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An Off-the-Curriculum Introduction to BDSM & Fetish Art History

Worldwide BDSM News From The Media Posted on Wed, January 04, 2023 15:44:50

Source: Messynessychic.com.

USA – A little slap and tickle – kinky or otherwise – has been good medicine for us down the ages. Public consumption of the practice of BDSM (Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, Sadochism and Masochism) really came into its own during a ‘golden age’ of fetish art in the mid 20th century. Fetish art has satisfied an enduring need to capture and privately preserve a subject too risqué or taboo for polite conversation. Voyeurism, through lavishly illustrated ‘instruction manuals’, was also a key ingredient of the practice; not only were they creative but also a book of rules: how far, how much and for how long. But richly illustrated records on the subject, albeit in limited quantity, have been around since the time of the ancients, surviving from some of the world’s oldest scriptures, frescoes and even tombs.

See more photo’s on: Messynessychic.com

The tools of BDSM (whips, chains, masks, gags etc) have little changed over the millennia, with the good ol’ whip remaining a key icon. There is psychological arousal both for the dispenser of the ‘punishment’ and also for the receiver. Equally the light action of whipping and spanking activates blood circulation and gets the body more sensitive and releases endorphins, stimulating those parts and creating a pleasure rush in anticipation of sex. The oldest known image of this nature is hidden away in a dark 5th century BCE Etruscan tomb at the Necropoli dei Monterozzi in Italy.

Two naked men are pictured rather politely whipping a naked woman’s backside, while she in return pleasures both. A few centuries later and a little more public, in the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii, a painted plaster wall fresco wraps around a room’s walls showing a descending winged whip-handed female figure apparently dispensing a flagellation ritual to new bride. In this case, it’s thought the whip is not only a symbol of the future male-dominated marriage, but may also be the iconography of a rite of passage, from a carefree maiden to the spinning mistress of the household with the spindle-thread a metaphorical whip-lash.

From the same period, around the 3rd century CE, the Hindu Kama sutra from India celebrates erotic love. Whilst we are now so familiar with the 2,000-year-old guide by Indian philosopher Vatsyayana, within its pages you can also find a section describing “four different kinds of hitting during lovemaking, the allowed regions of the human body to target and different kinds of joyful cries of pain practiced by bottoms”. The ancient Indian Sanskrit text is thus considered “one of the first written resources dealing with sadomasochistic activities and safety rules”.

European art of the 18th and 19th centuries produced many one-off hot and erotic works captured in pencil and oil. With developments in printing, erotic material could be more easy copied and distributed. Do we even need to open the can of worms that is Marquis de Sade’s dungeon fantasies? Lesser-known and mostly visual and voyeuristic, perhaps the best exploration of the bondage theme was Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s Venus in Furs, published in 1870. In this book not just the physical relationship of sexual power is explored, but also the political and psychological. It claims that until there is true equality, women will remain man’s ‘enemy’. The concepts of ‘enemy’ and ‘entanglement’ both physically and emotionally drive BDSM culture.

Fast forward to more modern times, with the industrialisation of printing and photography, fetish imagery could be easily and cheaply supplied to all who were interested. In America, Charles Guyette (1902 –1976) is regarded as the godfather of fetish art, producing and distributing film, fashion and print.

He would also be the first to go to jail for charges of indecency in 1935. Later crowned the “G-String King,” his key contribution was fetish photography featuring thigh-high boots, sharp heels and gartered fishnet stockings with supporting props of whips and hand-cuffs. Guyette was largely unknown in his own lifetime and operated under umbrellas of aliases, but those American and Canadian exponents who succeeded him – Irving Klaw, John Willie and Eric Stanton – would become part of an infamous circle of patrons, publishers, and subculture personalities described by fetish art historian Richard Pérez Seves has designated as the “Bizarre Underground.”

