“In New York City’s Lower East Side, there’s a dungeon with whips, swords, and a slave in chains where Conrad, a male dominatrix, carries out his work at his clients’ request. On Working this week, Arun Venugopal talks to Conrad about the impact the RentBoy bust had on his profession, one of the best places to meet clientele, and some safety concerns in the industry…”

link: http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/working/2015/10/how_does_a_male_dominatrix_work.html

“Sadomasochism has never looked more cheerful than it does in ‘Moving on From Vanilla: A Light Intro to BDSM,’ an animation created by Lessa Millet and Kaye Blegvad, and originally featured on Karley Sciortino’s sex and relationship blog Slutever…”

link: http://www.slate.com/articles/video/video/2015/09/bdsm_introduction_video_basics_of_bondage…

“Whenever we hear ‘sex education,’ most people imagine a high school health class teacher outlining the basics: monthly periods, the human development cycle, birth control, and maybe an uncomfortable informational film. However, the topics in these classes barely skim the surface of the depth and breadth of our human sexuality…”

link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sandra-lamorgese-phd/sexual-challenge-dominatrix_b_8175366.html

“Each year since 1984, kinky leather clad folks descend upon San Francisco’s SoMa district in celebration of BDSM culture, and more generally, the freedom of sexual expression. People from all walks of kinkiness were there this year, strutting their stuff, tugging their stuff, or selling some stuff (Folsom Street Fair has many vendors, selling everything from t-shirts with sexual innuendos to heart shaped paddles)…”

link: https://i-d.vice.com/en_us/article/vivian-fu-photographs-the-sexy-fetishes-of-the-folsom-street-fair

“And they called it puppy love…

An engaged Staten Island couple that caused an Internet firestorm after pictures of the man walking his fiancée through the Staten Island Mall on a leash went viral explained to the Daily News they have a completely normal relationship, except for one abnormality that feels completely natural to them…”

link: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/staten-island-couple-explian-bdsm-puppy-play-lifestyle-article-1.2233993

“My freshman American literature course presented me with many revelations, but one of the most indelible happened not inside the auditorium classroom where, twice a week, our professor stood onstage in front of more than a hundred 18-year-olds. Instead, it came as I stepped into the women’s restroom afterward, just in time to overhear two of my fellow classmates rhapsodizing over how cute the professor was, with particular attention lavished on his long, slightly bowed, denim-clad legs…”

link: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/122735/lust-learning-are-professor-student-crushes-inevitable