The history of bdsm

[kingem125]

Ok so since I am a history buff and I love to watch shows on military history, history, history 2,national geographic,and discovery... I was wondering if there were any shows,documentaries, books, etc. about the history of bdsm form the first recorded record of it until present day or any span of time within that time span....

So tell me about any you know of...I already know of kink and whipped but those aren't about the history of bdsm paticarly you know....those 2 are just about present day bdsm.......

 

[Stella_Omega]

When do you figure the first recorded record of BDSM might be?

 

[kingem125]

Either Egypt,or maybe Rome the Romans were into torture and honestly bdsm is controlled torture for sexually arousal and fun.... And they used torture to entertain the masses, and to keep them from rioting and starting a revolution/ uprising throught as I said distraction...... Or it could be even earlier then that....Honestly idk for sure

 

[Stella_Omega]

The difference between torture and BDSM as we know it-- is consent. If the slaves in Ancient Rome didn't want to be tortured, it wasn't BDSM.

But in fact, pain for sexual arousal did exist and there are some writings about it. One movie you might be able to find is called "Satyricon" by Frederico Fellini. it's freaky as hell, set in ancient Rome and has some BDSM action in it.You won't be able to figure out what's going on, but you might like it anyway.

 

[kingem125]

That's kinda what I ment

 

[Netzach]

Look up "Temple of Mysteries" in regard to Pompeii - there's a lot of flagellation going on.

 

[njlauren]

Probably as old as human kind is, I suspect the desire to be 'tortured' or 'torture' has been out there a long time (I use torture in single quotes to indicate I am talking the 'play' kind, not the real one). Getting a sexual charge out of doing this kind of stuff has been out there a long time, the romans most certainly did and I wouldn't be surprised if the greeks didn't (especially in places like Sparta). There are reports of nobility in medieval times who enjoy flogging nubile young women or in some cases, being flogged, there were kings of England (don't ask me specific names, I don't recall) who were reported to be into that. There is a lot of evidence that the tortures that went on during the inquisition were not all about protecting the faith, the tortures done on women during this dark time were often quite sexual in nature (I am not as familiar with men, but wouldn't surprise me if some of the torture there was sexual, wouldn't surprise me if some of the inquisitors were gay). Plenty of powerful people or famous people were into such games, it was quite common from what I have read in the court of Louis XIV. The famous composer Percy Grainger was a bottom (nee Masochist in the terms of the time), his wife supposedly was quite keen with the whip and such......and read about british boarding schools, well, nuff said.

Put it this way, despite what the 'moralists' of all ilk try to claim, BD/SM is nothing new, it isn't an 'ill of modern society' and the like, it simply has come out of the murk and is more open then it once was.

 

[lonelonghorn]

This is pretty interesting. I will have to research it as well and report my findings!! I suspect like earlier posters have said that BDSM has been with humanity for a long time

 

[catalina_francisco]

There was a discussion here on seeking the history aspect many years ago...can't remember the name of it though, so would take a lot of searching to locate I suspect.

Catalina

 

[kingem125]

This is all so cool I will look into all of the above mentioned

 

[DVS]

You started this thread almost a year ago and you are just now getting back to it?

Well, aside from that, in Victorian times, they used the cane to discipline their slaves. This wasn't just discipline though, because the Victorians had ideas about how to inflict the amount of pain they preferred.

When caned, people will anticipate the stroke and tighten their ass cheeks in an effort to lessen the impact pain of the cane. Victorians were aware of that. I don't know who was the first to notice or how they did, but they were observant enough just the same. They also were aware of the pain a cane could inflict and preferred to deliver as much as possible on their victims.

They really put some thought behind this and somehow found out that ginger root inserted into the anus will cause a certain amount of heat and pain to the tissue there. They also found out that when the victim clenched their ass cheeks in anticipation of the next cane stroke, the ginger root caused an even greater amount of pain. This stopped the victims clenching their ass cheeks.

