Reviewed by Marissa Gallerani
On the surface, Anastasiia Fedorova’s Second Skin: Inside the Worlds of Fetish, Kink and Deviant Desire (Catapult; Feb. 2026) calls to mind Whip Smart, Melissa Febos’s memoir about working as a dominatrix.
While both books address the world of kink and fetish practices, Fedorova’s book is a hybrid memoir with a sociological framework that interrogates the paradox between private expressions of sexuality and their depictions in larger culture. Through the historiography of popular objects in kink communities, Fedorova compiles a nuanced look at how leather, latex, and other fetish objects play into sexual expression.
In her introduction, Fedorova notes that “[w]e are all born into a world of objects. And while seemingly inert and static, these objects are governed by a strict set of societal norms.” Capitalism’s expansion has meant that commodification would eventually turn sexual. This central tension, this paradox of using an object to become objectified, underscores the examination of each kink object and fetish practice throughout the book. As an example, for the average person, a leather jacket is a jacket. For someone who identifies as a leatherdyke, the leather jacket has a completely different connotation.
Each chapter focuses on a singular object or practice, and includes not only a history of the object, but also Fedorova’s own experiences with them. While not an exhaustive history, Second Skin explores the origins of each object within kink communities and its interactions with (and in some cases, acceptance into) mainstream culture. While Fedorova does not claim to encompass a complete history of either kink or fetish culture (or even the history of these objects), she does focus on the practices that have a strong history within the queer community. This history has often been obscured due to the perceived taboo nature of some of these practices. One has to look no further than Operation Spanner, a 1980s era police investigation in the UK where 16 men were jailed and convicted for practicing consensual BDSM sex.
“Our bodies and our sex are seemingly a private matter,” Fedorova notes, “and yet there also exists a ubiquitous network of control…Society’s approval remains a fragile matter, while its punishing rage towards the other never ceases.” The historical persecution of queer communities and the loss of rights in Fedorova’s native Russia hangs over the narrative.
Second Skin acknowledges the extremely nuanced roles that kink and fetish culture play in people’s lives. People within the same kink communities may view their practices differently. Their participation is a deeply individualistic practice. This can spawn some complicated questions that often arise in adjacent to Pride parades: what does it mean to participate in your kink publicly, when the audience hasn’t consented to such a thing? Does that then mean that pride is only for those who do not belong to kink or fetish communities? The book offers no answers, but encourages the reader to consider these deeply nuanced dynamics.
“Second Skin is an invitation to think about fetish beyond the iconography, to think of it as a mindset,” Fedorova writes. Even readers who do not participate and are not interested in kink or fetish would benefit from reading for the history it includes and the discussion it produces. The book’s index also includes further resources for anyone wishing to further investigate or learn about the many artists that Fedorova references.
Marissa Gallerani is a queer and disabled writer and teacher living in Providence, Rhode Island. She received her MFA from The Newport MFA at Salve Regina, and has taught at multiple institutions of higher education including the New England Institute of Technology, Salve Regina University, and Write or Die. She has been published in The Harvard Review Online, the public’s radio, and The Financial Diet, among others. Marissa’s Substack, The Chaotic Reader, details her wide-ranging reading adventures. A life-long SFF fan, Marissa is currently at work on a science fantasy novel.
