Impact Play Over the Centuries
Of all the interests that fall under what we today call BDSM, impact play has some of the oldest known records.
Spanking, flogging, canes, and whips—oh my! There are many flavors of impact play, and just as many instances of it throughout history.
There’s a depiction of erotic flagellation, for example, in a 5th-century B.C. tomb. The image, a fresco found inside the Etruscan Tomb of the Whipping, shows two men whipping a woman bent over between them. Everyone in the image is nude and apparently engaging in sexual acts.
Six or seven centuries later, the Roman poet Juvenal references erotic flagellation in the sixth book of the Satires.
Mentions of people willingly being bound or whipped can be found in anecdotal records from the 14th century. However, clearly described beatings for erotic purposes finally were written down for the first time (to our knowledge) in a 1590s epigram.
By 1639, flogging for sexual gratification was reportedly punishable by law in Germany. The 1670’s and 1680’s saw flogging schools referenced in The Virtuoso, a comedy play by Thomas Shadwell. During this time, depictions of consensual impact play began appearing in print media.
Dubbed “the first original English prose pornography,” the novel Fanny Hill by John Cleland includes a flagellation scene. Published in 1749, it is one of the most prosecuted and banned books in history (what an honor!).
Fanny Hill instigated a rush of similar publications and increased interest. Women began offering services with rods and cat o’ nine tails in lecture halls. Erotic spanking and flogging began taking up a large portion of Victorian pornography. Frankly, the Victorian Era was the first true heyday of impact play media.
But it didn’t stop at stories and images. In 1828, Theresa Berkley opened the “Berkley House,” possibly the first ever high-class flagellation brothel. Specializing in chastisement, whipping, and flagellation, she made her living flogging wealthy men and women.
Soon, France, Germany, and the UK were in on the scene as well. Interest in “spanking literature” peaked in the 20th century. Translated French and German works made their way to mass production and a more global reach via paperbacks in the 1960s.
Today, you can find references to impact play across all media types. You can even attend parties, shows, conferences, festivals, and fairs dedicated to performing and/or witnessing the act.
And, as with Theresa Berkley’s customers, you can book a private session with a professional impact artist.
A history of Foot Worship
Foot fetish, foot partialism, podophilia: whatever you call it, there’s just something about feet that draws people in.
Feet are the most popularly fetishized non-sexual body part. (Hard to believe they’re non-sexual when so many people are into them though, isn’t it?)
From worshiping the shape of the ankles, heels, soles, and toes to adorning them with jewelry and giving foot massages, there are endless ways to appreciate feet.
Dress them in socks, stockings, heels or boots. Take in their unique scent. Place them on your face or lie underneath them. The ideas just keep coming!
Research on internet searches in 2006 and 2007 proved foot fetish to be the most searched fetish. Another survey in 2017 found that 17% of men have a fetish interest in feet.
But the love of feet goes much, much farther back.
The first known writings about foot fetishism date back nearly 2,000 years. An Ancient Greek writer, Philostratus, wrote an erotic poem titled To A Barefoot Woman.
In an eighth-century text, Skanda Purana, the Hindu god Shiva is aroused by the sight of Parvati’s feet. Four centuries later, feet make another erotic appearance in writings by Bertold of Regensburg.
Sigmund Freud even published thoughts on foot fetishism in 1914. F. Scott Fitzgerald later referred to having a “Freudian shame about his feet” and was described by a mistress as a foot fetishist.
In the 1950s, American model Bettie Page frequently posed for photographs showing off her feet. At the time, nude photos were legally restricted. Page and her colleagues worked around this by working under the guise of operating artistic ‘camera clubs’.
All these decades later, photographs of Page’s feet, as well as her bondage-themed images and films, continue to draw foot fetishists and BDSM enthusiasts alike.
Today, foot fetishists can proudly claim to share ranks with Idris Elba, Brooke Burke, Enrique Inglesias, Tommy Lee, Ludacris, Ricky Martin, and Todd Philips. All these contemporary celebrities have publicly confessed to having a foot fetish.
Why are feet so popular? Theories abound. At the end of the day, however, maybe it’s because feet are simply worthy of worship.
Hair Fetish Across Time
Like foot fetish, hair fetish goes by many names. Also called hair partialism or trichophilia, this attraction to hair might call for seeing or touching head or body hair.
Into pubic hair in particular? There’s a name for that! Pubephilia.
Particularly into haircuts or shaving? Haircut fetishism is absolutely a thing.
Worship through brushing and combing, shampooing and cutting, or shaving it all off. Some hair fetishists enjoy incorporating hair into bondage knots, playing with buns, and of course, hair-pulling.
It’s common for hair aficionados to prefer a particular style of hair. They may also be drawn to the scent, texture, or even taste of hair.
Women’s head hair in particular is eroticized in various cultures across the world. Many Muslim women, for example, cover their hair in public. They only reveal it to close friends and family—including husbands after marriage.
Meanwhile, many Jewish women begin covering their hair after marriage. The honor of seeing a married woman’s hair is only for her closest family and confidants. In Indian tradition, women are discouraged from cutting their hair. They are expected to maintain long hair tied out of the way for practicality and neatness.
European women were commonly expected to cover their hair after marriage during the Middle Ages. According to the Bible, Christian women are expected to cover their heads while in church and during prayer.
Today in the US, hair is frequently a focus in beauty, fashion, and self-expression. This goes not just for hair on one’s head, but body hair as well. Shaving the legs, underarms, and pubic hair are deemed culturally aesthetic in many circles, while refusing to is often seen as making a statement.
When hair is an extension of a person’s identity, it’s no wonder why hair fetishists are drawn to it. What could be more intimate than interacting with this coveted and cared for extension of the body?
A 2007 study showed hair fetishism to be not quite as popular as foot fetishism. Still, 7% of people confessed to being sexually aroused by hair. That’s 1 out of every 14 people—so not as uncommon as you might think!