Link Digests – Page 2 – The History of BDSM

Link Digest, August 2024

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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:

Link Digest, February 2024

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Feb 152024

More finds from the Internet Archive:
- The anthology Against Sadomasochism (1982)
- Video from the 1989 Folsom Street Fair
- The biography of Mistress Antoinette (1988)
- Lesbian BDSM magazine Venus Infers Vol.1, No. 2 (1993)
- Multiple issues of UK spanking magazine Blushes (1986-1988)
- Penthouse August 1982, which included a black and white bondage/fetish pictorial by Andre Berg, and a feature article “S&M for beginners” by “V.K. McCarty”
The streaming service Kanopy (free access via public library memberships) has some documentaries about kink:

Link Digest, January 2024

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Jan 152024

KFS (Kinky Fetish Sex) TV has a couple of interesting videos.
- Tim Woodward talks about the history of UK fetish magazine Skin Two
- A documentary about the 1992 Skin Two Rubber Ball
The micro-controversy over the “Conservative Dad’s Real Women of America 2024 Calendar” (showing conservative women in mild pinup poses or casual outfits) shows a fracture line in modern conservatism. The divide is between anti-porn neo-puritans on one side, and libertarian-hedonists on the other. The phrase “real women” in the title is the giveaway that both sides are anti-trans.
The Gay News Ephemera tumblr has a couple of scans from Christopher Street
- A 1979 pamphlet urging peaceful protests against the filming of William Friedkin’s film Crusing (1980).
- A 1979 editorial providing context about the filming of Cruising.
Just found there’s a film biography of Percy Grainger, an Australian composer who was also involved in BDSM in the early 20th century, called Passion (1999).

Link Digest, December 2023

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Dec 182023

The Internet Archive has some interesting material including
- Scans of Kitan Club, a Japanese bondage magazine from the 1940s. (No translation, though.)
- Books like Jay Wiseman’s Erotic Bondage Handbook (on a library-style borrowing system)
- Vintage bondage clips
- A video demonstrating American Sign Language for “bondage”
Another Magazine profiles the 1930s French lingerie and fetish company Diana Slip, which was part of Léon Vidal’s network of companies that catered to fetishists.
Another also covers a collection of found photographs, known as “Rain Time”, of an anonymous rubber fetishist discovered in a house clearance in a London suburb.
The Ringer has the oral history of Chuck outing himself as a masochist from the TV series Billions, with quotes from the producers and actors.

Link Digest, November 2023

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Nov 162023

The Mary Sue reviews the new book Superfreaks by Arielle Greenberg.
Honey & Hot Wax is an anthology of games about sex by a diverse group of nine designers. It includes games that challenge players to think about sexuality, gender and identity in new ways.
Nov 19, the Tom of Finland Foundation will host an oral history of Onyx SW and BIPOC in the Kink community. Link
Petition to protect the funding for the Kinsey Institute. Link
Kinky and Loving It is a 2023 documentary about Black people in kink, part of a series called Sex in Color. It screened at Chicago’s Black Harvest Film Festival.

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A Lover's Pinch: A Cultural History of Sadomasochism