Becoming the Bottom

Igor Unin's unusual book does not claim to provide an encyclopedic overview of possible BDSM practices, but it explores them thoughtfully and passionately, without hypocrisy, in an engaging artistic form. Before the reader is a thematic collection of short stories that Guy de Maupassant and the Marquis de Sade would likely have enjoyed. The stories are based on the experiences of women who consciously chose a submissive role in their relationships with men and derive pleasure from it. Of course, many know that for many years in our country, discussing special, and even any, sex was not accepted, and only recently have topics of abuse and sexual violence entered the public sphere. Unin's book adds to this discussion in its own way—from a completely different angle. The author focuses on the psychology of those who derive pleasure from sexual contact associated with pain. For the first time in Russia.