How Did BDSM Originate?

Pravda has certin gotten a bit odd since the days when it was one of the Soviet Union’s most visible engines of propaganda. But it is always interesting to see how the mass media views BDSM practices and the fetish subcultures. Here’s a bit of homespun psychohistory:

According to sexologists, almost every person had a share of fantasies (pictures) related to eroticization of power underlying pain, violence and submission at least once. The point is that the manifestations of sexuality in the animals are closely connected with their standing in a pack or flock. The humans inherited this interconnection. It took thousands of years of human history; the invention of romantic love; the establishment of the positions of kings, presidents, generals and heads of departments; the abolition of slavery; the emancipation of women; and the adaptation of the Universal Human Rights Declaration to lessen the strength of the interconnection. The modern human being has no right to aggression and violence (only the state has such a right). However, once banished into the subconscious, aggression and violence tend to break free in the shape of sexual dreams and various esthetic trends.

Though sadomasochism is arguably as old as the human race itself, the origins of the BDSM subculture can be traced back to gay male leather culture, which formalized itself out of the group of men who were U.S. soldiers returning home after World War II. …

Sadomasochism heals hidden sexual complexes and fears