https://bdsm-history.com A documented history of BDSM: the eras that shaped it, the people whose names became words, the organisations that built a community, and the court cases that defined its limits. en Sun, 30 Aug 2026 23:35:17 GMT https://bdsm-history.com/topics/history-of-safewords https://bdsm-history.com/topics/history-of-safewords The history of safewords: the traffic-light system, the absence of any documented origin, and how the convention spread through clubs and then the internet. Sat, 29 Aug 2026 20:22:11 GMT https://bdsm-history.com/eras/early-1900s https://bdsm-history.com/eras/early-1900s Freud, Havelock Ellis and Hirschfeld's Institut; fetish photography history from London Life to Charles Guyette; and the Nazi bonfire that ended it in 1933. Fri, 28 Aug 2026 16:04:02 GMT https://bdsm-history.com/figures/pat-califia https://bdsm-history.com/figures/pat-califia Patrick Califia, who published as Pat Califia: Samois co-founder, editor of Coming to Power, and a central writer of the feminist sex wars of the 1980s. Thu, 27 Aug 2026 15:09:04 GMT https://bdsm-history.com/figures/john-willie https://bdsm-history.com/figures/john-willie The John Willie Bizarre magazine years, 1946 to 1959: Sweet Gwendoline, the house style he invented, and how thin the biography behind the legend really is. Mon, 24 Aug 2026 15:58:29 GMT https://bdsm-history.com/topics/hanky-code-history https://bdsm-history.com/topics/hanky-code-history Hanky code history: the handkerchief signalling system of 1970s gay leather culture, the newspaper-joke origin story, and what pre-internet signalling cost. Sun, 23 Aug 2026 15:33:16 GMT https://bdsm-history.com/figures/gayle-rubin https://bdsm-history.com/figures/gayle-rubin The Gayle Rubin Thinking Sex essay, published in 1984, plus Samois, the charmed circle, and her fieldwork on the gay male leather scene of San Francisco. Sat, 22 Aug 2026 19:38:19 GMT https://bdsm-history.com/topics/dsm-and-depathologisation https://bdsm-history.com/topics/dsm-and-depathologisation The BDSM DSM-5 question: how sadism and masochism went from Krafft-Ebing's categories, through DSM-II and III, to the 2013 paraphilia and disorder split. Thu, 20 Aug 2026 19:51:25 GMT https://bdsm-history.com/eras/internet https://bdsm-history.com/eras/internet BDSM online history from 1990 to 2009: Usenet groups and mailing lists, the spread of munches, the SSC and RACK argument, and the first mass kink websites. Wed, 19 Aug 2026 18:28:14 GMT https://bdsm-history.com/topics/how-sadism-and-masochism-got-their-names https://bdsm-history.com/topics/how-sadism-and-masochism-got-their-names Two surnames became clinical diagnoses, then subcultural identities, then letters in an acronym. The route from Sade and Sacher-Masoch to BDSM, and what was lost on the way. Tue, 18 Aug 2026 17:12:06 GMT https://bdsm-history.com/figures/richard-von-krafft-ebing https://bdsm-history.com/figures/richard-von-krafft-ebing The forensic psychiatrist who coined masochism and fixed sadism as a diagnosis. Who he was, how Psychopathia Sexualis was built, why he took two writers' names, and what the naming cost. Sun, 16 Aug 2026 18:07:03 GMT https://bdsm-history.com/topics/operation-spanner https://bdsm-history.com/topics/operation-spanner The 1987 police investigation, the 1990 convictions, the 1993 House of Lords ruling in R v Brown, and the 1997 Strasbourg judgment. What the case decided and what it left behind in UK law. Wed, 12 Aug 2026 19:50:25 GMT https://bdsm-history.com/topics/bdsm-organisations https://bdsm-history.com/topics/bdsm-organisations BDSM organisations history: TES in 1971, Janus in 1974, Samois, GMSMA, NCSF and the archives, and what formal groups gave that informal networks could not. Sat, 08 Aug 2026 17:02:01 GMT https://bdsm-history.com/eras/1800s https://bdsm-history.com/eras/1800s BDSM in the 1800s, century by decade: Sade's posthumous reputation, Sacher-Masoch's Venus in Furs in 1870, Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis in 1886, and the London flagellation trade behind the English vice. Tue, 04 Aug 2026 21:03:01 GMT https://bdsm-history.com/eras/postwar https://bdsm-history.com/eras/postwar Leather subculture history from 1946 to 1969: Bizarre magazine, Irving Klaw's mail order, the first gay motorcycle clubs, and the bars Life found in 1964. Thu, 30 Jul 2026 17:36:18 GMT https://bdsm-history.com/eras/organising https://bdsm-history.com/eras/organising Leather community history from 1970 to 1989: TES, Janus and Samois, the feminist sex wars, the leather title circuit, and the AIDS crisis that reshaped it. Sun, 26 Jul 2026 18:41:20 GMT https://bdsm-history.com/topics/the-leather-flag https://bdsm-history.com/topics/the-leather-flag The leather pride flag was designed by Tony DeBlase and unveiled at International Mr Leather in 1989. He declined to say what it meant, which is why it works. Wed, 22 Jul 2026 15:30:15 GMT https://bdsm-history.com/topics/ssc-and-rack https://bdsm-history.com/topics/ssc-and-rack Safe sane consensual RACK explained: where each formula came from, what David Stein was doing in 1983, and what the argument between them is really about. Sat, 18 Jul 2026 20:01:00 GMT