John Willie, British born John Alexander Scott Coutts (1902 –1962), was an artist, fetish photographer, editor and the publisher of the first 20 issues of the now legendary fetish magazine Bizarre, which ran from 1946 to 1959. He had a taste for photographing women in towering stilettos, but also had a hand in creating the fashion they wore. By 1945, he’d created his own line of ‘exotic’ footwear called, “Achilles,” perfected the G-String tie that even Houdini hated getting out of, and created a series of fetish fantasy characters like “Sweet Gwendolyn” and her dominatrix, “the Countess”.

John Willie’s art is accomplished and his published layouts graphically strong, the content lying somewhere between fashion and fetishism; with ladies impossibly balanced on their stilettos, they sport super-tight hourglass waisted corsets, displaying their bulging breasts and gartered legs. The gags and gear are what could now be considered high fashion items: corsets from the best lingerie stores, immaculate bodysuits, endless silk stockings and lacy garters.

Whist Bizarre Magazine was rich with John Willie’s own artworks, it also included photographs, often of his own wife. The magazine folded due to paper shortages of WWII. When he retired, he destroyed most of his archives, except for a few surviving shots.

See more photo’s on: Messynessychic.com

Inspired by John Willie, the self-named the “Pin-up King”, Irving Klaw was a “merchant of sexploitation” who operated a mail-order fetish art business in New York for movies and kinky photographs. Klaw’s work in BDSM media was mainly post-war, a series of striptease and burlesque movies featuring the likes of 50s pin-up girl Bettie Page. Hugh Hefner himself alludes to the domino effect Irving had on her career and ultimately pop culture: “She became, in time, an American icon, her winning smile and effervescent personality apparent in every pose. A kinky connection was added by Irving Klaw’s spanking, fetish and bondage photos, which became part of the Bettie Page mystique; they were playful parodies that are now perceived as the early inspiration for Madonna’s excursions into the realm of sexual perversion.”

In the late 1950s, amidst a new wave of media censorship, a career-ending McCarthy-style hearing branded Klaw as a degenerate pornographer. Bettie Page retired from modeling soon after and Klaw destroyed an estimated 80% of his negatives (while his sister Paula secretly saved some of his work).

Perhaps one of the most influential cartoonists to feature in Klaw’s material was Eric Stanton, another American underground cartoonist and fetish art pioneer who helped shape the movement before its acceptance in the 1970s. Artists like Banksy, Allen Jones and Madonna, among others, took inspiration from his the work, but interestingly, for a decade, Stanton also shared a working studio with Marvel Comics legend Steve Ditko.

Printed comic books in the 20th century saw an exotic pantheon of godlike characters: BatmanSuperman and the likes, all tightly wrapped up in their clingy costumes and sporting fetish whips, chains and straps. Superman had been created in 1938 by artist Joe Shuster, who had also published a series of bondage magazines illustrated very much in the same drawing-style as those of the early Superman comics. The bondage magazine work is darker, openly portraying more pain than pleasure for the recipient. The art is more direct than John Willie’s softer crafted fantasies. Gorgeous girls and sometimes men are held captive, awkwardly chained and bound in dark cellars, near naked in the skimpiest of lingerie while tools of torture are wielded by twisted goblin-like men.

Following in the superhero track, the seemingly uncomfortable combination of feminism and fetishism spills out of William Moulton Marston, the creator of Wonder Woman who, incidentally was also the inventor of the polygraph and in his private life, practised polygamy and BDSM. From her earliest adventures beginning in 1941, she was inevitably bound and gagged by her captors, but always managed an escape to eventually ensnare her enemies with her golden lasso. William Marston wanted to see this as her emancipation, tearing off the bonds of men. Catwoman, Batgirl and the rest have followed suit, whether in leather or PVC – torn or otherwise – bringing fetish fashion to the table.

Fetishism has become commonplace and an intrinsic part of modern Western culture – from Madam Whiplash on the evening news to Allen Jones’ bondage mannequin furniture, the theatre of bondage are played out in the public realm. Even Harvard University has an approved a BDSM student sex club. And if you’re curious to learn more, Chicago’s Leather Archives and Museum is an excellent institution dedicated to preserving leather, kink, fetish, and BDSM history and culture and making it more accessible to the public.



