The History of BDSM – Page 29 – Documenting my research in the history of consensual sadomasochism

Link Roundup, June 2019

Jun 172019

It’s Pride month, at least in the United States. One of the ongoing controversies is whether kinky people belong in pride events (as recently asked on Twitter), and if so, whether that includes kinky people who are heterosexual.
- The Advocate says there’s no way kink should be banned at Pride.
- Gay Star News says “the kink community and the LGBTI community is inextricably linked“.
- Dazed says “The event should be as inclusive as possible, but raucousness, provocation, and fucking are important too; reconciling these things might be complicated but banishing kink isn’t the answer.“
Race Bannon, who has been involved in the kink world since 1973, talks in a column for RECON about the number of kinky men he knows who don’t seem to be involved in the public kink culture. He cites the research of clinical psychologist Russell J Stambaugh, PhD (blog), which suggests that the majority of kinky people aren’t involved in any kind of organized group, and perhaps as few as 10 per cent of kinky people are involved in organized culture. (Not clear if this is referring to kinky gay men or kinky people in general.) (This agrees with my own hypothesis about “dark matter”, the unknown number of kinky people who are not involved in groups.) If so, kinky organizations as we know them only reach a minority of their potential audience. The remaining 90 per cent are served by social networks like Grindr, RECON and Fetlife.
Black is the colour most often of fetish clothing, but it is also associated with mourning dress. Bellatory offers a quick history of black mourning dress, once required of the upper classes by law, and later imitated by the lower classes.
To paraphrase the British comedy team Smack the Pony, “Nuns… Haven’t a clue what they’re for, but aren’t they kinky?” (video) Nuns have been associated with deviant sex since at least Boccaccio’s Decameron in the 14th century. Vintage Fetish Photos has a collection of erotic nun images from the early 20th century.
Dr. Mark Griffith’s blog has a piece with citations on the fetishistic art of Allen Jones, which links to the BDSM-themed music and art of Adam Ant, Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, and forniphilia pioneer the House of Gord.

The Mask of the Cambridge Rapist

Jun 162019

Peter Samuel Cook was a serial rapist who attacked women in their homes in Cambridge, England, between October 1974 and April 1975. He was known in the press as the “Cambridge Rapist”.

Cook’s crimes were peculiarly theatrical. Today, we are still grappling with the idea that most rapes are committed by people the victim knew. Cook fit the stereotypical view of a rapist at the time, a socially marginal figure who broke into homes and assaulted strangers. Reportedly, if he didn’t find a victim, he would write taunting messages on their bathroom mirrors.

What’s significant for this discussion is that he wore a black leather hood with the word “RAPIST” literally written across the forehead. What puzzled me was, why and how did Cook get a leather mask? An ordinary cloth or wool ski mask or balaclava would have sufficed to conceal his identity.

Black leather hood of the “Cambridge Rapist”

Belle De Jour (1967): The Celluloid Dungeon

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Jun 122019

Belle De Jour (1967) is a French drama directed by Luis Bunuel and starring Catherine Deneuve.

Note: quotes are from the English dubbing, not the subtitles.

Deneuve plays Séverine (a name probably chosen for its link to Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s Venus in Furs), the beautiful young wife of a surgeon, Pierre. They seem to have the perfect life, but Séverine is sexually unresponsive, what at the time they would have deemed “frigid.” (“Frigidity” is not a term used any more, at least not clinically.) The only way she can be aroused is by imagining herself in scenarios of degradation and slavery.

In Severine’s (Catherine Deneuve) fantasy, Pierre (Jean Sorel) oversees the men whipping his wife.

Interview on the Savage Lovecast

A Lover's Pinch, Interview 2 Responses »

Jun 112019

Peter Tupper standing next to Dan Savage, holding a copy of "A Lover's Pinch" — Me with Dan Savage, somewhere on the way to Portland, OR

After a chance meeting with Dan Savage on the way to Kinkfest 2019 in Portland, OR, he agreed to interview me about my book for his weekly Savage Lovecast. The only hitch is that the segment with me in the for-pay Magnum edition, not the regular edition. You have to subscribe.

