Home Books Second Skin: Inside the Worlds of Fetish, Kink, a…

Second Skin: Inside the Worlds of Fetish, Kink, and Deviant Desire

Second Skin: Inside the Worlds of Fetish, Kink, and Deviant Desire

by Anastasiia Fedorova

Catapult ·2026 ·256 pages
New Release
Near the Top
Near the Top
I Index
68/99
Top of the Pile

78/99

Critics' Rating Index

Near the Top

57/99

Readers' Rating Index

n/a

Scholars' Citation Index

34/99

Volume of Reviews

46/99

Volume of Reader Ratings

Sign in to add to your shelf, rate, or review this book.


About This Book

The smell of leather. The flash of a harness. The snap of a latex glove. Welcome to the radical, vibrant world of sexual fetishists. In 21st century commodity culture, we are all intimately involved with we covet a Birkin bag; we keep trainers box-fresh. We are, in a sense, all fetishists. But occasionally this desire spills into something more subversive. SECOND SKIN offers a tour through the materials, objects and power dynamics commonly fetishised, unpacking their histories, their expressive potential, and the communities they give rise to. Drawing from her encounters with fellow fetishists and kinksters, it is also the story of Anastasiia Fedorova's own of what it means to come to terms with one's sexuality. Brave and searching, Second Skin reveals how what we deem 'taboo' is never static, while do we have the courage to look at these desires directly, and express them unapologetically?


Reviews

"In this, she's wonderfully persuasive; less convincing is her proposal that fetishists have some kind of empowered relationship to the material world."

Lillian Fishman· The New Yorker Read review ↗ Near the Top

"But it's a thoughtful and thought-provoking treatise that articulates the uncharted experience of female fetishism and destigmatises fetish by bringing it out of the dungeon and into the light."

Mia Levitin· Financial Times Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"Interweaves vivid personal experience and interviews with fascinating historical research ..."

Rowan Pelling· The Telegraph (UK) Read review ↗ Near the Top

"Its raison d'etre is not simply to convey the history, the mechanics, the meaning or even the sexual pleasures of fetishism."

Meredith Maran· Los Angeles Times Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

Preview


Reader Reviews

0 reviews

Sign in to write a review.

No reader reviews yet. Be the first!