Postwar Femdom Pulp

Posted on 28/03/2016 by Mistress Sidonia

Do You Remember the First Time?

Postwar Femdom Pulp
The influence of postwar pulp fiction on BDSM & femdom

In the the postwar era of the 50s & 60s men’s adventure pulp magazines were the mainstay of lurid, exploitative and these days we’d say, down right offensive stories. There’s no PC or Safe, Sane & Consensual here 🙂 They mostly centred around ‘true’ (take that with a pinch of salt) stories of war, survival and crime, with a colourful sensational cover illustration. En masse animals attacks were particularly popular (?) – famously the cover ‘Weasels Ripped My Flesh’ inspired an album cover by Frank Zappa.

Some bordered on soft porn and I can see the early seeds of BDSM and Femdom that must have found its way to an audience deprived of any other expressions of it. The magazines that dealt with rather ‘creative’ bondage and torture were sometimes referred to as ‘sweat magazines’. While looking back at them all together I can see how much they have influenced the fetish scene with the costumes and themes – notably: that ever present uniform shirt, open to the waist with busting breasts; tight knee boots; exotic goddesses ruling all female societies; and all importantly the uniformed sadistic bitch, whip in hand. They were probably under appreciated at the time but some of the cover artwork is outstanding and quite expressive.

About Mistress Sidonia

Supreme Ruler of The English Mansion. Leather clad 'n' booted bitch, highly sexed, cruel male slave owner and trainer.
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13 Responses to Postwar Femdom Pulp

  1. gentlegiant29 says:
    19/06/2012 at 12:35

    Some great artwork and as You so rightly say very influential on the fetish scene and especially fetish illustrators of today. As far as using Nazi’s as bad guys go i think one reason it is still so prevalent almost 60 years after their demise is that however dark we paint them it isn’t going to outdo the reality.

  2. Sardax says:
    20/06/2012 at 22:39

    I believe one of the artists who created this fantastic art had qualms about the scenes he was asked to portray but then when he learnt that the reality was as bad if not worse, he didn’t find it so difficult to carry out.
    So love the pose of the Pirate Queen in her green china dress!

    • Mistress Sidonia says:
      05/07/2012 at 16:12

      Yes , those pointy breasts are surely weapons of mass destruction 🙂
      But not comparable to your work, which is a body of work containing the most beautiful and evocative Femdom illustrations in the world.

      I highly recommend Sardax’s website http://www.sardax.com though I suspect most of you are probably familiar with his work already.

  3. Irv O. Neil says:
    22/10/2012 at 14:20

    This is a fantastic collection of images, Mistress Sidonia. Thanks for sharing it with us.

    I agree with Sardax, the Pirate Queen in her green dress really stands out for me, too!

    I used to see these types of covers on the local Chicago drugstore newsstands when I was a teenager back in the 60s, and they seemed like the ultimate in depravity to my adolescent mind. Really, when I think back, there was nothing else that was quite as rough. I did buy “sweat mags” on occasion back then, but the ones with the less lurid covers that showed heroic square-jawed guys with pretty girls at their sides, fighting the various representatives of the Axis powers. Only later in life (my twenties) did I finally awaken and respond to the femdom allure of such covers as you display above…and by then, they were long gone from newsstands, only to be found in dusty back issue shops–but ripe for rediscovery! 🙂

  4. Abe Turany says:
    28/03/2016 at 18:41

    Thank YOU so much for sharing these. May i post them on my fetlife page?

  5. Declan Heyse says:
    28/03/2016 at 18:42

    Like Irv said, this is a fantastic collection of images. I grew up a few years after these covers had their run, unfortunately. Mostly, I had “True Detective” types available in my area, where the woman was invariably a damsel in distress rather than the giver of distress. I did find one or two covers like those above in various “stashes” (a friend’s dad’s drawer, and the like) that my friends and I discovered over the years. I always tried to find more like them…and not let on how much of an effect the artwork had!

    And the iconic look of the covers has definitely influenced your own iconic look, yes!

  6. Abraham says:
    29/03/2016 at 15:51

    If there were ever a femdom state you would definitely be its ruler. And I would do anything to be a citizen.

  7. loser slave T says:
    29/03/2016 at 20:23

    thank You Mistress Sidonia

  8. slavep says:
    01/04/2016 at 16:04

    these ar probably what influenced my love of the dominant female

  9. Irv O. Neil says:
    01/04/2016 at 23:23

    There are a few book-length collections now of the art AND the fiction which are available, and some of the stories are pretty crazy, almost like 1930s “shudder pulps” of which these were descendants. Regarding these mags, one can say that the sizzle was not just on the covers! They often delivered what they promised…depravity!

    The guys in the top cover–both being whipped and the Nazi overseeing the whipping–look like they were modeled on Steve Holland, who posed for a ZILLION of these types of covers.

    I remember a close call packed with adolescent suspense when my mother started looking for something in my bedroom closet right underneath where I had stashed one of the sweat mags. As I said in my previous comment above, I bought the less sadistic-looking ones from a company called Magazine Management (I didn’t have the guts to bring one of the really cruel-looking mags up to the pharmacy cashier or into the house), but back in the 60s ANY publications of this type were equally shame-inspiring if they would have been discovered. So I didn’t just develop a taste for femdom, but I think also a fetish for shame…

    Here is a link to an article about what it was like to work in the 60s at some of the “sweat mags,” the less-sadistic ones I used to buy. Then, years later, I would work for the son of the publisher of those mags, who became a publisher himself but of blatant sex periodicals like Swank and Cheeks (a butt magazine which I edited and into which I put much femdom ass-worship content). Enjoy!

  10. slave chris says:
    24/05/2016 at 18:49

    Mistress Sidonia,
    Can you tell me where you purchased your ultra high heeled thigh high platform black leather boots you always wear in your photos and many videos? I was wanting to purchase a pair for my wife!

    • Mistress Sidonia says:
      06/06/2016 at 12:45

      I bought them many years ago from The Little Shoebox which was a shop on the Holloway Road, London, however, sadly I do not think they are up and running anymore.
      MSVB

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