I'd guess they had told their slaves to stop clenching their ass cheeks but that only worked to a point. So, the elaborate method of using a ginger root butt plug before caning slaves was started.

And it worked rather well. They inflicted more pain and heat with the ginger and inflicted even more pain when the slave tried to clench their ass cheeks, not to mention the additional pain the cane inflicted on a flaccid ass, when the slave didn't clench their cheeks.

If you ask me, this sounds like the mind set of a dom or sadist who really enjoys inflicting pain. The eventual ceremony of preparing the ginger root for a snug fit, cutting it like a butt plug so the slave couldn't push it out, inserting it, waiting for it to take effect, and then proceeding with the caning. Those Victorians had to have a very refined and rather delicious understanding of pain and how to inflict it.

It might not have been the beginning of BDSM where dom respected the submissive's limits, but it seems like the beginning of a real enjoyment for inflicting pain, refining the amount of pain almost to a science and turning it into a ceremony that must of had its own impact on the slave mentally, not just physically.

And to this day, we BDSM players can thank the Victorians for giving us a new toy to play with...figging.

 

[Netzach]

Actually wasn't that basically parental involvement in the upper classes, finding out perhaps that the governess had to cane the kids again? Someone with more British history could chime in, but I think that was actually a large part of growing up - there were far more "unruly" children than there were "slaves" at all. There's absolutely scarcely a person of any class who would be unfamiliar with canes and horse gear shifter implements (crops whips etc.)

There were married M/f couples who did some weird shit that's sketchily documented at most and there were professional flagellants galore, who usually get ignored in discussions obsessed with M/f dynamics, and where the better photographic record exists.

I haven't seen any reliable sources at all on figging, wonder if it's not invented by modern pervs to appear more old school, much as Victorians invented King Arthur as we know him.

Caning was usually for children, adults sexualizing their past experiences leading to the kind of organized SM we might recognize as overt sexuality.

 

[DVS]

I think it was really any "unruly" female, be it slave, daughter, wife, whatever. Young boys, too, but most of what I've read is it was usually saved for women. I've read where they enjoyed spanking in the bedroom, too, being more kinky that we give them credit for. So far, I have no literature that states this as fact, though I do believe the modern human can't be the only perverts.

I've found that maybe someone of that era knew about how it was common to use ginger root in the anus of a horse to make it appear more alert and active during a show. And while I don't understand why someone wouldn't
want their caning victim to clench their ass cheeks (personally, I enjoy watching their attempts at timing the cane), somehow the thought process moved from horse to human. Someone had to experience it the first time before anyone knew how it felt. That's where I think the kinky minds took over.

Ah, Here's just one version of the Victorian methods, though it's not "documented". I would like to find actual literature that specified the practice. I don't think it's a modern day addition.

I'm off to work now, but I'm going to do some more searching and I hope those in the UK will have more information, too.

 

[Netzach]

Brits had abolished in 1833, at least on their soil, and there was no BDSM based trend of women referring to themselves as "slaves" in relationship to husbands (outside of maybe some real fringes) because they pretty much were by the definition "woman". It would have been redundant. So I don't know what "slaves" you're referring to.

Maybe some of the pro flagellant clients and the more underground guys approaching their lives in a more libertine way might have played around with the term, but you can't be talking about anything widespread.

This is like discussing gay history. There has been homosexual activity since day 1, but the entire way that we understand being gay - in some ways didn't fully realize until liberation movements.

Caning was for children and students, the navy had stringent whipping all over it, men had carte blanche to discipline the family physically, and upper class guys usually outsourced the whipping of the kids. Beating on your wife was probably seen as classless if done to excess, so the upper classes put a veneer of gentility on.

With all of the documentation we have on these people's lives, their devices and practices to limit sexuality, their reams of erotic literature and titillating horror stories from papers, why isn't this documented well enough that an American perv claiming it's Victorian can at least point to one scene in one work of fiction from the time and say "they wrote about it right here?"

