- Making Over Maris—A Funny, Scorching FemDom from Sabrina York
- Kinky Girl brings the BDSM Bookapalooza!
- Annie Nicholas and Open Relationships
- Sidney Bristol–What is this BDSM thing?
- Giveaway Alert with Carrie Ann Ryan!
- Zenobia Renquist and BDSM
- Giveaway Alert with Gia Dawn and Taste of Winter
- Elise Logan dishes about Tentacle Fetishes
- Kayla Lords: The Adventures of Sir and Babygirl
- Kayla Lords: What Being a Babygirl Means to Me
- Giveaway Alert! Sidney Bristol and Bound with Pearls
- Serena Biggs: Spouses who share
- Giveaway Alert: Roni Loren and Need You Tonight
- Keira Kohl: A swinging apartment complex
- A. Catherine Noon and Rachel Wilder: Realism
- A. Catherine Noon and Rachel Wilder: In the Lifestyle
- Delphine Dryden: Feels Like the Last Time
- Lea Griffith: The Things We Think We See
- Eden Bradley~A Kinky Writer Talks BDSM and Books!
- Shelley Munro, spanking and The Bottom Line
- Stacey Kennedy: What do you wear when you’re sizzling hot?
- Joey W. Hill: BDSM : For the body AND soul by Joey W. Hill
- Giveaway Alert: Holly Trent and O For Two
- JB Brooks: The Ins and Outs of Pervertables
- Giveaway Alert: Elle Wylder and Saving Grace
- Lex Valentine: My Road to Writing BDSM
- Liv Honeywell: Tease and Denial
- Tina Donahue: The delicate balance of pleasure.
- Cari Quinn: No Romance Required
- Roz Lee: I never meant to write kink…
- Rayne Millaray: being a 24/7 owned pleasure slave
- Giveaway Alert: Portia Da Costa and Delicious Pain
- Jennifer Kacey: A rope girl learning whips.
- Jodie Griffin: The Lighter Side of Kink
- Jennah Scott: Exploring BDSM
- Sadie Haller: Kink is music to my ears.
- Tilly Greene: Ups and Downs of Trying Something New
- Stories from the BDSM Life: Chevrolet
- #BDSMBookapalooza and Kinky Girl have come to an end.
Welcome Elise Logan
Giveaway Alert! Don’t forget about the giveaways posted yesterday. You can still win a book from me, Carrie Ann Ryan’s contest is still running and Gia Dawn is giving away not only a digital copy of her book but some neat prizes as well. Don’t miss those!
Kink isn’t some new phenomenon. Okay, maybe some kinks are products of a digital age, but most of them are as old as humanity. As long as people have been getting it on, there have been those willing to experiment and push the boundaries.
One of my favorite kinks, tentacles, is a much older kink than most people believe, and it isn’t all rape-tastic in the style of Urotsukidoji (info) (vid– NSFW)or La Blue Girl (info). The history stretches back, most notably in Japan, into cultural memory, with legends including that of the Akkorokamui (a giant octopus-like sea monster with the reputed ability to heal by touch).
Japanese shunga (erotic art) contains examples of tentacle erotica from the early 1800s, including the infamous The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife by Katsushika Hokusai.
From this type of erotic art, the creation of tentacle “monsters” in erotica took off. These monsters allowed for the versatility and intriguing possibilities of tentacles, but blended in a more humanistic element. The new monsters were more humanoid, and in most cases, could masquerade as human. From these shunga arose a huge body of manga featuring tentacle monsters. (A note on terminology. Anime refers to animated art – TV shows, movies, etc. Manga refers to illustrated stories – comic books and graphic novels. The Western term hentai refers to any illustrated work, either anime or manga, which includes adult content. So hentai can be either manga or anime. As an interesting side note, hentai translates roughly as ‘pervert.’)
