Pick a number

It’s not femdom related, but I found this article on estimating the percentages of LGB people an interesting one. In most important ways the actual number is irrelevant. It’s clearly millions of people, so I’m not sure why different groups get so riled up over the exact count. It’s the historical and scientific perspective that I find interesting. One thing that comes through clearly from the article is the difficulty in giving a binary answer to what’s not a binary situation. There’s also clearly shifts in the numbers that reflect both changes in public identification and changes in actual behavior.

The precision of the wording in these kind of surveys always makes me smile. In this case I particularly liked the phrase – “someone with whom you have had any genital contact intended to achieve orgasm”. That’s a smooth line to use in a bar – “Fancy coming back to my place? I’ve got a box of Franzia in the fridge and a smooth jazz CD in the stereo. Maybe we could have some genital contact with the intention of achieving orgasm?”

I wonder if there was a line in the survey that would fit these two ladies? I’m not sure about genital contact or the intention to achieve orgasm, but there’s definitely something pretty kinky going on.

TwoOnHorseI believe the artist is Chéri Hérouard aka herric.

Judge and jury

I was sad to see that Ellen Pao lost her case of gender discrimination against the Venture Capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The very existence of the lawsuit will have had some effect on Silicon Valley, but a win would have done much more to shake up a male dominated tech industry.

I wasn’t on the jury, so can’t speak to the details of the case, but I do know the deck is stacked against women in these situations. The jury is being asked to decide if someone was fired for incompetence or fired because of the firm’s culture and biases. Unfortunately there’s little chance that a randomly selected jury can come to an independent informed decision on the issue of competence in a VC firm. I suspect even a carefully chosen panel of technology experts would struggle on that. Instead they’re forced to use the reviews, notes and opinions from the firm itself, and that’s where the deck is stacked.

I’ve covered the double standards for women working in tech in the past, along with the more general issue of attitudes to forceful women. Characteristics that get a man promoted – aggressive, pushy, argumentative – will count against a woman. Women who are laid back lack initiative, where women who forceful are difficult to work with. Those biases end up in emails and performance reviews. The data that the jury is forced to use to decide competence is coming from a tainted source – the very firm that’s in the dock. So unless it’s a horribly egregious example of discrimination, then the biases of male bosses and co-workers continue to function as part of the trial evidence. I think this Jezebel article does a pretty good job of covering the issue.

I sadly don’t have any answer to this problem, other than raising awareness of it. I’ll leave you with a picture of a very successful independent businesses woman. She’s created her own media empire based on the latest technical innovations. Plus, she has an excellent T-shirt on. This is of course the one and only Mistress T.

Mistress T

Emerald City Comicon

While I was on vacation I sadly missed the Emerald City Comicon. That’s particularly annoying as I live just a block or so from the Washington Convention Center. I could have walked out my front door to get a coffee and bumped into a dozen or more cosplayers roaming the area. I’m not a big comic book geek, but I do enjoy experiencing interesting cultures and seeing people having fun with their hobbies. I particularly enjoy the effort and creativity that goes into cosplay. The fact that this sometimes involves attractive ladies in fetish influenced outfits is just an added bonus.

Baroness and Snake EyesThis is the Baroness (played by Cobra North) and Snake Eyes (played by Danquish). Photographed by The Will Box.

Finally day of fun

I’m back in Seattle at the end of a pleasant holiday. On the last day I was fortunate enough to get to play with Domina Yuki, which resulted in a very fun session. At one point she played ‘whack-a-mole’ with a leather strap for a hammer and a very nervous mole. Or, as Captain Hammer might less subtly put it, the mole was my penis. I actually have a short video of that which, if I can deal with the conversion issues, I’ll try and post to tumblr.

We also did some zippering. That’s always an interesting but intense activity. The placement of the zipper, the length of time it’s left on for and the type of clips used can vary the sensations quite dramatically. These clips were particularly evil, especially when placed across the tight skin at the top of the chest.

The image below is a zipper from the Dudes in Distress site. For anyone wishing to see a zipper in action there’s a couple of scenes from kink.com in animated gif form here and here.

DualZipper

Why wasn’t I told?

I’ve just discovered that Sardax has both a twitter account and a blog. As you’d expect, both contain many interesting images and thoughts. I’m stunned I’ve only just discovered them. Clearly I’ve been failing in my duty as a resource for all fine things femdom.

A refresh of my links and resources pages is obviously in order. I’ve been debating putting together a set of twitter links, and this suggests such a list is overdue. While I ponder the right way to handle that, I’ll leave you with an image from Sardax’s blog of Mistress Lucy Khan. I played with Mistress Lucy only a few weeks ago, so this seems a fitting piece of artwork to feature here.

Mistress Lucy Khan by Sardax

Bruises and a smile

I’m continuing a theme from yesterday’s post. Last time it was a smile with what looked very much like cane marks. This time the image is a smile with what are obviously paddle marks.

I know some masochists are very particular about the type of pain they want, but personally I care far more about how it’s delivered than what it’s delivered with. Give me a happy domme and I don’t care if she’s using an old slipper or a rhinoceros hide whip. That’s not to say that the level of screaming created will not vary dramatically between those two extremes.

SmileAndBruises
I don’t know where this is from originally. It looks like a still from a movie. If anyone can help me track it down then please leave a comment. If found it on the Femdom Style Counsel tumblr.

Stripes and a smile

I was lucky enough to get to play with the wonderful Mistress Ai-Li today. I now have a warm glow and a lot of sore parts. We did a fair amount of caning, in various poses and with a variety of canes. There was also a fair number of smiles on both sides as things were poked and tickled. Sadly we didn’t get any photographs of the resulting marks or smiles. I’m therefore forced to finish with an image that’s definitely not Mistress Ai-Li and myself, but is appropriate for the play we enjoyed. The lady below looks pretty happy with her work.

Stripes and a Smile
I’m afraid I’ve no idea what the source of this shot is. If anyone can help with that then please leave a comment.

Slobber

A couple of tweets by pro-domme Ms Michelle Lacy made me laugh today.

Can we change the word “worship” used in this industry to the word “slobber?”
Tweet 1

“Mistress do you provide foot and ass slobbering? I’m really good at slobbering all over feet and ass.”
Tweet 2

I hope the gentleman below isn’t slobbering. It’s a nice shot and it’s be a shame to drool all over the ladies stockings.

FootWorship
I’m afraid I don’t have an original attribution for the image.

Arched chair

I’m traveling again. This time I’m taking a long weekend vacation down in San Francisco. Kinky play, good food and fine wine will be featured heavily. Blog posts may be interspersed between those three.

For an image I’m featuring Selina Minx enjoying two of my three favorite vacation activities. I can only wish I was this flexible. Some people cringe at images of piercing, or heavy whipping or claustrophobic bondage. For me, I cringe at shots like this that involve awkward angles and pressure on the lower back. I guess that’s a sign of getting older.

Arch
I found this on Selina Minx’s tumblr.

Trouble at dungeon

There’s nothing sexier than a lick. Other than a bite. A lick and a bite. The two sexiest things are a lick and a bite and a kiss. The three sexiest things are a lick, a bite and a kiss…and a gentle nibble on the neck. Amongst the many things sexy things are licks, bites, kisses, nibbles and gentle whispers into a lovers ear… I’ll come in again.

A Sexy LickI don’t have an attribution for this, I believe that’s Mistress Madeline and I’d guess it’s a crop of an original photograph from Kink.com. I should also add that this post originally was a sensible one that had an identical opening to its current one. It kind of got away from me after that. For anyone confused.