On Instagram, a man poses with his back to the camera, his briefs pulled way up over his head and hooked onto the corner of a mirrored headboard. His bare butt and thighs are shining with oil. In similar posts, men have their underwear tugged up by someone reaching into the frame; some even pull their own underwear way up over their heads, occasionally with the help of rope pulleys or hooks. These men have kinks and fetishes for wedgies, a surprisingly popular niche of the kink and BDSM community.

Benjamin Frederickson has been photographing wedgies since 2019. The settings of his pictures are varied: in bedrooms or bathrooms; in his dungeon-like basement studio; or outside, including a few in Central Park. Some have a BDSM vibe, featuring backgrounds of cinder blocks, ropes, and exposed piping, while others are reminiscent of vintage porno, with the models posing on fluffy white pillows or leaning flirtatiously over furniture.

“Sometimes the desire to document a wedgie comes from wanting physical proof of how far you went,” explains Dustin James, a wedgie kink enthusiast who has posed for Frederickson, and also explores the kink with his husband and other partners. “Like, if you’ve managed to pull the underwear really high, it might look pretty extreme, and you might want to record that for later. Or it might come with playing with the risk of getting caught; of living with the thrill of being ‘out there’ while still wanting to maintain some anonymity. But for me, that part isn’t so important, it’s more the role playing aspects that I’m interested in. The theatrical and fantasy elements.”

So what’s the appeal of receiving a wedgie? How does it fit in with other fantasies or desires?

Often, the kink can be used to create role plays around high school themes, or other story-lines where there is a bully/bullied dynamic. These could be inspired by a movie, or perhaps as a way of reframing a humiliating or distressing personal experience. “You could have a role play where somebody is a bully, for instance, giving a wedgie," James says. "Or I particularly like role plays that invert that, where the bully character is the one receiving the wedgie."

According to research conducted by the Kinsey Institute, more people have become interested in kink since the pandemic began. The study found that 73% of people who reported changes to their sex lives said they were more interested in bringing kink into the bedroom. Fifty-two percent of couples surveyed said they had tried at least one new sexual experience since the start of the pandemic.

“Wedgie kink has been gaining in popularity recently,” says Daniel Saynt, founder of the New Society For Wellness, a sex- and cannabis-friendly private members club in NYC, which hosts play parties that sometimes have a kink focus. “There haven’t been any studies on wedgie kink specifically, but interest in dom/sub relationships have definitely been on the rise. Wedgies can be incorporated into fantasy play and be part of a larger scene you’re looking to create.”

As James explained, wedgie kink fits well into role-plays that involve power dynamics. Exploring power in sex is a common desire and can be a great way to overcome feelings of powerlessness in everyday life. “There are moments we may feel like too many decisions rest on our shoulders,” Saynt says. “Outside of the fun of dressing up and acting out fantasies, there are therapeutic aspects of exploring power dynamics that are undeniable. Being able to explore this with a partner increases intimacy and makes sex fun.”

There’s definitely a big element of fun to wedgie kink. “If you’re a kid of the nineties, like me, you’re used to wedgies being a comic thing, like in movies or TV shows they were always a joke,” James explains. “It wasn’t until later that I started seeing them in a sexual way, when I started thinking about them as a way to explore power dynamics.”

"You don't need loads of expensive gear or accessories."

The kink, for some, is also about pain and humiliation: a common aspect of a lot (but by no means all) kink and BDSM.

“Pleasure and pain trigger similar endorphin releases in our brains,” Saynt explains. “It’s a chemical release. Our bodies' natural reaction to pain is to produce feel-good chemicals to help minimize the pain.”

James added that, as with any kink, people exploring wedgies should think about safety first. If you’re new to the kink, start off slow, don’t jump straight in with the contraptions and “hanging wedgies” that can be seen on Frederickson’s and other’s Instagram accounts.

A wedgie enthusiast who goes by the moniker Wedgie Sir in online communities doesn’t see the appeal of pain in a wedgie, and explains that this isn’t necessarily a part of the kink for everyone. “People get so caught up in the bullying, painful aspect of it; I personally prefer wedgies to be playful/pleasurable,” Wedgie Sir says. The way a wedgie looks is a big turn-on for him, and growing up, he preferred to look at pictures of wedgies over more mainstream porn. (FYI, wedgie porn is its own category, with ‘wedgie’ turning up almost 1,000 videos on Pornhub. There are also subcategories such as ‘atomic wedgie’ and ‘hanging wedgie’ with hundreds of videos.)

When Frederickson first started photographing wedgies, it was from a more artistic perspective; he wanted to experiment with different physical forms and used a variety of models (including professional dancers) to explore this. It wasn’t until messages started flooding in from wedgie enthusiasts like Wedgie Sir that he realized he’d tapped into a huge community.

He’s since received a lot of advice from the wedgie community, including which brands of underwear are best for which types of wedgie. He's also learned practical tips: For instance, if you're doing a “hanging wedgie”—where the recipient is literally hanging in the air by their underwear—it’s important to double up on the underwear to avoid tearing the material.

One of the greatest things about the kink, according to everyone we spoke to, is how easy it is to explore. “You don’t need loads of expensive gear or accessories,” James says. “All you need is underwear."