Kinky History Quotes

“I long for you, yes, this moment I long for you as if you were a lovely girl…. No one have I wanted to thrash as much as you…but neither has anyone been loved so much by me as you.” In another: “I languish for you as for a pretty Calabrian wench…my sentiments for you are those of a woman. The femininity of my nature and our friendship must remain a mystery.”
― Esme Louise James, Kinky History: A Rollicking Journey through Our Sexual Past, Present, and Future

“The Oneida Community was founded in upstate New York in 1848 by John Humphrey Noyes, who is credited with coining the phrase. This perfectionist religious community practiced “complex marriage,” in which sex was allowed and encouraged between consenting adults: Complex marriage meant that everyone in the community was married to everyone else. All men and women were expected to have sexual relations and did. The basis for complex marriage was [that] the Pauline passage about there being no marriage in heaven meant that there should be no marriage on earth, but that no marriage did not mean no sex. They also believed in the idea of “male continence,” in which men avoided orgasm during sex, as a means of contraception (I can hear Augustine rolling in his grave). Sex, denied the purpose of reproduction, served its own social purpose, allowing “the sexes to communicate and express affection for one another.” The community had a complex system of sexual relationships and rules, and it was in operation for over thirty years.”
― Esme Louise James, Kinky History: A Rollicking Journey through Our Sexual Past, Present, and Future

“How could the use of sex toys be seen as radical today if we were using them back in the prehistoric era? How could fetishes be so shocking if we were already idolizing feet back in Aristotle's day?”
― Esme Louise James, Kinky History: A Rollicking Journey through Our Sexual Past, Present, and Future

“By refusing to let sex remain hidden by forces of secrecy and mystery, we take the power back. Sex is no longer an abstract construct which we fear to touch, but something that is tangible, bodily, and felt. The way that sex was always meant to be.”
― Esme Louise James, Kinky History: A Rollicking Journey through Our Sexual Past, Present, and Future

“Kinky history was no longer just an output for my compulsive need to overshare. It was far bigger than myself. It had become a community of curious minds.”
― Esme Louise James, Kinky History: A Rollicking Journey through Our Sexual Past, Present, and Future