This said, I doubt that nobody could have figured this out and incorporated it into their personal routines. Probably pre-dates Victoriana, if anything, but we don't know.

 

[Him15]

The difference between torture and BDSM as we know it-- is consent. If the slaves in Ancient Rome didn't want to be tortured, it wasn't BDSM.

But in fact, pain for sexual arousal did exist and there are some writings about it. One movie you might be able to find is called "Satyricon" by Frederico Fellini. it's freaky as hell, set in ancient Rome and has some BDSM action in it.You won't be able to figure out what's going on, but you might like it anyway.

This sounds like the movie adaption of an epic poem written by emperor Nero's style advisor. Its supposed to be about the main character getting messed with the god if male sexuality who makes him impotent at bad times to mess with him

 

[Him15]

Oh and to address the thread itself, earliest i know of for recorded bdsm stlye practices would be ancient sparta, where young boys would be apprenticed out to older more prominent men which would also normally involve a sexual education as well.

 

[Stella_Omega]

This sounds like the movie adaption of an epic poem written by emperor Nero's style advisor. Its supposed to be about the main character getting messed with the god if male sexuality who makes him impotent at bad times to mess with him

That's the bunny all right. It's a whole lot of eyeball circus.

 

[Him15]

That's the bunny all right. It's a whole lot of eyeball circus.

Lol yep pretty much, it was written to be one of those classic epic poems but one whose existence poked fun at all the other epics. Its why it follows a somewhat similar trajectory to the Iliad. You should see the original illustration, hint that is not a third leg on the god of male sexuality

 

[DVS]

I think it was really any "unruly" female, be it slave, daughter, wife, whatever. Young boys, too, but most of what I've read is it was usually saved for women. I've read where they enjoyed spanking in the bedroom, too, being more kinky that we give them credit for. So far, I have no literature that states this as fact, though I do believe the modern human can't be the only perverts.

I've found that maybe someone of that era knew about how it was common to use ginger root in the anus of a horse to make it appear more alert and active during a show. And while I don't understand why someone wouldn't
want their caning victim to clench their ass cheeks (personally, I enjoy watching their attempts at timing the cane), somehow the thought process moved from horse to human. Someone had to experience it the first time before anyone knew how it felt. That's where I think the kinky minds took over.

Ah, Here's just one version of the Victorian methods, though it's not "documented". I would like to find actual literature that specified the practice. I don't think it's a modern day addition.

I'm off to work now, but I'm going to do some more searching and I hope those in the UK will have more information, too.

I found another article that states the figging was first used in Greece.

Figging is the practice of inserting a piece of ginger root into the anus or vagina. Utilized as a means of punishment and humiliation to female offenders in the Victorian age, it was first invented for use on female slaves in Ancient Greece and later also used in the Roman Empire.

This says the kinky stuff started in Greece. I'm still waiting for someone from the UK to chime in. We need some local info.

Figging For Victorian Wives

Another yet unsubstantiated statement, but you just never know. I still think the Victorians were kind of kinky.

Taken from the above link.
"There is some mention of the act of figging in Victorian literature. It could have started with the punishment of school children, but it’s well known, and widely accepted in scholarly circles, that Victorians were quite kinky in their bedroom play and many men of the era enjoyed spanking games with their wives. Since we have evidence that they used methods such as bare hands, caning, and riding crops, it’s likely that someone was watching horses and decided to plug his wife with a bit of ginger while applying a crop to her backside and riding her round the room."

Lab experiment #13 – Figging Another similar version.

 

[Him15]

Greece on a whole did have a very liberal view when it came to sex and sexual exploration.

Also out of the ancient pre-roman civilizations probably has the most documentation on the daily life of the people so its probably the earliest we can date back to reliably for this subject.

 

[DVS]

I found another article that states the figging was first used in Greece.

Figging is the practice of inserting a piece of ginger root into the anus or vagina. Utilized as a means of punishment and humiliation to female offenders in the Victorian age, it was first invented for use on female slaves in Ancient Greece and later also used in the Roman Empire.

