BDSM Digest

Posts Tagged ‘bastinado’

Foot binding began late in the T’ang Dynasty (618-906) and it gradually spread through the upper class during the Song Dynasty (960-1297). During the Ming period (1368-1644) and the Ching Dynasty (1644-1911) the custom of foot binding spread through the overwhelming majority of the Chinese population until it was finally outlawed in the 1911 Revolution of Sun Yat-Sen.

There are several legends that endeavor to account for the inception of this custom, one is that the concubine of a Chinese prince named Yao Niang walked so gracefully that it seemed as if she “skimmed over the top of golden lilies.” At that time the “lily footed woman” or a woman with bound feet became the model in China. A second legend says that this concubine, Yao Niang, was ordered to bind her feet so that her feet would look like new moons. A third legend says that women bound their feet out of sympathy for an Empress with club feet. Yet another originating in the Sung dynasty (960-976 BC) in the court of Prince Li Yu, whose favorite concubine who was required to dance with her feet bound, toe-dancing an early variation of ballet, the royal craze moved down the social ladder, eventually reaching peasants who hoped to achieve higher status through smaller feet.
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Canes are stiff, yet flexible, regarded by most, and encouraged by writings of the Victoriana School Days of Boys and Girls, as tools for corporal punishment, which of course is true. However their other uses are often over shadowed by the impressions one has of them in one’s mind’s eye. In the right hands they can be sensual and in the wrong hands a nightmare. Caning, sometimes referred to as: the English, the English Method, English Discipline, or English Style, is an art form which takes practise. A lot of practise. An exercise in control not easily attained. It is a serious play implement, it is capable of causing serious damage and is not for use by someone who has read five web sites and hit a pillow a dozen times. It demands a level of concentration above that expected for other forms of BDSM play. If you seriously wish to pursue this as a form of play take the time to seek instruction from an expert. It is not something we would undertake in a crowded or small play space as a back strike could do as much damage to an onlooker as a forward stroke could do to the party being caned. One has to be extremely aware of all the safety measures, strike areas, density, resilience, length and diameters of the implements as they all account for a different effect. No two rattan canes behave in the same way and should be treated individually.
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Bastinado (falanga, phalanga, falaka, falaqa) was a Spanish word for the act of punishment in the basic sense of beating with a stick or similar implement. The word ‘baston’, in English ‘baton’, means a stick or club. Falanga, phalanga, falaka, falaqa – variants of the same word which is used in countries, such as Persia, Turkey, Greece and in general the Muslim countries, to refer to a small crop like weapon to inflict punishment to the soles of the feet. It is a thick and long pole with a rope tied at its ends. Bastinado is a form of corporal punishment whereby the soles of the feet are beaten with a cane, a cudgel, a rod, a stick, a piece of wood, a club, or a whip.
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