How romcoms made kink mainstream

BDSM and cinema share a long history

So long that coded examples of dom-sub dynamics on screen can be traced all the way back to silent film

But it was only in the 2000s that BDSM movies managed to become truly mainstream

So how did kink become so popular? And is more representation necessarily a good thing

In the 1930s, Hollywood was censored with the introduction of the Hays Code

which prohibited, among other things, depictions of sexual immorality, which included scenes of rape and abortion, but also seduction, nudity, open-mouth kisses

passionate embraces, and everything the code deemed sexually immoral. So, when it came to dumb sub-dynamics in American cinema

subtext remained the name of the game until the Hays Code was abandoned in 1968

The aftermath of the Hays Code created the new Hollywood era, And filmmakers had more freedom to explore themes that were previously off-limits

Sex, violence, or moral ambiguity. And like European films at the time

American filmmakers mostly borrowed elements from BDSM to use as metaphors. Think, cruising, clute, crash, or nine and a half weeks

All these films incorporate elements of kink, like fetishistic settings, roleplay, and voyeurism

But they are less interested in a faithful portrayal of the BDSM community than they are in using its aesthetics and language to explore themes of transgression power imbalance and social inequality

So, in a sense, BDSM only received its first real spotlight in American cinema in 2002

when Steven Sheinberg's Secretary premiered at Sundance, starring then-newcomer Maggie Gyllenhaal and the 90s favorite sex freak James Spader

Secretary is based on a story from Mary Gateskill, which Sheinberg first adapted as a short film while he was still in film school

And while the short film remains faithful to its source, the feature tones down its dark, traumatic elements

creating a love story that balances the intensity of the dom-stop relationship

with moments of awkwardness and comedy. Speaking on the Hollywood Goat podcast in 2024

Sheinberg said that The Shift was inspired by two other films, Jane Campion's Sweetie and Mike Lee's Life is Sweet

Both films approach the dark subject matter of a person struggling with their mental health

with a playful and comedic tone that elevates the story. Over the years, Secretary, now widely considered a cult classic

has been dividing both the Kim community and feminists. The conversation around consent, Lee's agency and the dom-sub relationship

between an inexperienced employee and her boss have only gained more nuance

since the start of the Me Too movement. Yet the film introduced S relationships to mainstream audiences in a way that English cinema hadn quite done before And that paved the way for the release of Fifty Shades of Grey in 2015

Sam Taylor-Johnson's film was made on a budget of $40 million, but its box office surpassed half a billion worldwide

By framing the kink as part of a broader love story or narrative, it allowed people to sometimes look past the kink, the BDSM, and focus on this idea of romance, true love, intimacy, and the idea that people do crazy things for love

If the kinky sex that happens is part of a monogamous, heterosexual, romantic relationship, then, you know, it's allowed to some extent

It is what happens in Secretary and especially so in the Fifty Shades franchise

Heterosexual monogamous love prevails in the end. And while Lee and Edward preserve their kinky relationship, in Fifty Shades kink interests are presented as a newness that needs fixing

One of the reasons it's been so heavily critiqued is that association of kink with trauma

Research shows that there's a range of reasons why people engage in kink

The constant representation of kink and BDSM interests having that associated with trauma

has kind of severe negative consequences in terms of people's understanding. For a while, it seemed like this is just the innate structure of these films

And they can and won give us a different kind of story Lately narratives have been shifting Here how Helena Raine describes her film Baby Girl You could almost see it as a cautionary tale of what happens when you keep suppressing

your desires and your inner fantasies and if you don't try to communicate with your

spouse about them. And the film departs from its predecessors' associations of kink with trauma

Baby Girl has broadly been marketed as an erotic thriller. And though it will be a stretch to say that the film fits into a classic rom-com frame

It is dotted with comedic elements. And comedy can shorten the distance between the film and an audience that doesn't necessarily

identify with its subject matter. The goal is not new romantic love, but sexual awakening, as the protagonist learns what she

likes and how to ask for it. The narrative shift that we first see in Baby Girl continues in Harry Lighten's Pillian

The film introduces elements present in many classic rom-coms. A meet-cute, a Christmas setting, a family pushing the protagonists to find a romantic partner

But the film uses the safety of the classic rom-com structure to turn the genre on his head

and explore taboo aspects of human sexuality. So yes, the mainstream BDSM film is changing

And gradually, the king community is starting to receive a more truthful and much-needed representation

Crucially, Billion was developed with members of the gay biking community. What kind of BDSM representation would you like to see on screen

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