History is a long and winding road, and kink history often is forced off that road. For example, we have evidence that people whipped themselves and others for erotic reasons, because we have ancient art that captured those acts. They appear on ancient Greek vessels and in Roman-era frescoes. Sandal sadism is a documented motif, cataloged from a brief trend in the early fifth century BCE: a woman beating a man with her sandal during a sex party. (Bryn Mawr Classical Review of Kilmer, 1995).
Historians often dismiss the evidence by pointing out that people today could not possibly grasp the context or beliefs of the ancients. Fair. Still, kinky people resonate with and recognize the art as kinky. So it’s also fair to suggest that kink and fetishes have been a part of human sexual behavior since (and likely before) recorded history. This lines up with my personal theory that genes play a role in sexual orientations.
For today, I will point to three defining moments in the 19th and 20th centuries that unknowingly opened the path to an organized BDSM/Leather/Fetish scene.
The Berkley Horse (1828)
We’ll start with Theresa Berkley, the central figure in the underground world of establishments that offered kinky and fetishistic entertainment. In 1828, Berkley commissioned a “chevalet” (easel, in English), designed for and by her. It became known as the Berkley Horse. This padded ladder-style frame (see image below), likely made of wood, may well be the first purpose-built flogging furniture.
Flagellation houses and “Governesses” (as professional dominatrices were called at the time) were well known throughout the 19th century, and thrived in private, protected by the status of their clientele. Of course, some of the same people who frequented her probably pretended to be shocked by her in public. Just as we all know of people who oppose porn publicly but gobble it up in private, it seems safe to assume that Governesses had to operate quietly to survive.
The Berkley Horse itself is an easily recognizable ancestor of modern bondage furniture. But this “large-scale toy” (to put it in modern BDSM lingo) became legendary. Now whippings, birchings, and other corporal punishments had a purpose-driven piece of padded furniture to add comfort to their pain.
Her Whipping Horse Made Her Rich
As word spread underground about her enticing invention, Berkley became highly sought after by aristocrats and the wealthy. We don’t have a source for her rate cards, so we aren’t sure what she generally charged. What we do know is that she got rich!
Unfortunately, Ms. Berkley was dead before the camera was invented. No photos of her, the horse, or her establishment’s interior exist. Her correspondence was destroyed, and much of what we know about her comes from unverifiable sources. The horse rode off into the sunset. The Society of Arts received it in 1837, exhibited it, and then it disappeared! Did a private collector steal it? Did a priest destroy it? The mysteries of history are endless. In sum, her cash cow (or cash horse) has never been seen since.
This engraving is all that remains to document how it looked and worked. You’ll note (below) that it was a padded ladder with a back stand and rails to keep it steady. My guess is that the holes were cut approximately where the face, genitals, and legs of the client would be positioned. I see two openings for foot placement, and a (known) hinged step that allowed different body sizes to fit. It also appears to me that there are attachment points for bondage (the three sets of rings).
According to Henry Spencer Ashbee, an erotica bibliographer who wrote four decades after her death, Berkley’s estate was valued at £100,000. That is not from the horse’s mouth, of course, but from someone who never met her. Still, if true, that is roughly $13 million in today’s money.
Sadly, her brother, a missionary in Australia, renounced all claims when he discovered the source of her wealth. Similarly, her executor and personal physician, Dr. Vance, turned it down. Ultimately, the Crown profited from her notoriety. The pot of money her rightful heirs refused returned her wealth to the wealthy.
Sources
- Wikipedia, “Theresa Berkley”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresa_Berkley
- Image from Wikipedia, “Berkley Horse”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkley_Horse
Picture This: The Camera Captured Kink (1839)
The invention of the camera changed the world in so many ways. For sex scholars, one of its most powerful contributions was to capture nudity and sexual behaviors (like kink, homoeroticism, oral sex, fetish, and sex work), along with the acts in each category.
When Louis Daguerre revolutionized the world by introducing the daguerreotype process in 1839, the first photos were prim and grim. Because this process demanded long exposures, subjects had to hold rigid poses for the image to come out sharp. No wonder the subjects always looked so uncomfortable.
Within a decade, beyond capturing everyday life, photographers turned to sexy images. Frenchman Auguste Belloc is arguably the most famous, and one of the first documented erotic photographers. He opened his first studio in 1851, and soon became known for his nude studies. These nude studies were popular with artists who could now replace models with photos. They were even more popular with the public. It led to a whole new industry, with a specialty niche that included nudes, naughty bits, and what we’d call BDSM today: birching, costume play, group sex, and much more.
By the 1880s, fetish-specific imagery appears in the dated photographic record. The Kinsey Institute, for example, has collected erotic photographs from this period. Their collection includes works cataloged as Woman spanking another woman with birch rod (1895–1898), Woman holding a birch rod over a kneeling nude man (1890–1900), Group sexual encounter between a man and two women dressed in clerical costumes (1883–1885). The women are dressed as nuns, and the man as a friar, and I wish more clergy were that friendly.
These and other explicit photos were the basis of the 2015 exhibition “Hold That Pose: Erotic Imagery in 19th Century Photography.” The link is below. Be aware it is as graphic as PornHub.
Sources
- Wikipedia, “Erotic photography”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erotic_photography
- Wikipedia, “Auguste Belloc”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Belloc
- Hold That Pose: Erotic Imagery in 19th Century Photography (NSFW)
The Birth of the Fetish Media Industry (1923)
Fetish imagery hit British newsstands early. A 1910 cover of the magazine Photo Bits shows “The Goddess of the Whip”: a lion-tamer-style dominatrix cracking her whip at a fleeing man.
Photo Bits later merged with other titles to form London Life, and the new magazine was a groundbreaker. From 1923 to 1941, it published kink and fetish content, featuring bondage scenes, tight-lacing, high heels, long gloves, transvestism, rubberism, human ponies, and corporal punishment.
London Life also had a reader correspondence section. While scholars are still debating whether the letters were written by readers or by the editors to spice things up, this remains one of the earliest and most influential examples of a print publication actively organizing a kink/fetish readership into a community.
London Life directly inspired John Willie (born John Alexander Scott Coutts) to launch his own magazine, Bizarre, in 1946. Bizarre, published in Montreal, became the bridge connecting British fetish culture to its American commercial counterpart.
Historian Robert Bienvenu traced modern American fetish culture to 1934, driven initially by Charles Guyette. Guyette was the first American to produce and distribute fetish-related material (costumes, footwear, photography, props) commercially. Pinup king Irving Klaw built on both men’s work in the 1940s. He produced bondage photography and films featuring Bettie Page, and pushed BDSM imagery into mainstream culture.
Sources
- Wikipedia, “London Life (fetish magazine)”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Life_(fetish_magazine)
- Wikipedia, “Photo Bits”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_Bits
- Wikipedia, “List of fetish magazines”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fetish_magazines
- Wikipedia, “BDSM” (Bienvenu framework): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BDSM
- Wikipedia, “Charles Guyette”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Guyette
- Wikipedia, “Irving Klaw”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Klaw
- Wikipedia, “Bettie Page”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bettie_Page
- Stephen K. Stein, BDSM Whips and Whip Making: A Short History, https://stephenkstein.medium.com/bdsm-whips-and-whip-making-a8a2deb0e1f4
Coming Soon
Next week’s blog chronicles how medicine and law turned kink and fetish people into patients and criminals. Stay tuned for the medicalization and legal war years, from an obscure scientist who first pathologized kink/fetish to the courtroom battles that followed.
Photo Source: Bizarre Magazine on Abe Books
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