The biggest misconception about hentai, particularly tentacle hentai, is that it’s all tentacle monsters bent on rape and destruction. That is, of course, part of the genre (as noted above – though it’s worth noting that the anime version of Urotsukidoji by Hideki Takayama mixed in horror and violence not in the original manga versions – inclusive of tentacle rape not in the original source material, which had no tentacle rape). But that isn’t everything, and there’s a large (and growing) body of consensual tentacle hentai. Some examples include (this is a mix of anime and manga) Lunatic Night (Episode 1), Sacrilege (though that also includes tentacle rape, as well), Sex Demon Queen, Ma ga Ochiru Yoru, and Tentacle Lovers (NSFW).
When Emily Ryan-Davis and I set out to write something a little different, we decided to mix a little futuristic, a little holiday, and a heavy dash of tentacles. We were told no one would read it. We were told it wouldn’t sell. We had any number of people give us horrified gasps and absolute ick-factor at the idea of a hero with tentacles (licorice flavored ones, even!). But we aren’t the only ones with a kink for consensual tentacles – and people did read it. More than a Man has good reviews, and a number of them talk about how they were surprisingly intrigued by the tentacles. Wouldn’t it be nice if people could admit to being surprisingly intrigued by all kinds of kinks?
Yeah, I think so, too.
What kinks do you think get a bad rap? Leave a comment below letting me know what you think. One randomly selected commenter will get their choice of any of my backlist. Winner will be drawn randomly and announced Tuesday, June 10th.
Finally, I’ll leave you with one of the early favorites from Ghastly’s Ghastly Comics. The site has a whole mess of comics lampooning tentacle hentai, and they can be insanely funny.
Whew!!! There were a bunch of authors I thought I already followed so this was awesome!! Count me in!
Jennifer Leeland recently posted..Welcome
glad you finally got here, Jen 😉
Great blog, Elise!
I agree, most kinks have been around for a long time – as long as sex itself, I’d dare say. Archaeologists have unearthed ancient sex toys in the ruins of many great civilizations. As a fan of pervertables, I find the tentacle concept intriguing, and I’ll definitely be checking out your book.
I hope you enjoy the book. Some other authors and I have had extensive discussions about pervertables. My faves for sensation play are binder clips (heavy sensation only, please) and the thin/flexible metal rulers. Oh, my….
What a fascinating article! I can’t say I have ever really given much thought to tentacle kink – as a kink. The few times I have read it was not exactly planned. It just showed up. I was surprised that I liked it. It was different and interesting and added to the stories I was reading. As for other kinks that may get a bad rap – any of them really. Narrow minded people who are quick to judge will always contribute to giving anything different or “not their way” a bad rap. It is sad. There is so much fun to be had with an open mind and a willingness to explore. Loved the cartoon! Thank you
I’d agree with that sentiment – and I LOVE Ghastly’s Ghastly Comic – there is so much awesome in that strip.
I think that Age-play gets a bad rap because it’s misunderstood.
I think you’re probably right. People don’t see the power/security dynamics of it at all. I’ll admit it isn’t my thing, but I live by the rule of safe/sane/consensual – and if it floats your boat and meets those requirements, then go for it.
I think any in my world.. None of my friends even know what BDSM is and literally gasp or give me a shocked look!
That’s unfortunate. I’m sorry you’re in such an unaccepting environment – and I’m sorry they have such boringly closed lives 🙂
Any of the kinks can get bad rap just because there are those that don’t agree or don’t understand. And because so many different things fall under the BDSM label. Some people hear about a few of the more extreme fetishes and assume that everyone in the BDSM world are just like that.
Heck, I just reposted(on FB) this morning about some changes that Amazon is making in the policies about what they will and won’t accept on book covers. The cover model WEARING handcuffs was one of the now taboo things, in fact was the first on the list I saw. Oh, they can still be holding them or have in the picture but actually having them on the wrists…Nope! Although blindfolds will still be allowed.
Oh, and no positions/poses that even so much as imply sexual penetration. Or her kneeling at his feet. Or him touching her breasts with any part of him(they specifically mentioned hands and face).
And how many covers in the romance genre in general, much less in the erotica and bdsm genres are going to get hit by this? Way too many. Even a lot of older sci-fi and fantasy covers will not be forbidden by those rules(which included no big cleavage and no ‘upper butt’).