Bondage pornography

Bondage pornography, also referred to as bondage erotica is the depiction of sexual bondage or other BDSM activities using photographs, stories, films or drawings. Though often described as pornography, the genre involves the presentation of bondage fetishism or BDSM scenarios and does not necessarily involve the commonly understood pornographic styles. The genre often prioritizes the aesthetics of physical restraint over explicit depictions of sexual acts or nudity.

History

Before 1970s

In the early 20th century, bondage imagery was available through "detective magazines", and comic books often featured characters being tied up or tying others up, particularly in "damsel in distress" plots.

There were also a number of dedicated fetish magazines which featured images of fetishism and bondage. The first of such magazines in the United States was Bizarre, first published in 1946 by fetish photographer John Willie (the phallic pseudonym of John Coutts), who developed the concept in the 1920s. Willie was able to avoid controversy in censorship through careful attention to guidelines and the use of humor.

Willie is better remembered for his Sweet Gwendoline comic strips.The comic strips were published largely in the 1950s and 60s.

Though Bizarre was a small format magazine, it had a huge impact on later kink publications, such as ENEG's fetish magazine, Exotique, published 1956–1959. Exotique was entirely devoted to fetish fashions and female-dominant bondage fantasies.