How Anastasiia Fedorova wrote the "beautifully perverted beach read" of the summer
The author's vivid exploration of kink subculture via commodity fetishism has, fittingly, become a sought-after signifier of erotic intellectualism.
Welcome to SHAGGERS, an interview series speaking to creative practitioners expanding sexual culture.
I first became aware of Anastasiia Fedorova’s work when they curated the exhibition The Real Thing, an exploration of bootlegging as a form of cultural hacking. Since then, I’ve followed her writing and curatorial work as this keen interest in the mechanics of commodity fetishism and cultural signifiers has expanded, growing into a thoughtful consideration of the worlds of queer history as well as sexual subcultures across fetish, kink, and BDSM.
Now, she’s released her first book: Second Skin. Drawing from her own, first-hand experience of coming into her identity as a kinkster during the 2020 lockdown, the book follows Fedorova as they navigate a throng of bodies in the sex club, visit a Japanese love hotel, and test-run their first pup mask alongside key interviews with legends of the kink scene. Understandably, the book has quickly become a status symbol in its own right among London queers.
Below, I speak to Fedorova about the sex journal that kickstarted the process of researching and writing Second Skin, focussing on the embodied feeling (rather than the visuals) of kinky sex, and leafing through the UK Leather and Fetish Archive.
How would you describe your journey with sexuality?
When I was growing up, sex was a topic which was out of bounds – a glaring void in education or in talking with your parents. But at the same time sex was increasingly visible on TV, in pop culture, and it’s always been a source of curiosity for me. The less we speak about sex, the more exciting it becomes!
My writing has been a way to satisfy this curiosity even before I got into kink – as a culture writer, I covered porn, erotic photography and art, queer culture. I’ve always been interested in sexuality beyond just having sex, but as part of cultural fabric. But then alongside this cultural curiosity I was quite unfulfilled by the actual sex I was having – it mostly felt like going through the same motions and the same conversations over and over.
I came out quite late (although it’s never late) at 29, and then started exploring kink at 31 during the pandemic. This is where the cultural curiosity and the physical finally converged.
But more straightforwardly, I got on Feeld to look for threesomes but started chatting to people who are into kink – and boom – it hit me suddenly that kink and BDSM evoke a powerful response in my body and mind. So I had to trust my desire and go for it.
How would you describe the sexual subcultures you are a part of?
I’m queer and I’m into kink and leather.
What potential do kink spaces hold for liberation and self-expression?
For me, these are public spaces of closeness and vulnerability, which are rooted in shared physical and emotional experiences. Consent culture and mutual respect are crucial to them. In how atomised our society has become, these spaces are rare! I don’t claim that these spaces are for everyone, but there is something about them that gets to the core of our messy humanity – the visceral, the embodied, the chemistry and the mutual care.
“The less we speak about sex, the more exciting it becomes”
When did you begin documenting your own sexuality through your writing practice?
In 2021, I went out and bought a thick soft-cover paper journal. I wanted to document some of my experiences I was having with BDSM and kink at the time – they seemed as transformative as they were ephemeral, impossible to preserve or remember. They faded like bruises, even though the change they brought on remained. I started writing these down, and then I asked myself, do I really want to make this my work? Because of course there are certain parts of it which you want to keep for yourself, it’s too special. But the desire to create a conversation around BDSM and kink, bring it into the light and look at it in the context of culture was too strong, so I started writing essays for my Patreon at the time. Some of them became a starting point for thinking about Second Skin as a book.
I think writing about sex brought me so many beautiful things, especially the connection with like-minded people, but now that the book is out, I’m also excited to write again just for fun and sheer experiment, in the journal and nowhere else. I would recommend everyone tries to have a sex journal, not only it’s like a time capsule, you never know what emerges in this very intimate space between sensations, memories and words.
“When writing about sex for this book, I tried to forget about what it looks like – and instead focus on what it feels like”
So much of how kink subculture is documented is through photos or moving image – how can the written word encourage us to engage with sexual subcultures in a different way or preserve a more holistic document of kink subculture?
I love this question. It’s true, when we think of fetish and kink, our minds are immediately flooded with imagery – shiny latex, leather, nylons, high heels. But when writing about sex for this book, I tried to forget about what it looks like – and instead focus on what it feels like, write from the inside of experience, from the body. It really helped me to get into the sensory, emotional nature of it.
I was also very inspired by the writing of Patrick Califia and Leatherdyke anthologies Coming to Power and Second Coming. These books are so powerful and they are a fascinating document of the time and people’s very personal erotic S&M experiences at times when they were severely persecuted both by the conservative mainstream and the feminist movement. It reminds us of how important it is to preserve this kind of history, especially amid the growing censorship of queer and trans lives.
When did the idea for Second Skin first come about?
I submitted a draft of a proposal for this book to the Fitzcarraldo Essay Prize in 2022. I didn’t make it into the shortlist but they sent me a very nice email saying that they considered it, and it became a starting point for my work.
“We’ve been there, we know the smell, the touch, the joys, the thrills, the complexities, where the local dungeon is and how to navigate a fetish club – why wouldn't you want to learn more about that?”
How would you describe the premise for Second Skin and what was the most gratifying part of the writing and research process?
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. It blends memoir, erotic writing, cultural criticism, interviews with artists, archivists and fellow fetishists and kinksters. Blending together the notions of erotic fetishism and commodity fetishism, it is an exploration of our intimate relationships with objects in the 21st century. Also, inadvertently, it seems to be everyone’s beautifully perverted beach read!
When it comes to the process, I loved working on one topic for a long time, it’s a completely different kind of gratification in our very immediate era. I loved going to the UK Leather and Fetish Archive at the Bishopsgate Institute and chatting with Stef Dickers. I loved interviewing people, as every single person was generous and inspiring.
Why is it important to have a book about kink and BDSM subcultures written by someone who is also involved in these scenes?
Because we understand all the dimensions of it: the aesthetic, the politics, the lived experience. But also because it makes better books. We’ve been there, we know the smell, the touch, the joys, the thrills, the complexities, where the local dungeon is and how to navigate a fetish club – why wouldn't you want to learn more about that?
How can readers support your work?
Follow my Substack, The Fetishist’s Heart, buy Second Skin from your local bookstore!
If you’re based in the US or Canada, Catapult will publish Second Skin for the North American market in February, so stay tuned!