Help me research the 80s scene?

Wow, I must be getting old. The '80s...yes, I remember them well. I'd say that there would be more hardware store and kitchen ware department finds and fewer toys designed specifically for BDSM in most toy boxes back then. For example, some leather belts, cotton string, hemp rope, rubber bands, a sleep mask, a homemade flogger made of rawhide shoelaces, a spatula, a wooden spoon, maybe a small cutting board...you get my drift. And some very obviously, painfully self-conscious items that scream poser, too, like a tool belt with floggers and such on it. A riding crop was de rigeur then, as was a wooden paddle or paddle hair brush.

Hey, awesome, thank you for replying. I figured I'd get a couple eye rolls for such a silly question, but I figured it was worth asking. Can I safely guess that 'fancier' stuff that's on the market these days were still available back then, you just had to be rolling in the Regan-omics to enjoy them?

So essentially, people were working more with what was around back then? Not that people aren't today... I just mean, relatively speaking?

That is a totally fantastic question. If I had lots more free time, I'd probably spend all day researching it.

Yes. I knew some people who had money and the interest in S/M (as it was often called back then) to collect toys. They had some nice, expensive toys designed for them. Most ordinary people had co-opted ordinary objects for use as toys. There are a lot more BDSM toys available now in all price ranges and the websites are much more tasteful. BDSM has become mainstream so there's less fear and mystique and more forthright talk about what works and what doesn't. Back then, I knew a lot of people who used enema nozzles as butt plugs and beauty salon tools and medical devices as toys. Now there is less need for ingenuity, though it is still fun to be creative.

Exactly.