Happy Labor Day!  We got you a gift.

Today, we are proud to announce the second installation of the Mistress Michelle Peters collection of historic BDSM photos with a beautiful tribute to some of the men who shaped our world.

Artists, authors and dedicated kinksters from John Sutcliffe to Chuck Renslow, Fakir Musafar to Irving Klaw, we’ve curated some of the most famously and infamously fabulous BDSM legends from the Mistress Michelle collection so you can see the faces of those who came before us.

BDSM Legends: Male Icons 1950s-1990s

 

For those of us who came up in the 1970s-1990s of BDSM, a lot of these faces will be familiar touchstones.  In his own way, each one of these guys helped shape our perceptions of WIITWD with their activism, performance art, BDSM erotica, and kink organizing.  Whenever possible, I’ve linked their names to their biographical information or their BDSM publications so you can learn why we honor them as iconic figures in BDSM history.

With hundreds of books, magazines, illustrations, and foundation-building to their credit, you’ve probably already benefited by their hard work without knowing who to thank.  Several of the men listed are linked to their official biographies on Wikipedia, while others are linked to catalogs of their work.  For Fakir, I linked to a long deep obituary published by the Washington Post.   So this gallery can expand your knowledge of who they were, what they did, and what roles they played in normalizing what other people once called bizarre sexual appetites.

A big shout out to my friends at Alta Glamour whose carefully curated and historic catalog of BDSM-related publications was my go-to source when Internet searches failed!

If you love BDSM history — meaning, our REAL, documented history as a diverse Community — today’s Iconic Men feature will fascinate you. If you yourself have been around our world for too many years to admit publicly, this collection will bring back many tasty, albeit dusty, memories. If you’re still relatively new to our world, expect surprises and revelations about the true diversity of our shared kinky roots.

Students will learn some of the names and faces of people who started doing BDSM before it was even called BDSM, and how those men strove to bring their love of bondage, Master/slave relationships, extreme body modifications, and fetish dressing to the public.

As always, we think of educators first.  Many of these men would make an interesting subject for a class, a paper, even a book.   So consider this your stepping stone to immersing yourself in their lives and legacies, and help keep their memories alive as foundational figures in BDSM/Kink.

Each of them deserves a deeper dive that explores their spirits and commitment to expressing themselves fully, without censorship and without shame at a time when most of them risked imprisonment (and a few of them did get arrested) for being true to themselves.

BDSM Legends: Male Icons 1950s-1990s

 

Don’t forget the first installment of the Collection, which focused on professional FemDoms past.

The Mistress Michelle Peters Collection

 

Bookmark the Visual Library’s main page to see all of our galleries, and keep an eye out for regular updates as the curation project continues.  With thousands of photos to sort through, we don’t expect to be finished until 2019.

BED Visual Library

 

Have fun in BED.  It’s good for your health. 😉