Fetish Artist Miss Meatface on Latex, Polariods, and Suburban Kitsch

Worldwide BDSM News From The Media Posted on Wed, October 12, 2022 00:30:21

Source: Intomore.com.

USA – Latex fetish artist Miss Meatface has likely been gracing your screen on some corner of the internet for the past eight years. Her work is an enigmatic staple from the glory days of Tumblr, and is often reposted on various Instagram accounts dedicated to fetish art and history.

See more and larger photo’s on: Intomore.com.

Known for her latex housewife persona that mixes 1970s kitsch with heavy bondage aesthetics, artist Kat Toronto explores this character (and its subservient counterpart, the Meat Maid) through portraiture. Miss Meatface photographs are typically exhibited as large-scale digital portraits, but Kat has always felt an affinity with her much smaller-scale polaroid work; the medium brings to mind the ‘70s pastiche Miss Meatface is known for.

With her new monograph set to release in 2023 through Circa Press (and funded by Kickstarter), fans will be able to see (and touch) Miss Meatface’s polaroids on a larger scale. Kat now lives permanently in the UK with her partner, but is still much beloved by kinky art nerds in the US like yours truly.

What follows is a meeting of the fetishist minds where we discuss the new monograph, the difference between ‘sexual’ and ‘erotic,’ and why you’re never supposed to mention PVC to a latex fetishist.  

Annie Rose Malamet: I have been an avid follower of your work for a very long time. Like since you started back in –

Miss Meatface: 2014.

I think I saw some images on Tumblr and then I was like, this is so cool. I have to go follow her because I love fetish art as well. You’ve been doing this latex fetish housewife alter ego for a long time. Are there going to be any other characters that you’ve created in this monograph?

So in the monograph are Polaroids that are featured in that specifically are very Meatface-centric. In the beginning, say, late 2014 and going to 2015, those are more recognizable as how you’d think of Meatface today. They’re much more sexually-charged and like you actually see my face and a lot of them they’re a bit more straightforward, just like straight-up fetish. But you can see the progression. And I haven’t really pinpointed it, but I think  the moment that it turned into Meatface proper was when I started wearing the cat side glasses with the latex mask and I stopped showing my face completely.

I guess it’s kind of a different character, but at the same time, I feel like [the character] is more Kat than Meatface. In a way it was the last vestiges of Kat holding onto this, going through this weird transformation. I’ve actually been thinking of turning things more towards me as Kat the artist again. Just so it’s not so focused on the one Meatface character and branching off and trying different personas.

You just said that the photos where you’re more “Kat” are more sexual and in my mind, your work really illustrates the difference between sexual and erotic.

Oh, that’s interesting.

I was reading in your other interviews and you said that the Miss Meatface photos kind of helped you get in touch with another part of yourself while you’re shooting, which isn’t inherently sexual, but because the photos use fetish aesthetics, it is inherently erotic. 

Wow. Yeah. That’s right.

Does that resonate with you? Do you feel like there’s a difference?

Wow. No, that’s a great question. (laughs) Sexual, like I get that, you know, I can feel that, but erotic, it makes it, it sounds so, so fancy. 

I know, it is a fancy word. 

It’s so fancy. Yeah. I’m like, oh gosh, I’m not that fancy. It makes me think of Victorian nudes or something in a beautifully lit studio, perfectly posed and everything. But no, that’s interesting. But now that you’ve said that, I’m going to think about that when I’m working. That’s really interesting. I never would’ve thought of myself like that at all.

I’m so glad. I mean, it’s my favorite. I feel like a lot of kink—as somebody who’s in the kink community—it’s very… people are not having sex necessarily the way that you would traditionally think of sex. So a lot of your poses and scenes that you’re doing kind of echo a kink scene that you would do in a contained space and you’re not necessarily literally having sex. But there is a charged element of it that I would say is erotic because it inherently recalls for the viewer.

