333 images (+111)

early 1800s ↘↖

1819.  One of the most famous male-sub paintings of all time… devotedsub: touchoflavender: The Torture of Prometheus ~ Jean Louis Cesar Lair

1819.  One of the most famous male-sub paintings of all time…

devotedsub:

touchoflavender:

The Torture of Prometheus ~ Jean Louis Cesar Lair

(via myxself)

21 February 2012 • reblog: touchoflavender • mythology prometheus bondage chains fig leaf animals birds oil painting early 1800s

A great deal of vore eroticism utilizes what we might call the “Jonah fallacy”: that animals eat people by swallowing them whole, into an unpleasant but livable environment, from which they can then be rescued. So there’s a (potential) happy ending, and there’s also an offsetting “bizarre” element, ‘cause in real life getting eaten by animals is pretty gross and irreversible.

A great deal of vore eroticism utilizes what we might call the “Jonah fallacy”: that animals eat people by swallowing them whole, into an unpleasant but livable environment, from which they can then be rescued.

So there’s a (potential) happy ending, and there’s also an offsetting “bizarre” element, ‘cause in real life getting eaten by animals is pretty gross and irreversible.

16 February 2012 • animals early 1800s fish jonah religion vore whale woodcut bible jonah fallacy

John Ruskin, 1819-1900. The great English critic probably died a virgin, and his own sexuality was probably somewhere in the orbit of pedophilia.  He is famous for having refused to have sex with his bride, Effie Gray, after learning on their wedding night that “there were certain circumstances in her person” which were not “formed to excite passion”.  Pubic hair?  Menstrual blood?  Inner labia?  The debate rages on. Anyway, it took him by surprise.

John Ruskin, 1819-1900.

The great English critic probably died a virgin, and his own sexuality was probably somewhere in the orbit of pedophilia.  He is famous for having refused to have sex with his bride, Effie Gray, after learning on their wedding night that “there were certain circumstances in her person” which were not “formed to excite passion”.  Pubic hair?  Menstrual blood?  Inner labia?  The debate rages on.

Anyway, it took him by surprise.

4 November 2011 • early 1800s engraving virginity pubic hair wedding suit

Chinese drawing, probably 1800s.  Lacking the cultural cues, it’s hard for me to guess who these folks are—the fact that there are two women suggests a brothel. Anyway, I love the assistant, holding the other girl’s leg up and making sure her hand doesn’t get involved.  It makes me think the girl on her back is a little scared… The guy, meanwhile, looks like he’s forgotten what he’s doing.

Chinese drawing, probably 1800s.  Lacking the cultural cues, it’s hard for me to guess who these folks are—the fact that there are two women suggests a brothel.

Anyway, I love the assistant, holding the other girl’s leg up and making sure her hand doesn’t get involved.  It makes me think the girl on her back is a little scared…

The guy, meanwhile, looks like he’s forgotten what he’s doing.

(Source: schundundschmutz)

27 September 2010 • reblog: schundundschmutz • china threesome assistance Mf clothed sub cock vulva painting early 1800s

Japanese sex toys.   The Kama Sutra also gets credit for the first known description of explicitly sado-erotic toys (a variety of breast torture devices mentioned in II:7).  In the style of BDSM writing fifteen centuries later, it exhorts people to be careful, and mentions two women—Madhavasena and Queen Malayavati—who died accidentally during sadoerotic play. missandpet: The tools of the trade.  posted by Miss

Japanese sex toys.  

The Kama Sutra also gets credit for the first known description of explicitly sado-erotic toys (a variety of breast torture devices mentioned in II:7).  In the style of BDSM writing fifteen centuries later, it exhorts people to be careful, and mentions two women—Madhavasena and Queen Malayavati—who died accidentally during sadoerotic play.

missandpet:

The tools of the trade.  posted by Miss

27 September 2010 • reblog: • japan india early 1800s toys dildo cock ring color ink

Pressing Margaret Clitheroe to Death, engraving, 1800s. Pressing, or “Peine Forte et Dure,” is one of the most international forms of torture (and execution).  The bulk of all the torture devices that humanity has dreamt up are some variation on the press: presses for fingers, for feet, for shins, for the skull, for the whole body.  At Abu Ghraib, prisoners were pressed between guerneys—very much like St. Margaret, above—and piled on top of each other for a similar effect. It would be relatively simple to do this safely in the context of a BDSM scene.  But we don’t.  With the exception of nipple clamps and clothespins (which are, themselves, absent from “real torture”), no one seems to have a kink for pressing devices. I wrote about this pattern last year.  Even though kink borrows tropes from lots of horrible places—torture, prisons, rape, domestic abuse, livestock—we tend to modify them in ways that make it readily identifiable what’s going on.  Not always, but often.

Pressing Margaret Clitheroe to Death, engraving, 1800s.

Pressing, or “Peine Forte et Dure,” is one of the most international forms of torture (and execution).  The bulk of all the torture devices that humanity has dreamt up are some variation on the press: presses for fingers, for feet, for shins, for the skull, for the whole body.  At Abu Ghraib, prisoners were pressed between guerneys—very much like St. Margaret, above—and piled on top of each other for a similar effect.