This says the kinky stuff started in Greece. I'm still waiting for someone from the UK to chime in. We need some local info.

Figging For Victorian Wives

Another yet unsubstantiated statement, but you just never know. I still think the Victorians were kind of kinky.

Taken from the above link.
"There is some mention of the act of figging in Victorian literature. It could have started with the punishment of school children, but it’s well known, and widely accepted in scholarly circles, that Victorians were quite kinky in their bedroom play and many men of the era enjoyed spanking games with their wives. Since we have evidence that they used methods such as bare hands, caning, and riding crops, it’s likely that someone was watching horses and decided to plug his wife with a bit of ginger while applying a crop to her backside and riding her round the room."

Lab experiment #13 – Figging Another similar version.

It's looking more and more like Greece and also the Romans were first, or one of the first to use figging in the way we presently know it. Maybe the Victorians were kinky enough to understand the process and know how fun it could be, at least for the person wielding the cane.

This is from Wikipedia.
Figging is the practice of inserting a piece of ginger root into the anus or vagina. Utilized as a means of punishment and humiliation to female offenders in the Victorian age, it was first invented for use on female slaves in Ancient Greece and later also used in the Roman Empire. It was also applied to horses in a practice known as gingering.

 

[Netzach]

It's looking more and more like Greece and also the Romans were first, or one of the first to use figging in the way we presently know it. Maybe the Victorians were kinky enough to understand the process and know how fun it could be, at least for the person wielding the cane.

This is from Wikipedia.
Figging is the practice of inserting a piece of ginger root into the anus or vagina. Utilized as a means of punishment and humiliation to female offenders in the Victorian age, it was first invented for use on female slaves in Ancient Greece and later also used in the Roman Empire. It was also applied to horses in a practice known as gingering.

I'll buy the classical origin. I think if the Victorians were doing it a lot they'd be writing about it more, they wrote about all kinds of twisted stuff they were doing, all kinds of butthole insertions. Not a shy people in their private files and folios.

I do think the equine use is interesting, early "doping" in equine sports, perhaps. LOL.

 

[DVS]

While I didn't find anything specific about figging in my search, I did find some pretty strange and sexually related events from the Victorian age. From what I found as punishments for masturbation alone, I think one can assume that maybe figging was incorporated with some of the other "punishments" dished out.

“Punishments For Masturbation Throughout History”

Various slide screens that note just how conservative the Victorians were

A Cyclopedia of Education (corporal punishment through the years begins on page 83)

A MODE OF DISPOSAL OF REFORMATORY SCHOOL BOYS (in PDF format)

Finger Stocks

Crime and Punishment through the years

A list of Victorian School Punishments

Victorian School (The cane and corporal punishment)

Victorian Theories of Sex and Sexuality

I even found links where Victorian wives had slaves. These slaves were always large and well endowed and they were to keep the wives happy while the husbands were away. The slaves were dealt severe punishments by the wives, to keep their secrecy, but as much as I try, I can't find that link again!

 

[Sweetdaisymae]

I cannot go deep into the history, but I can speak of corporal punishment in british schools.
It was actually abolished during the time I was at school (this is from memory only, so please forgive any technical inaccuracies)
At the time, teachers were allowed to use canes, straps and a slipper, this tended to be for younger pupils)
At the schools I went to, punishment was primarily administered to the palm of the hand that you didn't write with and occasionally to the bottom, which was always clothed.
In my school, only the headteacher administered these punishments, and you would be sent to his office with a slip of paper detailing your transgression, and it was up to him to determine the punishment (which could also include detention and writing lines)
I remember when the ban came in, we all went a little wild for a few days, knowing that our hands and bums would remain intact.
Not all schools did it, it was very much up to the headteacher how discipline was maintained.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Figging was not very common in Europe; ginger is a tropical plant and would have to be grown indoors. It was a practice among horse traders though, to get a tired old horse acting frisky long enough to sell. Obviously, the profit off of a horse made the expense of ginger worth while.