Yeah. Yeah. Totally.

Without showing it explicitly.

Yeah!

You get the latex purists that are like, what the hell are you doing? And are just completely turned off by this concept. And then you get like the fashion purists that are like, what the hell are you doing?

I also was kind of going in another direction and I was thinking maybe you might be inspired by seventies camp like John Waters. 

Yeah, absolutely. I’ve been a fan of John Waters for a really long time. When I was a kid, my dad took me to go see Crybaby and Hairspray. I grew up with those films and always loved John Waters. I’m also inspired by—and this goes along with the John Waters inspo—the aesthetic of the sixties and seventies and the garish colors and patterns. I don’t know why I’m so obsessed with and attracted to that aesthetic. It must be because it brings back memories of my grandmother, which—

Sort of ties into your housewife persona. It all comes together to create Meatface. 

Yeah, exactly. So it’s all over the place. 

What does Meatface love about garishness? 

Back when I started, it kind of felt like the idea of putting latex with tacky vintage clothing was like, “Oh my God, you don’t do that.”

Right, because of the traditional aesthetic. 

You get the latex purists that are like, what the hell are you doing? And are just completely turned off by this concept. And then you get like the fashion purists that are like, what the hell are you doing? You know? So I’ve always liked the idea of  let’s just throw in the kitchen sink and then go from there. It’s playing, it’s having fun. 

It’s interesting talking about the latex purists, because I’m thinking about what you just said about the word erotic, you think of it as like a beautifully Noboyushi Araki photo. There’s the old guard fetish community, and everything needs to be tailored and perfect in a certain way.

Very much, yeah. Like head to toe, all full enclosure, no straying off that. And no PVC. Don’t even mention PVC. 

What has drawn you to this idea of the fetish housewife that’s wrapped head to toe in latex?

It really stems from my connection to my grandmother. [My grandparents] were very suburban and formal. That was a foreign language to me growing up as a kid because both of my parents were very eclectic. My dad is a photographer and a journalist who loves John Waters. He went to San Francisco in the early seventies and he became very good friends with Scrumbly from the Cockettes

So that’s my background. Then when [my parents] divorced, on the weekends my dad would take me to my grandmother’s house and she was a pretty significant caregiver for me. So she had a huge impact on me and I grew up in this completely different world when I went to her house. I went from my parents who were big hippies to my grandmother who lived in this perfect house, had shag carpeting everywhere, family photos on the mantelpiece, completely out of my realm. And it was fascinating because it was like, what the hell is this? 

That’s where my Meatface persona kind pulled her energy from, these memories of my grandmother. Because it was such a comforting space. I remembered all the smells and the textures of her drawers, her dresser drawers in her bedroom. And the old perfume and the pantyhose and the stockings and her leather gloves. And this later on in life all translated into a fetish for me. The smells of the old perfume with the pantyhose, stockings, et cetera. Later on, in my work doing Meatface, it turned into this really comforting space for me. Miss Meatface became this persona that I could turn into and be free to explore my sexuality. 

I was also always interested in historical costumes. As a kid, I had my mom teach me how to sew. When I was 12, I made my first Victorian corset reproduction. What middle schooler is staying at home so they could work on their period costume, like an 1860s hoop skirt, and a Victorian corset? 

“Miss Meatface became this persona that I could turn into and be free to explore my sexuality.”

Perverts are kind of dorky about our fetishes. It’s the best. It’s interesting that you are talking about the corset, because I had a question about that. That was your first experience with fetishism when you made this Victorian corset. I personally love Victorian fetish role play because the costumes and the protocol are so restrictive.

Oh yeah. 

And latex too, which is why I imagine those interests have intersected for you.

Yeah, definitely.

Can you tell me about what you love about latex and corset fetishism? Why does that call to you?

