Sweet Gwendoline

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Sweet Gwendoline is the main female character in the works of bondage artist John Willie, published largely in the 1950's and 60's, and possibly the most famous bondage icon after Bettie Page. The story was published as a piecemeal serial, appearing usually two pages at a time in several different magazines over the years.

In Willie's drawings and comic books, Gwendoline appears as a rather naïve blonde damsel in distress with ample curves, who is unfortunate enough to find herself tied up in scene after scene. She is rescued and also repeatedly tied up (though for benevolent reasons) by Secret Agent u-69 (pictured talking to Gwendoline in the illustration). Though it has been compared to The Perils of Pauline, Willey stated that he had not seen it or even heard of the film until much later in his career.

In Germany, the pop punk band Die Ärzte recorded the song Sweet, Sweet Gwendoline that introduced her to a large part of the population that otherwise had no contact to the BDSM subculture. German gothic rock band, Umbra Et Imago, famous amongst the fetish goth scene, also recorded a song entitled Sweet Gwendoline.

In 1984, the stories were loosely adapted in The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik-Yak, a movie by Just Jaeckin starring Tawny Kitaen in the role of Gwendoline.