# What's the deal with S&M, bondage and discipline, etc.? March 12, 1982

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-s-m-bondage-and-discipline-etc-march-12-1982/487681>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [February 27, 2009, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-s-m-bondage-and-discipline-etc-march-12-1982/487681 "2009-02-27T16:58:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cmoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecb155/32.png) [@cmoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmoose)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-s-m-bondage-and-discipline-etc-march-12-1982/487681/1 "2009-02-27T16:58:40Z")

</div>

In this report you noted the disproportional number of Baltimoreans who were so interested in sexual topics. Until recently your Straight Dope column appeared in Baltimore’s free weekly City Paper. For many years it invariably appeared within a page or two of a highly explicit column of sex advice, “Savage Love.” I don’t know if that was the case in 1982, but locating your column without stumbling across Mr. Savage’s column was unlikely.  
So here, your column is closely linked with interest in sexual curiosities.  
cmoose

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-s-m-bondage-and-discipline-etc-march-12-1982/487681/2 "2009-02-27T17:07:28Z")

</div>

Dan Savage has only been writing Savage Love since 1991. A lot has changed since 1982, and attitudes about sexuality are certainly an example of that.

[Link to column.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/56/whats-the-deal-with-s-m-bondage-and-discipline-etc)