Link Digests – The History of BDSM

Link Digest, April 2026

Apr 212026

Last month I posted the wrong URL for the Canadian documentary series KINK (2001). You can get the entire series here.
Back in 2005, Valerie Steele, author of Fetish and The Corset, gave a talk at Cornell about fetish fashion history.
RUSSH magazine in 2021 writes about the history of the intersection between fashion and fetish/BDSM. “But when mainstream fashion adopts culturally significant optics from those whose identities sit in the marginal rings of society in the hope to capitalise on a subversive trend, what does it mean for the communities who pioneered the kink movement in the first place?”
Grailed provides a short history of the meeting of BDSM and high fashion
So.gay highlights fashion designers who have been inspired by (taken from?) the kink subculture.
From Archive.org:
- A number of issues of lesbian BDSM magazine Bad Attitude.
- A number of issues of lesbian sex magazine On Our Backs.
- Bondage Life 82 (2001)
- The Sexual Fetish in Today’s Society, by Hugh Jones (1965)

Mar 162026

Brief bio of independent porn pioneer Lady Sonia, aka Gill Ellis-Young
The Decoder Ring podcast explores the long strange story behind Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, and the conspiracy theories about how the director supposedly hid an expose about child sex trafficking in his last film.
Mr. Q on Substack writes about how the arguments over the film Pillion (2025) represent two different philosophies of BDSM.
The Public Medievalist explores the history of the “nocturnal ritual fantasy”, a recurring belief that deviant groups hold bizarre transgressive rituals, which continues into the present day.
Short bio of Pat Evans, the bald black model on the Ohio Players’ kinky album covers.
From Archive.org
- Kink (2001) is a documentary TV series about kinky people in different Canadian cities. I knew some of the people who appeared in the first season, shot in Vancouver, BC.
- Equus Eroticus magazine No 12.

Feb 162026

Jan 152026

Nicholas Tanek interviews Fetlife founder John Baku.
Comedian and actress Margaret Cho talks about her background in BDSM and polyamory in The Advocate.
On the New Books Network podcast, Hannah Frydman talks about her book Between the Sheets: Sexuality, Classified Advertising, and the Moral Threat to Press Freedom in France. It explores the sexual subculture in classified ads in early 20th century French newspaper, which used coded language like “English lessons” to refer to erotic flagellation.
Another NBN podcast discusses Fierce Desires: A New History of Sex and Sexuality in America by Rebecca L. Davis, which is a 400-year history of sex in America, showing that even in 19th century there were queer people and sexual mavericks.
The Dominican Republic is having its first BDSM film festival in May 2026.
Leather Times magazine, Spring 2004
On Archive.org:
- Dutch femdom magazine Doma No.50, 1987
- Dutch BDSM magazine Slave Girl No.44, 1989

Dec 162025

Joseph Mawra, director of the 1960s Olga exploitation films, died in 2025. The Rialto Report has a transcript of a 2016 interview with this reclusive filmmaker.
From Archive.org:
- Lesbian Sex Mafia Flyers, 1980s/1990s
- Lesbian Sex Mafia Pamphlet, Fall 1981
- Bound to Struggle, Vol. 5, a zine anthology published 2004
- Modern Style Lady B, German magazine published 1989
- Madame X, German magazine published 1985
- Massad No.91, Dutch magazine published 1985

Nov 162025

Oct 152025

Sep 222025

The podcast You Must Remember This does an in-depth study of the 1980s kinky romance (?) 9 1/2 Weeks. Its exploration of 1990s cable TV erotica series Red Shoe Diaries is also worth a listen.
In another example of fashion appropriating fetish, Neon Coyotes is selling, or rather re-selling, chokers but calling them “day collars” and explicitly referencing BDSM in the promotional material. “We craft bespoke pieces that serve as instruments for personal expression, with an added touch of high fashion and a hint of kink.”
From Archive.org:
- Trevor Jacques’ BDSM manual On the Safe Edge: A Manual for Safe SM Play (1994)
- Guido Crepax’s 1975 comics (bande-dessinee) adaptation of Histoire d’O.
- Jack Fritscher’s 1994 memoir of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.
- Guy Baldwin’s collection of essays Ties that Bind (1993).