Hindsight

Apologies in advance. This is going to be a self-indulgent ramble.

Writing my last post got me thinking about my interests as a child. As I mentioned there, when I was very young I liked model villages and dioramas. I remember how much fun I had building shoebox sized miniature gardens for competitions in the local village fête. When I got older – maybe 10 or so – I was really into creating my own board games. I used to make the boards and pieces and spend ages coming up with complex rules and figuring how they should all work together. As a teenager I loved computers and writing my own videogames. I learnt Basic and 6502 assembly and spent hours creating self-contained worlds full of sprites I’d plotted across many sheets of graph paper.

In hindsight there’s a common element to all these interests – control. Well OK, they’re also all nerdy and solitary activities. But control is the bit that’s relevant to this blog. I was the God of the miniature environments I created. Board games might involve other players, but they all had to adopt a defined role and follow the rules I laid down. With a computer – particularly the 8 bit ones of that era – I controlled everything they did. The game world would look and sound just as I made it. They were the ultimate rule followers.

I guess it’s therefore not too surprising that I grew into an adult that has major kinks around control. I never really made the connection before, but that underlying desire to control or be controlled was clearly manifesting in my childhood interests as much as it does in my sexual ones today.

Bondage is a kink closely associated with control and was the first kinky thing I can remember fantasizing about. Even when I didn’t know what kink or bondage really was.

This artwork is (I believe) by Junji Ito, a Japanese manga artist.

Cut Away

This wonderful drawing gave me an odd flashback to my early childhood. I used to love cut away drawings, particularly of towns and houses. They had the same kind of appeal as model villages or dioramas. Tiny little worlds you could peer into. This is very much the adult version of that.

The artist is the talented KouYou, sourced from here. I’ve featured some of their past work here and here.

Album Covers

I’ve been enjoying a recent Twitter thread on pictures that could be album covers. A number of dommes have responded with some excellent suggestions. For example, this from Thea X, this from Mx Tomie and this from Violeta Felix.

I’ve picked out two of my personal favorites to feature here. The first is from Lily Kasai, a NYC based pro-domme. The second is from Muse Naadia, an LA based pro-domme. Eat your heart out Roxy Music. These are much cooler and sexier than even your best efforts.

Courtly Love

I’m continuing the medieval theme with a post on the topic of Courtly Love. This doesn’t refer to the lead singer of Hole, but the literary concept that became big in the 12th century, particularly in the castles and courts of France. It referred to love that was passionate, secret and adulterous. The relevance for this blog is that it often put the woman in a position of power over her admirer. As Britannica puts it

The courtly lover existed to serve his lady. His love was invariably adulterous, marriage at that time being usually the result of business interest or the seal of a power alliance. Ultimately, the lover saw himself as serving the all-powerful god of love and worshipping his lady-saint. Faithlessness was the mortal sin.

It’s perhaps unsurprising that some of the most important literary patrons of the time were wealthy women like Marie of France. With marriages treated as business arrangements and a woman’s primary role seen as the production of healthy male heir, the idea of a worshipful and faithful lover must have been an enticing one. Tease, denial, worship and cuckolding all rolled into one.

The most famous example of courtly love is Sir Lancelot and Guinevere, the wife of King Arthur. The original Arthur, if there is ever was one, was a 5th century British warrior and chief. In the 12th century the French poet Chrétien de Troyes came his stories a refresh and added the brave Sir Lancelot and his forbidden love for his master’s wife.

This is the great Helen Mirren in a publicity shot from the film Excalibur. It’s a highly entertaining version of the legend of Arthur, with Dame Helen in the role of Morgana. Absolutely zero historical accuracy but well worth watching.

Vanishing Vice

Vice Media is killing a lot of jobs and its primary web site. You can read about some of the business shenanigans behind all that here. It’s bankrupt and shifting to publishing purely via other sites.