It would be relatively simple to do this safely in the context of a BDSM scene.  But we don’t.  With the exception of nipple clamps and clothespins (which are, themselves, absent from “real torture”), no one seems to have a kink for pressing devices.

I wrote about this pattern last year.  Even though kink borrows tropes from lots of horrible places—torture, prisons, rape, domestic abuse, livestock—we tend to modify them in ways that make it readily identifiable what’s going on.  Not always, but often.

30 June 2010 • pressing torture engraving female sub Mf execution religion clothed sub early 1800s

Barring some clarifications in the translation of the Kama Sutra, the Berkely Horse (or Chevalet) is probably the first BDSM toy.  I mean, it’s the first device that we know was designed specifically for causing erotic pain or bondage or submission.  Those birch bundles lying around the base were obviously meant for playing with, too, but birching didn’t originate as a sexual practice.  Yes? Theresa Berekely (or someone in her brothel) invented this modified step-ladder around 1828.  The man in question would be bound face-down to the padded side, and one woman would (optionally) masturbate him while another beat him.  

Barring some clarifications in the translation of the Kama Sutra, the Berkely Horse (or Chevalet) is probably the first BDSM toy.  I mean, it’s the first device that we know was designed specifically for causing erotic pain or bondage or submission.  Those birch bundles lying around the base were obviously meant for playing with, too, but birching didn’t originate as a sexual practice.  Yes?

Theresa Berekely (or someone in her brothel) invented this modified step-ladder around 1828.  The man in question would be bound face-down to the padded side, and one woman would (optionally) masturbate him while another beat him.  

25 June 2010 • theresa berkeley toys early 1800s pen and ink whipping stick bundle furniture

David Roberts, 1846, A Slave Market in Cairo Orientalist artists flocked to the Middle East to find exotic subject material.  This lithograph is from 1846—Roberts could have far more conveniently gone to Virginia and painted a slave market there.  But that wouldn’t be exotic, right? All the same, this looks like a very realistic portrayal.

David Roberts, 1846, A Slave Market in Cairo

Orientalist artists flocked to the Middle East to find exotic subject material.  This lithograph is from 1846—Roberts could have far more conveniently gone to Virginia and painted a slave market there.  But that wouldn’t be exotic, right?

All the same, this looks like a very realistic portrayal.

21 June 2010 • lithograph painting early 1800s orientalism slave slavery Mf clothed sub female sub sale

Andromeda Chained to the Rock by the Nereids, 1840, Theodore Chasseriau (digital restoration by Brian Yoder) I think this picture shows a lot of influence from contemporary slave imagery: her hopeless expression, the chains everywhere, and (for me the sexiest part) the impassive gazes of the nereids binding her to be sacrificed.  We don’t see her at the point of being rescued, but at the moment where she hears the chains being locked. But, once again, she’s white.  (Greek, in fact!)

Andromeda Chained to the Rock by the Nereids, 1840, Theodore Chasseriau (digital restoration by Brian Yoder)

I think this picture shows a lot of influence from contemporary slave imagery: her hopeless expression, the chains everywhere, and (for me the sexiest part) the impassive gazes of the nereids binding her to be sacrificed.  We don’t see her at the point of being rescued, but at the moment where she hears the chains being locked.

But, once again, she’s white.  (Greek, in fact!)

20 June 2010 • Ff assistance animal peril andromeda hierarchy naked sub fig leaf chains hard media soft media mythology early 1800s painting

The Greek Slave, Hiram Powers, 1844 This statue, endlessly imitated, is probably the most important piece of American sculpture before 1900, though it was carved in Italy and is now in England. It was seen as icon of the Greek struggle against the Ottomans, but also as a symbol of Christianity, of abolitionism in the United States, and of early feminism.  (Lucy Stone famously burst into tears when she first saw it, seeing it as a symbol of the oppression of women.) But I’m interested in the kink. Three shifts in the representation of the slave-girl are happening.  She’s more obviously presented as a sex symbol; she seems happier (Powers explains that she’s shielded by her Christian values); and…she’s a white girl enslaved by non-whites.  Not that actual Greeks were considered white in the 1840s, but this is how the Greek/Turkish conflict was interpreted in the minds of Western Romantics.

The Greek Slave, Hiram Powers, 1844

This statue, endlessly imitated, is probably the most important piece of American sculpture before 1900, though it was carved in Italy and is now in England.

It was seen as icon of the Greek struggle against the Ottomans, but also as a symbol of Christianity, of abolitionism in the United States, and of early feminism.  (Lucy Stone famously burst into tears when she first saw it, seeing it as a symbol of the oppression of women.)

But I’m interested in the kink.

Three shifts in the representation of the slave-girl are happening.  She’s more obviously presented as a sex symbol; she seems happier (Powers explains that she’s shielded by her Christian values); and…she’s a white girl enslaved by non-whites.  Not that actual Greeks were considered white in the 1840s, but this is how the Greek/Turkish conflict was interpreted in the minds of Western Romantics.

20 June 2010 • early 1800s sculpture stone chains bondage slave slavery female sub naked sub