Our BDSM book
Why we created a book about BDSM
by Jasmin Walker
During my formative years, I was taught that things were done a certain way. Everything was linear, very . . . “normal”. But the pain that comes with navigating growing up also contains beauty, and as I grew, so did my questions and ideas. “Normal”, with its wild exclusions, became challenged; understanding and respecting the different ways that humans communicate, love, and seek to be seen, became vividly important.
I started House of Theodora to create a space for the expansive journeys of people determined to explore and create their own worlds, on their terms, regardless of the expectations placed upon them. I wanted it to be a home for people to embrace their desires, a place to explore, understand, reflect, and feel respected.
I found the best way to create this world was through collaborations with different voices. House of Theodora’s first collaborative book project was with an erotic artist and a group of women and nonbinary writers who wrote about their erotic daydreams.
The idea for this BDSM book has been simmering for some time, spurred on by the questions and thoughts of the many people who have attended House of Theodora’s long-table discussions on topics of love, intimacy, and trust. I found in these people a genuine desire to understand and practise what constitutes the life force of BDSM: a consensual exchange of power.
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
But knowing the world of BDSM is as vast as the oceans, I didn’t want to try and create something for everyone. Instead, I wanted to home in on what it’s like to be submissive and to create a beautiful keepsake that captures different moments in time, in the words of submissives.
I find something inherently beautiful about submission––that you have chosen to let go, to feel free by wholeheartedly placing your trust in someone, knowing you’re safe. There aren’t many situations in life where we feel completely free, where caging our bodies can uncage our hearts and minds. A meditative, sexual kind of magic.
I didn’t have to look far to find a wonderful collaborator in Lina Dune from ask a sub. I’d followed her for a while on social media and found her work to be a clever mix of education, humour, and refreshing social commentary. Lina is intelligent, curious, and kind, and as a seasoned 24/7 collared submissive, well, you could say she knows a thing or two about navigating safe, consensual, and loving Dominant/submissive dynamics.
The book we’ve created is a celebration of submission. It features a mix of poetry and prose by sixteen submissives, who explore what it means to be a sub from a range of wonderfully different perspectives–– short, lyrical poems that capture the bliss of a bruised body; carefully crafted recollections of a newbie’s journey; and love letters exchanged between a Dom and his sub, just to name a few.
There’s also a brief introduction and interview with Lina, and original artwork, which I am very excited about, as it’s the first time we’ve created art in-house in Theodora’s design studio. The pieces you see sprinkled throughout the book are available to purchase as prints from the House of Theodora website.
To blossom, you must embrace who you are. So please keep exploring, safely and with a good serving of love and curiosity. And to all the submissives reading this book, whether newbies or seasoned, this one is for you.
