Whips Chains and Canes
BDSM has been around for centuries before Queen Victoria was born, but no examination of Victorian kink would be complete without at least mentioning the “British taste.” It wasn’t that Victorians were the first to write about or practice all forms of sexual sado/masochism; it was just that they took to it so enthusiastically and brought their own particular flair to it.
oday’s BDSM scene has been shaped by these Victorian influences far more than it had been by the Marquis DeSade and Leopold Sacher-Masoch (who gave us the terms sadism and masochism). Elaborate dungeons, leather catsuits, naughty school girls, birch canes, pony-play, boot worship, and so on can be found in hundreds of photographs, films, and books of the Victorians.
Theresa Berkley was one famous Victorian dominatrix who not only invented the Berkley Horse, a device for flagellation which can be found in any modern well-stocked dungeon, but ran a twenty-four hour dungeon that could satisfy up to a fifty patrons at a time. She, like many others, became minor celebrities in England, France, and to a lesser degree in America. The first manuals on bondage and whip types were produced in the 19th century to facilitate the BDSM underground.
Mistress K Wants her wicked way
