Link Digests – The History of BDSM

Link Digest, September 2022

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Sep 272022

Article on the history of the Carter/Johnson Memorial Library
The Marysue covers how health authorities are asking people to change their sexual practices in light of the new monkeypox virus.
Poly.land writes about the history of polyamorous and non-monogamous films.

Link Digest, August 2022

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Aug 202022

Research into Devil Girl from Mars (1954) and the dominatrix-ish costume of the title character lead me to an in-depth exploration on Scifist.net. The costume was designed by Ronald Cobb. He had only one film credit, but had a long career designing sexy, fetishistic costumes for cabaret shows at Murray’s Club in London in the 1950s.
The Projectionist Booth podcast has an in-depth exploration of The Duke of Burgundy (2014), including an interview with the director, Peter Strickland.
On the 20th anniversary of the landmark BDSM film Secretary, the BBC discusses what made this oddball film a surprise hit, and how it walked so Fifty Shades could run.
Kitty Stryker talks about queerness, BDSM and respectability politics.
Vintage Fetish Art has collected the artwork from various editions of the Marquis de Sade’s novel Justine, from 1799 to 1965.

Link Digest, July 2022

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Jul 172022

Kinbakunomicon has another translated Japanese article about bondage, and accompanying art, from a 1960 issue of Kitan Club.
Los Angeles magazine looks at how the LA BDSM scene has been affected by COVID and how it is recovering.
Russia Beyond profiles the Godzhi BDSM hotel in Moscow, one of many across Russia. It circumvents legal restrictions by listing rooms as “fitting rooms” for devices it rents out.
Lisa Duggan on Substack writes about the relationship between Lydia Laurenson (aka “S&M Feminist” Clarisse Thorn) and “computer engineer, Thielworld monarchist and neoreactionary luminary” Curtis Yarvin (aka “Mencius Moldbug”). “Whatever impact Laurenson may have had on Yarvin’s ideas about sex and gender, she certainly has not mitigated his devotion to Thielian techno-corporate monarchism.”
Dr. Mark Griffiths has been researching the more obscure corners of human sexuality for years, and his blog provides some insights on Nazi fetishism.

Link Digest, June 2022

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Jun 162022

The newly launched Zipper magazine has a feature article on “How the Pandemic Made Us Kinkier“.
Cornell University has an online exhibition on the making of On Our Backs magazine, the pioneering lesbian sex magazine in the early 80s.
Get Your Hands Dirty has an essay on the history of bootblacking, going back to our friend Hannah Cullwick, and the rise of bootblacking contests in the 1990s.
I had long thought Robert Yang’s Hurt Me Plenty was the only videogame to incorporate BDSM themes directly into the gameplay, but further research led to Mighty Jill Off, a platformer game that makes playing it an act of masochism, and Consensual Torture Simulator, a text-only game about a sadist negotiating with a masochist.
By 2022 standards, the nude photos published in Penthouse that cost Vanessa Williams her title as Miss America back in 1984 were a bit tame, and the controversy even more quaint. What I didn’t realize was that the images had her in black leather boots, harness, cuffs and collars, in other words, BDSM gear. Penthouse has always been a little racier than Playboy (within the constraints of the heterosexual male gaze), and would tiptoe onto the side of fetish and kink imagery. Perhaps that was what pushed the pageant into de-crowning Williams. A black Miss America was already a stretch, but one who associated with deviant sexuality was too much.
My interview on the Betwixt the Sheets podcast introduced me to another historical figure with at least an interest in kink: Christian apologist and fantasy writer C.S. Lewis, best known for the Narnia books. He was one of those individuals whose sexuality was hard to pin down; was he closeted homosexual, closeted bisexual, asexual, or just upper-class British? Regardless, he did have an interest, if only theoretical, in the idea of whipping beautiful women, including Lily Greeves, the sister of his friend Arthur.

Link Digest, May 2022

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May 242022

Slate magazine considers the way sex is depicted in current TV shows like Euphoria, And Just Like That and the like. “It’s as if the wide availability of sex—and porn—and frank discussions of various sexual lifestyles have all combined to render purely hedonistic or transgressive approaches to it as retro or passé or even quaint.”
The Betwixt the Sheets podcast has a fascinating look at medieval sexuality, which was quite different from what most might think. There was a lot of discussion about “sodomy”, which then could be defined as any sexual activity other than coitus for the purposes of procreation. It included manual stimulation of the self or other persons, and “femoral intercourse”, i.e. a penis pressed between a person’s thighs. This was also when women were seen as the more sexually active gender, not men. It shows that our modern views of sexuality are not universal.
Evie Lupine provides a video update on the BDSM-related court cases in the news, such as Arnie Hammer and Marilyn Manson situations.
Gayle Rubin speaks on the Feminist Sex Wars of the 1970s and 1980s in a presentation recorded at Cornell in 2022.
The Washington Post mused on the juxtaposition of Balenciaga’s BDSM/fetish themed fashion show being held on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Is money the ultimate fetish?