With latex in particular, I was first attracted to it because of how it looked in photos. It was so shiny and it just clings and just holds onto your body so magnificently. It’s beautiful. But also once you actually get into it and do full enclosure, like head to toe, it’s an amazing feeling having your senses completely cut off and just being. Once your body warms up and becomes acclimatized to having the head-to-toe latex on, it’s an amazing feeling and it’s so perfect, it’s the perfect temperature. Once you get to that balance, it’s absolutely comforting and lovely. It’s almost like armor in a way. 

It’s just a lovely, comforting feeling. And with corsetry, God, I’ve always just loved the idea of being able to manipulate the shape of the body. I’ve always been into that and I’ve always loved 18th-century side hoops and I’ve loved busts and hoop skirts. Just the way that you could manipulate your form just by creating these things was amazing to me. 

It sounds like the comfort that you feel when you’re in latex or full enclosure is very close to that comfort that you felt at your grandma’s. 

It’s like being wrapped up, you know, being swaddled or something. That’s a lovely feeling. And then if you put sex stuff into it, you know, major bonus.

But sort of like wearing the latex, I find in my experience is almost like sex. 

It is. 

It is a sex act. So tell me about the upcoming monograph and what we can expect. I’m very excited to buy it for my kink coffee table. 

I’m so excited about this book. It’s been in the works since 2018. I have self-published my own work, but  the monograph that I’m doing with Circa Press. It is going to be exceptional and it’s going to be a lovely hardbound book. What really sold me on it when, when I was talking to David from Circa Press about it, is that the Polaroids themselves, they’re not just going to be flat against the page. They’re actually going to be slightly embossed. I’m really excited about it.

My Polaroids in general, they haven’t really seen the light of day outside of a few exhibitions I’ve done at Untitled Space in New York, who I’m represented by. I had a solo exhibition there in July of 2019. There were some [polaroids] in that show, but a lot of times people want to feature the digital stuff, which I understand because it pops, the colors are all there. Polaroids are such tiny little treasures that I absolutely love, but I can understand how they could be difficult for people to get hyped up about just because they are so small and maybe the lighting isn’t so great, and the colors aren’t popping like a giant digital photograph. I’m just excited that this body of work is going to be out into the world so that people can see them. 

The polaroid fits so much into what you’ve been talking about in regards to this nostalgia. You’re really influenced by old-school fetish magazines, like Bizarre. How is your work similar to that? And where are the points that it deviates?

Specifically with John Willie’s Bizarre, I remember seeing a copy of Best of Bizarre Magazine. And I thought, oh my God, these are amazing. John Willie’s illustrations of the women with no arms or their arms pulled back and then turned into ponies and the ballet boots and the extreme thigh-high heels and the pictures of Bettie Page. Just from pure aesthetics, I was like, “oh my God, this is me.”  

But then I started realizing that in his work, it’s all these damsels and distress. Miss Meatface is not a damsel in distress. She’s turning the tables on the whole concept. And my Meat Maid is my damsel in distress. So instead of the women being the helpless little ones, I’ve turned that whole thing around and I’m doing that with my burly Meat Maid. That’s where I have fun with it, just toying with these ideas. When I met my partner (the Meat Maid), I was very much submissive and he was dominant, and that was perfect for me at the time. But after maybe a year and a half or so, the tables completely turned and I decided I wanted to be a villain.  I want to be the one putting the smack down, tying him up and, and putting him in a dress and forcibly putting makeup on him. This all really added to the Meatface persona and the photo shoots. 

That’s wonderful. Can you tell me a little bit about the Meat Maid?

The Meat Maid came into being around 2016. I started incorporating the Meat Maid into photo shoots. Having the Meat Maid there is a wonderful twist to the narratives now. It’s funny because when [I’m in this persona], it’s weird but I kind of think I am channeling my grandmother, but in this latex universe […] it’s the weirdest thing, but it makes perfect sense to me. 

