one of Eric Stanton’s “Stantoons” pamphlets, published in 1987.
Evie Lupine covered how Etsy is squeezing out BDSM toy manufacturers. This coincides with another trend of how high-end fashion is appropriating BDSM imagery and design.

Link Digest, July 2024

Link Digests No Responses »

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.

Link Digest, June 2024

Link Digests No Responses »

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.

Link Digest, May 2024

Link Digests No Responses »

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.

Link digest, April 2024

Link Digests No Responses »

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:

Link Digest, March 2024

Link Digests No Responses »

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:

Older Entries

A Lover's Pinch: A Cultural History of Sadomasochism