Link Digest, April 2022

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Apr 162022

The Kinkycast has re-published their interviews with three pioneer female dominants, whose careers go back to the 1970s: Sybil Holliday, Dr. Charlayne Grenci, and Cleo Dubois.
Reason magazine writes about the rise and fall of the sexually diverse Internet, epitomized by PornHub and Tumblr, both of which have been massively censored. Conservative activist groups have pressured the commercial middlemen of the industry to make it financially precarious.
The American Sex Podcast interviews Susan Wright of the NCSF about decriminalizing BDSM.
It’s Pride season again, which means another season of arguments about whether kink belongs at Pride. OUT magazine reviews the argument.

Link Digest, March 2022

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Mar 172022

Kinbakunomicon posted a translation of the transcript of a 1971 roundtable discussion in Kinbaku Taizen, which is full of interesting perspectives from Japanese people on different forms of BDSM in Japan, Europe and America.
A video interview with an elder of the spanking community, which is BDSM adjacent.
Mashable covers the loss of a unique space for diverse sexuality in the censoring of Tumblr.
XBIZ covers the history of adult industry content prohibitions, which appear to be based more on industry folklore and urban legends than actual laws or policies.

Link Digest, February 2022

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Feb 212022

Fashion designer Thierry Mugler, who did a lot to bring the worlds of fetish and fashion together, died on January 23rd 2022, at age 73.
The American Sex podcast has an in-depth report on censorship in the podcast space, particularly regarding sexually explicit works, which is exacerbated by Spotify’s project to monopolize and exploit the entire podcasting ecosystem.
The second episode of the On Guard Salon talks about dating and cruising for gay leathermen in the pre-Internet days.
The Dildorks podcast interviewed Leigh Cowart, author of Hurts So Good: the Science and Culture of Pain on Purpose, a book that explores the many ways in which people seek out pain and other intense sensations, including BDSM but also experiences like eating hot peppers, body modification, marathon running, and more.
In Rolling Stone, Tina Horn profiles Netflix’s thriller Brazen, which reiterates tired stereotypes about kink and sex workers.
Internet platforms come and go, and Tiktok is in the “come” phase of that cycle. For our purposes, Esme James is running a video series called Kinky History, and you can read an interview with her on BI.org.

Link Digest, January 2022

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Jan 172022

The Decoder Ring podcast explores the notorious X-rated 1982 videogame Custer’s Revenge.
On Guard is a Youtube channel spun off from the Watts the Safe Word BDSM educational channel, which covers the gay leatherman culture of the 1970s and 1980s.
The Internet Archive has a scan of the December 1983 issue of the gay magazine The Body Politic, which has an article by Geoff Mains called, “The Agony and the Ecstasy” about gay male S&M, extracted from Urban Aboriginals.
The Dirty Sexy History podcast has a number of episodes on kink or kink-adjacent topics, including episodes on 19th Century dominatrix Theresa Berkley, the consensual Master-slave relationship of Arthur Munby and Hannah Cullwick, and the death of composer Franz Kotzwara from erotic asphyxiation in 1791.
Another magazine has an interview with Jack Fritscher, legendary publisher of gay leather/BDSM magazine Drummer and porn producer, as promo for an upcoming documentary Raw! Uncut! Video!: A Love Story About Fetish Porn by Ryan A White and Alex Clausen.

Link Digest: December 2021

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Dec 152021

The Kinky Cocktail Hour interviews Vi Johnson, BDSM world elder and keeper of the Carter-Johnson Memorial Library.
Octavius King’s video profiles the notorious X-rated Atari adult videogame from 1982, Custer’s Revenge, and its bondage box art.
Back in 2011, there was a videogame for the Wii console called We Dare. Among other things, it encouraged you to put a wiimote in the back of your pants or skirt and get spanked.
Anne Rice, best known in the BDSM world as the author of Exit to Eden and the Sleeping Beauty quadrology, died on Dec 11, 2021. The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty was a huge influence in the 1990s BDSM culture.
Auto Erotica in San Francisco’s Castro district, located in the former office of Drummer magazine, is a shop/museum for kinky and queer books, posters, magazines and other materials.

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A Lover's Pinch: A Cultural History of Sadomasochism