It makes perfect sense to me, too. It’s all inherently weird, but you can just see in your photos how comfortable you are with each other, the connection that you have and how lovingly you’ve curated these scenes.

Yeah. Together.

And that you’re in charge. You’re the creative voice behind it. That’s very obvious.  It just works, the clash of the perfect pristine latex with this garish decor. Like, it is very uncanny, but I think that’s why people are so drawn to it. Do you have some favorite fetish brands or are your pieces custom?

We’re really lucky because my partner has been part of the UK fetish scene for ages, so he knows everybody. Many of our friends work for Libidex, Breathless, and Broke Boutique. We’re lucky in that I either get bits and pieces from people, or I just borrow things. Friends are usually willing to let me borrow clothing for shoots.

During lockdown in 2020, I taught myself how to work with latex. So I was making my own latex waist cinchers and blindfolds. In a pinch, I can put something together. It takes so much space and chemicals. You need lots of space and airflow because you’re working with chemicals, so usually I’d rather borrow pieces. 

Can you speak at all to the difference between the UK fetish scene and the US fetish scene? 

Compared to the UK, the US pales in comparison that the scene. With that said, I really want to attend Torture Garden in Los Angeles. We performed at Torture Garden in New York City in 2019. And that was amazing. 

One more question: what are some of your favorite films that explore fetishism?

Meet Me In St. Louis – there is a fabulous corset-tightening scene between Judy Garland and her older sister as they prepare to attend a ball that stuck with me from the very first time I saw this film as a child!

Pecker– one of my favorite John Waters films that features some awesomely camp BDSM with the added bonus that the film is about a photographer and the “art” scene!

Cabaret – what can I say, I absolutely adore everything about this movie and the sumptuous Weimar-era aesthetics it oozes…

I’m also obsessed with films/shows about mannequins that come alive and ventriloquist dummies. Two shows in particular that had a huge impact on me were two episodes of The Twilight Zone, “The After Hours,” about a woman who forgets that she is a department store mannequin, only to return to the department store to be taunted and tormented by her fellow mannequins. And “The Dummy,” about a ventriloquist who believes his ventriloquist dummy is alive. Another ventriloquist dummy favorite of mine is the 1929 film starring Erich von Stroheim called ‘The Great Gabbo’. I love the concept of dolls or mannequins coming to life, or the other way around, turning into a mannequin or a doll.♦



Rope Bondage Is About Far More Than Sex

Worldwide BDSM News From The Media Posted on Sat, December 04, 2021 17:52:41

Performers like Marceline V.Q. say they are reclaiming rope bondage for modern times.

Source: Thedailybeast.com

USA – As she skillfully tied her partner onto a steel suspension tripod, Marceline V.Q. let her inspiration lead her. Using natural hemp ropes to recreate a scene from Michelangelo’s well-known fresco painting, The Creation of Adam, Marceline pondered every reaction her partner made, as the woman hung in midair.

See more and larger photo’s on: Thedailybeast.com

Her partner’s arm stretched out to reach something powerful yet invisible. Smiling, with her eyes closed, she looked totally absorbed.

“Something I really adore is just the feeling of rope flowing through my hands,” Marceline said, gesturing to mimic the rope moving. “You get into a flow state.”

By day, Marceline, 26, is an engineering researcher and a physics Ph.D. By night, she is a rope bondage artist and educator. Her pseudonym, “Marceline V.Q.,” is adapted from the character “Marceline the Vampire Queen” in the cartoon series Adventure Time, as she wished to keep her academic life separate from her rope bondage gigs. She tries to constantly challenge the world of BDSM—bondage, domination, submission, and masochism—with aesthetic concepts and complex rope techniques.

“When I was starting out, the struggle for me was trying to show people who weren’t involved in this that rope bondage doesn’t have to always be about sex,” she said. Although for her, it is and it isn’t.

Before the pandemic hit, she was invited to perform and to teach a class called the “physics of ropes” all over the country. Combining her artistic and scientific skills, she uses geometry to inspire most of her rope bondage work.

