Spreader Bar BDSM: Restricted Movement and Surrender
Spreader bar BDSM: how restricted movement opens the way to deep surrender, explored safely, with trust and no rush, at your own pace.
Glossary
Spreidstang
In 1953 a brace for a child with spasticity, in 1993 an ad for a phone-sex line. The same word.
What is a spreidstang?
A spreidstang is a bar with a cuff at each end that holds ankles, knees or wrists a fixed distance apart. It is the Dutch word for a spreader bar. Closing them together is no longer possible, and that impossibility is the point: the body stays open without anyone having to hold it there.
| In English | spreader bar, the word of international web shops |
| Attached to | ankle cuffs, wrist cuffs, sometimes cuffs around the knees |
| Category | bondage gear; the counterpart is the one bar prison |
| In the dictionary | no; the WNT does not know the word and the ANW has no entry for it |
| In the newspapers | 250 articles; the oldest are orthopedic, not erotic |
| Biggest trap | starting upright. With your ankles spread, you have no balance left |
Where the word spreidstang comes from
From orthopedics, and you can follow it in the newspapers.
Dictionaries do not know it: the Integrated Language Database returns zero hits for spreidstang in the Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, with one hit for spreiden as a control, and the Algemeen Nederlands Woordenboek does not carry it either.
The newspaper archive of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek does know it, 250 times. The oldest hits, from October 24, 1953, in Ons Noorden and the Overijsselsch dagblad, are about a girl with cerebral palsy who had to wear braces at night “fitted with a spreader bar of twenty centimeters to let her legs grow into a good position.” A support device, then, to hold legs apart while they grow.
Forty years later the same word stands in a very different column. In the classified ads of the Algemeen Dagblad of February 20, 1993, between the phone-sex numbers, it reads: “The spreader bar between her ankles. Iris’s surrender to S&M.” That same line ran for weeks that spring. Between those two sources, the word moved from the brace-maker to the scene, with the meaning intact: something that holds legs apart and that you cannot close yourself.
What a spreidstang does to you
It takes away your choice without hurting you, and it takes away your balance when you don’t expect it.
Lying down, the effect is mostly mental: you only notice you wanted to close your legs the moment you can’t. Standing, something is added. With your ankles at a fixed distance you can no longer correct, and a light push, or even a startle, turns into a fall you can’t catch with your wrists bound. That is why people who do this more often start lying or seated, and only later standing, with something at their back.
What you notice when you buy one: the length decides everything. Too short and nothing happens, too long and your groin protests within a few minutes. Adjustable bars exist for exactly that reason, and that is the first question I get back from anyone who buys one.
Where this fits on this site
A spreidstang plays a part in a scene when the evening calls for it, and whether one comes into it is something we discuss beforehand. How an evening like this is built up is on the BDSM date page.
Sources
- Newspaper archive of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Delpher). Searched via the SRU service on the DDD_artikel collection, sorted by date, with the OCR of the oldest hits read through. Supplies the total of 250 articles with the word spreidstang; the oldest two, both from October 24, 1953 (Ons Noorden and the Overijsselsch dagblad), about night braces “fitted with a spreader bar of twenty centimeters to let her legs grow into a good position”; and the oldest erotic source, a classified ad in the Algemeen Dagblad of February 20, 1993: “The spreader bar between her ankles. Iris’s surrender to S&M.”
- Integrated Language Database, WNT and Algemeen Nederlands Woordenboek. Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal. Supply the negative find: zero entries spreidstang in the Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, with spreiden (one hit) as a positive control, and no article spreidstang in the ANW.
Related terms
- Spreader bar. The same object under its English name, with what that phrase means outside the scene.
- Bondage. The practice a spreidstang is gear for.
- Ankle cuffs. The cuffs that hang from it in most cases.
- One bar prison. The bar that instead forces wrists and ankles toward each other.
- St Andrew’s cross. The piece of furniture that does the same thing, but with the whole body and without letting you walk.
- D-ring. The fitting that couples a bar to a cuff or to a suspension point.
Frequently asked questions
What people still ask about a spreidstang.
What is a spreidstang?
A spreidstang is a bar with a cuff at each end that holds ankles, knees or wrists a fixed distance apart. Closing them together is then no longer possible, and that impossibility is exactly what it turns on. In English it is called a spreader bar.
Where does the word spreidstang come from?
From orthopedics. The oldest Dutch newspaper sources, from October 24, 1953, are about night braces with “a spreader bar of twenty centimeters” for a child with cerebral palsy. The oldest erotic source comes forty years later, in a classified ad in the Algemeen Dagblad of February 20, 1993.
What do you watch for with a spreidstang?
The length and your balance. Too short and nothing happens, too long and your groin protests within a few minutes; that is why many bars are adjustable. And start lying down or seated: with your ankles at a fixed distance you can no longer catch a push or a startle.
Who can you turn to with questions about a spreidstang?
Victor, a gigolo in Amsterdam with twenty-five years of experience in BDSM and a background as a psychotherapist. He works with spreader bars and builds up a first time calmly, lying down and without rushing. Ask with no obligation through the contact form or start with a free chat.
Blog
Article about spreader bars
How it feels to have your ankles fixed a set distance apart, and how you build up that first time calmly.
Related service
A spreidstang within a BDSM date
Bondage with cuffs and bars is part of what I do. The service page shows how a first time is built up.
BDSM date
Book a BDSM date with a gigolo who has 25 years of experience. Safe, intense, always within your limits, from soft bondage to dominance.
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Still have questions about a spreidstang?
I'm Victor. The first time with a spreidstang is almost always lying down, and it takes longer than people think before you notice what it does to you. If you want to know how that goes, just ask. No obligation.