[Music]
BETONY VERNON: Only 45, 50 years ago, I would have been put in jail if I'd been caught.
[Music]
BETONY VERNON: My path towards this, uh, field of sexual anthropology actually happened through
my work as a designer and uh, I've been working as a designer for I guess the best, the best
of my adulthood, you know.
I began with jewelry, and then I ended up in Milano and got my Masters Degree in Industrial
Design when I was in my mid-20s, and I continued to design jewelry for the fashion system until
2001, um, but behind the scenes in reality, in 1992, I began the first collection of,
of erotic jewelry, and I called it "Sado Chic."
And of course at the time, there wasn't anything chic associated with the word "sado."
Over the years to come, my designs in silver for the body became extremely functional.
Sometimes they're still worn as jewelry.
Other times they are explicitly used in the bedroom.
So when I started to design this collection of erotic jewelry in 1992, um, my idea behind
it was that the jewel in itself could actually provide a sensation.
I ended up imbuing the world of fine jewelry with a function that went beyond that of status
or, um, you know, its face value.
So many of the pieces in the collection, I'd say maybe 80%, are actually bi-functional.
They function as a piece of jewelry, for example this, these rings - they are designed to actually
be used as a ring.
You can go out and do what you have to do, be gorgeous and glamorous, and uh, at the
same time, they're also to be spun on the inside of the hand and they can be used for
massage - body massage, head message, feet message, hand - and intimate message.
So my goal was to bring sensations to the bedroom that I couldn't bring otherwise.
And, of course, this sort of tool exists every since - I think ever since mankind exists.
As my collection developed it also began to englobe things that we actually can recognize
more readily as objects, um, that unfortunately still get pigeon-holed and categorized as
SM, for example, or BDSM or in the eyes of some as potentially aggressive or violent,
and um, I'm speaking of things like, for example, like a riding crop.
Understandably so, because these are instruments that are made to control animals.
What happens when we use them in an erotic context?
I do think they've been used in an erotic context ever since they've existed, these
objects.
Um, but how to remove it from this category?
That was one of my challenges.
How to make it more accessible to, to those who actually have these fantasies or desires,
and at the same time remove the fear element.
You know, the fear of being judged, the fear of doing something wrong, the fear of being
criticized or kicked out of the house.
And so part of my work is also bringing in an esthetic to our sexual explorations.
BETONY VERNON: I realized that if I was going to continue doing my work as a designer, um,
especially for the erotic part, I would have to also become an educator, and I started
to do salons uh, for groups.
I started in London, and I began to bring people together, and that in itself was kind
of revolutionary, because I remember - and I still today, when I do - it's rare that
I do them, but I still do salons sometimes - and when it happens I normally start out
saying that I'm excited to be in an environment with a group of people who are like-minded,
because only 45, 50 years go, I would have been put in jail if I'd have been caught,
and everybody that was involved would have been compromising their family's safety, their
own safety.
If we think about what happened in the 1950s, I mean, some of the sexual pioneers, Kinzie
himself was put into jail, he was brought to nervous breakdown, he was not allowed to
speak his open views about the importance of our sexual wellbeing.
I think that this is changing slightly, I think that, uh, I think that my work - over
the past 20 years now that this has been going on, uh, things have, things have morphed,
and I've worked hard alongside other people to spread information and, and I think that
we, we are making headway.
There's still a lot of work to do, but we're making headway.
Hi my name is Betony Vernon.
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