Personal Services (1987): The Celluloid Dungeon

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Jun 102019

Personal Services (1987) is a comedy-drama directed by Terry Jones.

The DVD I had begins with text that says “This film is a fiction. The author’s inspiration was a book about Cynthia Payne. However the events recorded in the film and the characters who appear in it are wholly fictitious. This is not the life story of Cynthia Payne.” This is a bit disingenuous, as Payne, a notorious UK madam, is listed in the credits as “Consultant.”

The police raid the establishment of Christine Painter (Julie Walters)

The People Under The Stairs (1991): The Celluloid Dungeon

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Jun 052019

The People Under The Stairs (1991) is a horror film written and directed by Wes Craven

Though categorized as horror, People is better understood as a contemporary Gothic fable. A young African-American man, known by his nickname “Fool”, is desperate to help his poor family in the ghetto. He breaks into the sprawling home of a wealthy couple who are the neighborhood landlords. The couple, who call each other “Daddy” and “Mama”, look and act like they stepped out of the 1950s, but they and their house is not what they seem. (They’re a bit like Paul and Mary from Eating Raoul, just taken a few steps further.)

“Fool” (Brandon Quinton Adams) confronts “Daddy” (Everett McGill)

Interview with Evie Lupine

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Jun 022019

My interview with Evie Lupine.

Announcing my Patreon

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May 232019

I’ve made various attempts at sustaining my research and writing over this project. I’ve decided to launch a page on Patreon. How I will release content on that versus on this blog is something I’m still working out.

Become a Patron!

Link roundup, May 2019

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May 232019

Fernwood Books just published the anthology Dis/Consent: Perspectives on Sexual Consent and Sexual Violence, which includes an essay co-written by Andrea Zanin called “The Bogus BDSM Defence: The Manipulation of Kink as Consent to Assault”. Hopefully this will contribute to the discussion and keep kink from being used to excuse assault, as in the Jian Ghomeshi case from a few years ago.
Case in point: the trial of Keith Raniere, founder of the “sex cult” NXIVM. A high-ranked member of NXIVM ordered $900 worth of sex toys from Extreme Restraints. “Raniere’s attorney, Marc Agnifolo — who has consistently argued that all sexual activities between his client and female NXIVM followers was consensual — took issue with the prosecution’s classification of the BDSM sex toys as inherently degrading….” Rolling Stone
Zetsu Nawa on Kinbaku Today writes about the rapid growth of Japanese-style rope bondage in North America and Europe over the past decade.
Race Bannon explains why gay men aren’t turning out for heterosexual/pansexual kink events. “What turns us on is not democratic and never will be, and gay men typically want to have sex with other gay men in a gay environment.”
A new documentary covers the life of a pioneer of feminist porn, the late Candice Vadala, better known as “Candida Royalle.”
Psychology Today asks if BDSM is a leisure activity or a sexual orientation.
Speaking of, should a K for kink be added to the increasingly-unwieldy LGBTQIAP acronym? MTV thinks so. See the discussion on Quora.
The Cannes film festival includes Dogs Don’t Wear Pants, a BDSM-themed drama from Finland, directed by J-P Valkeapää. It’s about a grieving widower who stumbles into an encounter with a pro domme.
King Edward VII’s custom made sex chair. From the Smithsonian via Jezebel.
NPR’s All Things Considered has a piece on what the vanilla world can learn from BDSM about consent. Podcast & Transcript

Crimes of Passion (1984): The Celluloid Dungeon

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May 132019

Crimes of Passion is a 1984 erotic thriller, directed by Ken Russell and starring Kathleen Turner. Russell is known for his sexy and hallucinatory filmmaking (see Tommy, Lair of the White Worm, Salome’s Last Dance, et al.) so this should be interesting.

Kathleen Turner plays a woman with two sides: one is Joanna Crane, uptight clothing designer, and the other is China Blue, cheerful hooker. Joanna is being stalked by a private detective, Bobby (John Laughlin), hired by her boss. China is being stalked by an unhinged street preacher, the Reverend Shayne (Anthony Perkins), who may want to save her or kill her. The worlds of Joanna and China start to bleed into each other.

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A Lover's Pinch: A Cultural History of Sadomasochism