BDSM is a variety of often erotic practices or roleplaying involving bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and other related interpersonal dynamics. Given the wide range of practices, some of which may be engaged in by people who do not consider themselves to be practising BDSM, inclusion in the BDSM community or subculture often is said to depend on self-identification and shared experience.
A dominatrixfemale domination or femdom is a woman who takes the dominant role in BDSM activities. A dominatrix can be of any sexual orientation, but this does not necessarily limit the genders of her submissive partners. Dominatrices are known for inflicting physical pain on their submissive subjects, but this is not done in every case. In some instances erotic humiliation is used, such as verbal humiliation or the assignment of humiliating tasks. Dominatrices also make use of other forms of servitude. A dominatrix is typically a paid professional (pro-domme) as the term dominatrix is little-used within the non-professional BDSM scene.
Erotic spanking is the act of spanking another person for the sexual arousal or gratification of either or both parties. The intensity of the act can vary in both its duration and severity, and may include the use of one or more spanking implements. Activities range from a spontaneous smack on bare buttocks during sexual activity to sexual roleplaying, such as ageplay or domestic discipline. Erotic spanking is often found within and associated with BDSM, however the activity is not exclusive to it. The term spankee is commonly used within erotic spanking to refer to the individual receiving a spanking.
The Index Librorum Prohibitorum was a list of publications deemed heretical or contrary to morality by the Sacred Congregation of the Index, and Catholics were forbidden to read them.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1877.
Theresa Berkley or Berkeley was a 19th-century English dominatrix who ran a brothel in Hallam Street, just to the east of Portland Place, Marylebone, London, specialising in flagellation. She is notable as the inventor of the "chevalet" or "Berkley Horse", a BDSM apparatus.
Henry Spencer Ashbee was a book collector, writer, and bibliographer. He is notable for his massive, clandestine three-volume bibliography of erotic literature published under the pseudonym of Pisanus Fraxi.
Cock and ball torture (CBT), occasionally known as penis torture, dick torture, or male genitorture/male genital torture, is a sexual activity involving the application of pain or constriction to the penis or testicles. This may involve directly painful activities, such as genital piercing, wax play, genital spanking, squeezing, ball-busting, genital flogging, urethral play, tickle torture, erotic electrostimulation, kneeing or kicking. The recipient of such activities may receive direct physical pleasure via masochism, or emotional pleasure through erotic humiliation, or knowledge that the play is pleasing to a sadistic dominant. Many of these practices carry significant health risks.
The Society of Janus is the second BDSM organization founded in the United States and is a San Francisco, California based BDSM education and support group.
Impact play is a human sexual practice in which one person is struck by another person for the gratification of either or both parties which may or may not be sexual in nature. It is considered a form of BDSM.
The Right Hon. Andrew Rutherfurd, Lord Rutherfurd, was a Scottish advocate, judge and politician.
Rosa Coote is a fictional dominatrix appearing as a stock character in a number of works of Victorian erotica, including The Convent School, or Early Experiences of A Young Flagellant by William Dugdale and "Letters to a Lady Friend" or "Miss Coote's Confession" in The Pearl. Henry Spencer Ashbee writes of The Convent School that "The book is not altogether badly written; no part of the narrative however is attractive".
Edward Sellon (1818–1866) was an English writer, translator, and illustrator of erotic literature.
The Mysteries of Verbena House, or, Miss Bellasis Birched for Thieving is a pornographic novel of flagellation erotica set in a girls' school, written under the pseudonym Etonensis by George Augustus Sala and completed by James Campbell Reddie. It was published in 1882 in a limited edition of 150 copies at the price of 4 guineas.
James Campbell Reddie was a 19th-century collector and author of pornography, who, writing as "James Campbell", worked for the publisher William Dugdale. According to Henry Spencer Ashbee, Reddie was self-taught and viewed his works from a philosophical point of view.
George Cannon (1789–1854) was an English solicitor, radical activist and publisher and pornographer who also used the pseudonyms Erasmus Perkins and Philosemus.
The Library Illustrative of Social Progress was a series of pornographic books published by John Camden Hotten around 1872. They were mainly reprints of eighteenth-century pornographic works on flagellation. Hotten claimed to have found them in the library of Henry Thomas Buckle (1821–1862) but Henry Spencer Ashbee counterclaimed that they were in fact from his collection.
Experimental Lecture is an English pornographic book published in 1878 by the pseudonym "Colonel Spanker" for the "Cosmopolitan Society of Bibliophiles", an imprint of Charles Carrington. The Colonel and his circle have a house in Park Lane where genteel young ladies are kidnapped, humiliated, and flagellated.
Religious censorship is a form of censorship where freedom of expression is controlled or limited using religious authority or on the basis of the teachings of the religion. This form of censorship has a long history and is practiced in many societies and by many religions. Examples include the Edict of Compiègne, the Index Librorum Prohibitorum and the condemnation of Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses by Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Magdalena Heymair was a teacher and Lutheran evangelical poet who wrote in the Middle Bavarian dialect. Born a Roman Catholic, she converted to evangelical Lutheranism. In her educational songs for children, she often emphasized the role of women in the Bible. Magdalena Heymair is the first and only woman prior to the 18th century to publish pedagogical writings for elementary teaching. She is also the first woman to have her works listed as heretical in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (1569).
