7 Surprising Sex Trends Throughout History, Because People Have Always Been Frisky

www.bustle.com

When I was a teenager, I had an older relative who used to like to tell any young person who crossed her path, "You kids think you invented sex!" And while I didn't technically think that sex had been invented in 1997 (the year I finally got someone to agree to touch my vagina), I did assume that all of the fun and interesting kinds of sex had probably been invented fairly recently (probably by people at Woodstock or something). After all, hadn't sex been pretty much limited to heterosexual missionary-style couplings with the lights off until, like, 1963?

Of course, after I took a break from having my vagina touched and decided to go read some cultural history, I learned that sexual innovation was nothing new — not only had people been inventing and then dropping sexual trendssince pretty much the beginning of recorded history, but many of our most hallowed sexual and romantic traditions started as a freaky sexual trend hundreds or thousands of years ago (or, conversely, some things that we currently consider a freaky sexual trend where considered totally vanilla and normal hundreds of years ago).

So what did our ancient ancestors do when they were looking to spice things up on date night? Here are seven historical sex trends that will leave you unable to look your history textbook in the eye ever again.

Ancient Egypt (3100-332 BC): Lipstick Means You're Open To Oral

Re-imagined power: BDSM as Utopian fantasy

theconversation.com

  The BDSM-themed movie, Fifty Shades of Grey, is the number one movie in Australia. Its success means that a lot of people are titillated by the idea of sex beyond “vanilla sex.”

Controversy about BDSM often centres on the psychology of its practitioners across gender (including Meagan Tyler and Laura Tarzia’s recent Conversation article), class, and social ideas of deviancy, particularly as represented in the media.

As a design anthropologist, I am more interested the cultural aspects of BDSM. In particular, I wonder if the BDSM lifestyle represents a Utopian world where historical realities of pain and suffering are converted into fantasies of safe, sane, and consensual pleasure. 

S&M in popular culture: The many shades of pain that predate "Fifty Shades of Grey" (photo gallery)

http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2015/02/sm_in_popular_culture_the_many.html  (photos)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Sometimes the whip ain't all it's cracked up to be. Just when you think it's going to bring you pleasure, there you are screaming...  OUCH.

It's especially true when it comes to sadomasochism's messy relationship with pop culture. We've seen the theme explored numerous ways to various degrees of success, in literature, art, music and film.

The most recent example - the movie adaptation of E.L. James' best-selling novel "Fifty Shades of Grey" -- hits theaters Friday, Feb. 13.

Most highly-anticipated flicks come with merchandising tie-ins. You know, like the Taco Bell "Godzilla" cups. Or the Burger King "Star Wars" glasses. Or the "Pirates of the Caribbean" granola bars.

Don't expect McDonald's to start offering red rubber balls with the Big N' Tasty anytime soon. S&M often takes a beating when it reaches out to mainstream audiences and still remains an underground fetish. But it has been an alluring vehicle to explore countless themes.

Yes, there's the whole titillating, kinky fantasy thing, which has been rolled out in old pulp books, sleaze mags and in pop fiction, like "Fifty Shades." It's part of a tradition that goes back to the 18^th century, with tales of flagellation and arousal, climaxing with S&M's original bad boy, the Marquis de Sade.

S&M has also been rolled out by pop divas such as Madonna and Rihanna, who liked to play dominatrix onstage as they no doubt imagined thousands of servile fans begging, "I need more, please, please, give it to me, my pop-star master."