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In collaboration with the Carter Johnson Library & Collection

Histories of Kink: BDSM history that will make you a better person

Nadège, sex scholar
Pleasure Science
20 min readJan 6, 2025

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Photo of library by Willgard, collage created by the author, all images licensed through Canva.

Does sex imitate life, or does life imitate sex?

This question brought me to the Carter Johnson Library, the biggest sex library in the world, to study the history of kink.

I was searching for clues linking kinky fantasies to our society’s obsession with power. Like the chicken and the egg, I was curious about which came first: power or the eroticization of it.

To try BDSM is to play with power dynamics. Whether it’s adding a blindfold to sex or creating an elaborate scene, power is the secret ingredient that makes kink flow. And yet, outside the world of consensual BDSM, power is elusive and gatekept.

In everyday life, most of us surrender our power to a boss, a government, a legal system (etc.) in exchange for money, stability, and order. Our choices are navigated through a matrix of compromises, leaving us with less control than we care to admit.

Making me wonder if power started to be sexualized when it became something people did not have.

Despite what our world today looks like, human societies were not always built around money, land, borders, and hierarchies. For over…

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Pleasure Science
Pleasure Science

Published in Pleasure Science

Erotic wellness meets science, so you can feel healthier and empowered in your sexuality. Created by a sex scholar.

Nadège, sex scholar
Nadège, sex scholar

Written by Nadège, sex scholar

Sex scholar & bestselling author. Here to nerd out with you about sex and make pleasure feel healthy. Come play with me → PleasureScience.com

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