While it has been a controversial outlet, with an abhorrent founder, I’ll be sad to see it go. While it definitely wasn’t above kinky clickbait, it had some of the better kink coverage in mainstream media. Looking back I linked to its articles fairly often. For example, on kinky therapists, on gooning, on fin-domme, on pro-domme sessions, etc.

It’s funny how the internet is simultaneously so permanent and also impermanent. It’s true that it’s almost impossible to erase a salacious photograph, an unwise tweet or an incriminating screenshot. Yet at the same time, whole sites can be wiped out in seconds. Hundreds of years of work involving thousands of people gone. Just traces left in archive sites and inaccessible local copies.

Last night I was watching a documentary on the origin of the British Exchequer and it mentioned their earliest records – in the form of pipe rolls – date back to 1130. They form a series from then until 1833, just over 700 years. What are the odds that any of our current electronic records will still be as accessible in 2724?

I’ve no idea what femdom image best suits the failure of a major media company, so let’s run with that medieval theme instead. This is the unmistakably work of Augustine.

Dom Speak

I mentioned the disappearance of Max Fisch a few weeks ago. It’s still AWOL, so I guess we can finally say it’s gone for good.

Lady Cheyenne has established a new forum site, with a very similar look and feel to Max – Dom Speak. If you’re a fan of femdom and classic web forum then check it out. I just created an account there and it took just a few seconds. Not a huge number of posts there right now but that’s inevitable in something this new. Given the fiasco that is Twitter, it’s good to have other options out there.

I’ll leave you with a shot of the control center from Dom Speak. Moderators and site admins all hard at work under the right kind of leadership.

This is actually by Helmut Newton from American Vogue back in 2002.

Chamber Pot

Here’s an unusual image for its time. Whipping and other forms of corporal punishment is pretty common in vintage shots. Bondage occasionally pops up, as do feet and boot fetishes. But I can’t remember seeing a watersport or toilet play vintage shot before. It must have been a particularly shocking image for its time. It still packs a punch even now.

I’m guessing it was taken in Europe in the early 1930’s, but I don’t have a specific attribution. I sourced it via Madam Is All.

More Manipulation

After a fun weekend in Vegas I’m heading for home. I once again visited the city of sin and didn’t do any sinning. Must be getting old. I did go and see the U2 show at the Sphere which was pretty amazing. I think it’s a space that’s going to set a new standard for concert venues.

For the image in today’s post I’m continuing  the theme of photoshop and image manipulation. I’m not sure of the original image source (it shows up in a bunch of equestrian themed pinterests) but I think the man has been added after the fact. I sourced this version via the Brutal Women tumblr.

 

Tweaking the Image

Before AI there was photoshop. A favorite tool for kinsters who wanted to modify an image to align with their preferences. I’m always amused when scrolling through tumblrs and I stumble across a photograph modified this way. In an internet awash in explicit BDSM imagery, dedicated kink fans still want to create new ones that speak to their passions.

Here’s an example I spotted on the Assertive Ladies tumblr. Originally it was from a photoshoot for a failed ABC show called Mind Games shown back in 2014. The actor is Jamie Ray Newman. I’m not sure who gave her the paddle. They did a decent job of the tweak, although there’s clearly something a little off about the pose.

Mysterious Ways

Apologies for the gap in posting. I’m traveling and that’s been messing with my schedule.

If I’m honest, I’m feeling a little maudlin tonight. I normally enjoy dining in restaurants alone. Being brought food and wine while I read a book is my non-kinky happy place. Seeing groups or couples having fun never bothers me. What makes me sad is couples who have nothing to say to each other. There was a beautiful and elegant woman who sat across the room from me tonight and totally pinged my domme-dar. She was with an older man, who barely said a word to her through a 2hr+ meal. I’d like to think she was a sex worker making serious bank for the hours they were there. But probably not. Life’s far too short to spend time with people who don’t spark joy.

This is by the Scottish painter Jack Vettriano.