Authentically Kinky (formerly known as What Women and Other Wonderful Humans Want)
Gloria Brame - From Different Loving to a Different World
February 21, 2023
In 1993, Gloria Brame had the courage to write a book called "Different Loving" which was a heavily researched study of the world of fetish and kink. Now 20 years later, BDSM is in the mainstream. How did we get here? A visit with the good Doctor as she talks to HiThereCatsuit in this fascinating interview.
From Gloria's Website:
In 1987, I secretly founded a forum for kinky people (Variations II) on Compuserve.  (Secretly because I was an English professor in New York.) BDSM had such a liberating, inner-eye-opening effect on me that I wanted to spread the positive energy to others.  I wanted to help people like me, who had struggled with shame and fear about their sexuality for years.   By 1990, the group had 75 thousand followers, making it the single most profitable — and also the most censored — section on the system.

My success with online peer counseling inspired me to write _Different Loving_ (with William Brame and Jon Jacobs).  Published by Random House in 1993, it was a heavily researched and compassionate study of the world of fetish and kink. At a time when kink/fetish was still being demonized by psychiatrists and lawmakers alike, the book’s message that BDSM was a normal, potentially ecstatic expression of human sexuality really pissed people off.

Hardships and censorship aside, the grateful letters that poured in from readers were exhilarating.  People said the book saved their life, freed them of shame, gave them hope.  Their letters felt like a directive for me to continue to study sex, to fight culture’s death-grip of anti-sex negativity.

Today I hold a Ph.D. in Human Sexuality. I am a Board-certified sexologist and have worked as a forensic expert witness. I’ve been cited in thousands of articles and books for my groundbreaking research on the science of sex, masturbation, and BDSM.

Most of all, I’ve helped thousands of clients build happier lives.