Katharine Gates
Katharine Gates’ academic background is in anthropology, but her real education came from the DIY zine scenes of the 1980s. Katharine began collecting niche kink publications in 1985, and has spent the last 20 years exploring the internet’s isolated back corners, interviewing hundreds of kinksters and witnessing unique forms of erotic play. The first edition of Deviant Desires, originally published in 2000 from Juno Books and RE/Search publications, the first to cover ponyplay, balloon play and furries in depth, won a Sexual Freedom Award. In 2006, Katharine curated a year-long exhibition called "KINK: Geography of the Erotic Imagination" at Museum of Sex. Katharine’s encyclopedic knowledge of the kinky backwaters led to her ongoing project of mapping of the erotic imagination. The kinkmap has been used in college Human Sexuality textbooks. The fully revised and updated edition of Deviant Desires is now available from powerHouse Books, from Amazon, or from your local savvy bookstore.