“When creating rope bondage work, I’ll take the idea of translating a four-dimensional object into three dimensions,” she said. “I’m sort of turning off the analytical side of my brain and feeling more than thinking, in a lot of ways. That’s unusual for people doing very intense mental work.”

However, Marceline’s rope bondage experiences weren’t always artistic. Smiling shyly, she admitted the “epiphany” moment came when she was playing a game of “cops and robbers” with her friend when she was 10 years old. Tying her friend’s hands behind the back with a rope, Marceline had this exhilarating feeling of stepping back to appreciate her “artwork” and thinking she wanted to be part of it.

“I think people understand their sexuality a lot earlier than they realized,” she said.

Marceline began her rope bondage journey in 2014 when she found out about several BDSM subculture groups on FetLife, the social network for the BDSM and kink communities. There she discovered “kinkers,” who go beyond what are considered conventional sexual practices. They don’t “practice” rope bondage. They “play” it.

Rope bondage, or “shibari,” originated from the Japanese martial art of restraining captives and then transformed into erotic bondage in the late 19th century, according to the first English instruction book on Shibari. “Shibari is a Japanese form of sex play using rope restraint methods. It may or may not be sexual, but it is certainly centered around joy and delight and play,” said Midori, the acclaimed sexologist and author of The Seductive Art of Japanese Bondage.“Even though most of the work I produced in rope doesn’t tend to be very sexual, I don’t want to completely separate myself from those origins, because that’s why we’re here today.”

The view of rope bondage has not been consistent over time. After studying in Japan for several months in 2017, Marceline says she noticed a slight shift in shibari communities. Some members started to consider rope bondage as art, which completely erased its “messy, dirty” history.

“Even though most of the work I produced in rope doesn’t tend to be very sexual, I don’t want to completely separate myself from those origins, because that’s why we’re here today,” Marceline said.

Midori also believes that learning rope bondage’s origin is essential. “Saying, ‘I am practicing this as art’ is pretentious,” said the sexologist, furiously. “It’s about elevating one’s own social prestige.”

Following the release of the erotic book Fifty Shades of Grey, kink subcultures gained mainstream momentum in 2011. Kink behaviors are common among adults in America, according to a 2017 study from Indiana University’s Center for Sexual Health Promotion. More than 30 percent of those surveyed acknowledged they had engaged in spanking, more than 22 percent engaged in role-playing, and more than 20 percent engaged in rope bondage.

Fifty Shades of Grey changed the way people view kink and opened up the conversation about consent,” said Susan Wright, the spokesperson of the National Coalition of Sexual Freedom (NCSF), a nonprofit organization that advocates for the sexual freedom of all adults.

Although a number of films and books have thrust BDSM into the realm of popular culture, rope bondage is still taboo for a lot of people. Some feminist activists expressed strong opposition. “I do not believe meaningful sexual liberation is achieved through replicating the same dominance-subordination dynamics of institutionalized male dominance,” said Caitlin Roper, a feminist activist and a Ph.D. candidate researching female-shaped sex dolls. “With an understanding of feminism as a collective movement to liberate women as a whole from patriarchal oppression, I do not believe there is a feminist case for male violence and degradation of women, even if some women consent to it or say they like it.”

In the past few years, the National Coalition of Sexual Freedom saw a rising number of female dominant and queer people in kink subcultures. Marceline has mixed views toward the use of gender in the interpretation of BDSM. “Feminism is about giving women the agency to decide what’s best for themselves. I am one of those women who finds sexual liberation in kink subcultures, but there’s certainly an opportunity for really shitty people to get involved in the scene and use that for their own purposes,” she explained.

Reclaiming rope bondage’s versatility in the modern context, Marceline now believes that kink subcultures can be both sexual and visceral. She enjoys the interplay between the physical posing and the emotional components of it.

“You can think of rope like an intimate massage, or you can think of rope like a workout or therapy,” she said. “It’s like dancing.”



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