Origin story

I had the pleasure of giving a class on the Perception of Kink in Popular Culture at Dark Odyssey Winter Fire in February and as I was preparing my presentation, it occurred to me that I really think this could be a book. I'm not sure what exactly it will be, something in between an academic exploration and a Taschen book. So, I'm going to be using this blog as a kind outline and a place to organize my ideas and thoughts and hopefully get some inspiration and information from all of you.

So here's where all of this started for me:

There were three things I can trace back to the origins of interest in BDSM.

Allen Jones, Table, 1969

The first was this photo of this Allen Jones (1969) sculpture. I'm not sure where I saw it, I'm assuming it was from one of my father's art magazines. I don't remember what I thought of it at the time or what I thought it meant, but it stuck with me and has never really left.

The Jones inspired Korova Milk Bar scene in A Clockwork Orange, 1971

The second was the nymphomaniac scene in Fellini’s Satyricon. Here, the hero who is suffering from some erectile dysfunction is sent to a man in the middle of the desert. To cope with his wife's uncontrollable nymphomania, she is kept tied up in a wagon, available for the use of any man who wants her.

Fellini’s Satyricon, 1969

The third is My Fair Lady. With it's blatant pygmalionism and dominant / submissive power exchange, I always thought it was one of the kinkiest movies ever made.

My Fair Lady, 1964

Bill Ward

Then I discovered porn, Anne Rice and the Sleeping Beauty trilogy and I started to learn what S&M was "supposed" to be and the visions I had in my head were replaced by what was essentially an Ellen Von Unwuerth photo.

Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth, 2003

That picture in my head turned out to be the picture in most people's heads, too. An ex-boyfriend once told me that he wasn't kinky, he just liked the way it looked. I understood what he meant immediately. I had a pretty clear image in my head and you probably have a similar image in your head, but then I thought what does that mean?

What does kink look like?

Human Fetish

Doujin Kim

Remember Me Vibrator

Tom Sachs

The Tudors

Forniphila in advertisng: The Tudors

What if Kate Spade designed a dungeon?

I was shopping for a wallet the other day. I'm one of those people who consider gray a color and the majority of my wardrobe is black with the occasional splash of color and that color is usually red. However, these days I keep leaning towards yellow. Bright, blinding, sunshiny yellow.

Cute right? I think my subconscious is rebelling against the overwhelming use of black and red in all things sexy and kinky. One of the reasons why I started blogging about this stuff was because I was frustrated with the seemingly limited visual vocabulary used in dungeons, clothes, websites, book covers... anything related to BDSM. If it was kinky, it was in black and red. I get it completely, both colors signify an after-hours sultriness. Black is sexy and dangerous, the color of leather. Red is bold and visceral, the color of blood.



Color is a tool for communication and one important aspect of branding is being able to "own" a color: Hermés orange, UPS brown, Tiffany blue. Halloween has orange and black. Christmas owns green and red. Sex seems to be red and black. But is that it? Is there room for a color palette that represents the vast spectrum that is human sexuality? The hanky code is a great example but seems to be limited to the bandana in the back pocket. I'm not personally into Littles, but at least they wear bright colors!

I always find it interesting that in most clubs if you are not in fetish wear the minimum requirement is to be in all black. What if my fetish is for tweedy English professors or jockeys? I've had this vision in my head of a dungeon that was on the top floor of a building, with huge floor to ceiling windows with sunlight streaming in and billowy white curtains flowing through open windows, and all my play parties would be on a Sunday afternoon, after brunch, and there would be Kir Royals and fresh flowers... but I digress.

Is someone wearing all pink automatically assumed to be channeling a little girl? Would a sadistic dominant wearing all bright green seem as authoritarian?

Writer Sarah Vowell told a story on This American Life about getting a "goth makeover". Part of the process was choosing a "goth name". Vowell chose Becky. Her stylists said that she had transitioned so past the obvious and went right into the heart of darkness. They called this being "in the pink".

I was once at a kink event and walking around the dungeon was a young man dressed completely in white. He seemed so much more transgressive and subversive than everyone around him. I also bet he could find his clothes in the dark faster than anyone else.

K+C Holiday Gift Guide

One of my favorite part of the holidays (sadly) is the abundance of "gift guides". Here are some suggestions for the freak in your life. Or me.

This isn't kinky or anything. I just really like LCD Soundsystem and I think everyone should see this.

American Horror Story

The first season of American Horror Story, tells the story of a contemporary, California family who happens to move into a house haunted by the ghosts of decades of gruesome murders. Throughout the series, a mysterious man in a black latex body suit appears as an ominous figure. Depending on who (or what) is wearing the suit, the Rubber Man goes back and forth from being kinky but innocent to dangerous and evil. Then there's the sexy temptress (or is she?) of a house keeper in your classic, sexy French maids uniform who bends over at every opportunity and masturbates in front of her employer.

Now in season two, American Horror Story: Asylum, the season starts with a couple who get off on fucking in haunted locations, this particular location being an asylum for the criminally insane. Taking place in the asylum's heyday in the 60s, it's run by a domineering nun with a mighty impressive collection of canes and a psychotic doctor with a bondage fetish.

While definitely creepy (the title sequence is really, really freaky), it's also wonderfully campy. American Horror Story is practically an encyclopedia of sexual fetishism. It's creators seem hell bent on slipping in a kink in every episode: latex, rape, bondage, sexy maid, slutty nuns, mad doctors, nymphomaniacs, chronic masturbators, and lots and lots of caning. The combination of sex and scary movies isn't anything new. How many horror movies start with the sexy, college kids sneaking off to screw? But it may not be just a "sex sells" approach to movie making. Studies have shown a link between anxiety-provoking situations (i.e. scary movies) and increased sexual arousal.

So the next time you want to get into the mood, maybe nix The Notebook for The Shining.