Contrasting expressions

It’s been a crazy news week in the US, and I’m very happy it’s now the weekend. I look forward to relaxing with a glass of wine and not doing or watching much of anything. I hope all my readers out there can have an equally enjoyable weekend.

I was going to put up this image and make a short simple comment about how cute and happy it was. But then I looked a little closer. She certainly has a pleased “Ahhh puppy!” expression going on, but he’s red face, angry and trying to grab what looks like a butter knife. I can’t see that cutting through his bonds. It’s kind of an odd image in that respect. I’d be a very happy bunny in his position, but clearly he’s not a fan of bondage fun.

Based on the image signature, this is by the artist Bondlicitous.

Hurrah Germania!

It’s not often that femdom artwork intersects with momentous world events, but I believe this cartoon is one such case. I couldn’t find any background information for it but, given I’m an enormous history nerd, I can take an educated guess. Apologies if this ends up being a lot of history and very little femdom, but I think the cartoon has a fascinating connection to a historical turning point that shaped the entire 20th century.

The man being beaten by Lady Germania is Joseph Chamberlain, a key figure in the British government before the First World War and father of the infamous (to be) Neville. In Joseph’s era, Britain was the dominant world and naval power, and Germany was rapidly becoming the dominant European land power. Some elements of the two governments thought they should form an Anglo-German alliance, each concentrating on their respective strengths on land and at sea. Together with America, they believed this would allow them to divide up and dominate the world. This was opposed by those on the British side who thought it would just give Germany a chance consolidate their power in Europe before turning on Britain. In the German camp there was opposition from those who thought they could never be a world power without building a challenge to the Royal Navy, which Britain would never stand for.

Ironically, despite this cartoon, Joseph Chamberlain was actually one of the key British figures pushing for friendship and alliance with Germany in the late 1890’s. This cartoon was probably published around 1901 when his third attempt at negotiating an alliance had fallen through over a dispute on the conduct of British soldiers in the Boer war. Chamberlain in turn attacked the conduct of German troops, their press castigated him and Britain ultimately ended up allied with France and Russia against Germany.

It’s intriguing to think what would have happened if he’d succeeded. WWI clearly would have not happened or would have unfolded very differently. And WWI was the defining event of the 20th century. From it flowed the Russian revolution and communism, America’s transition to a world power, the collapse of European states in fascism and and ultimately WWII. From that flowed the Cold War, the collapse of the colonial empires, the rebuilding of Japan and the growth of China.

Of course it’s impossible to know what the world would have been like if Chamberlain hadn’t end up under the lash of progress by Lady Germania. I think it’s safe to say it would have been a very different place. I wonder what the artist would have thought if he’d known what was to come?

Google Translate doesn’t a good job of the top text, so if anyone can help with a translation there I’d be interested to know what it says. The bottom appears to be “A striking answer by the German people to the attacks of Chamberlain.”

Cool Britannia

Despite the British theme, this is actually by an Italian artist, the great Milo Manara (featured previously here). At first and even second glance, I thought it was a watersports image, but she’s actually pouring from a bottle. From other images I’ve found – for example this one – it seems to have been used in a Strongbow Cider advertising campaign. Which I find quite extraordinary. If you’re selling a bright yellow liquid as a mass market beverage, why on earth would you want to make a urine connection? Or associate your product with toilet artwork like this?

I think it’s a great image, but even for those like me, who love femdom and watersports, it’s not the kind of thing I want in my head when I’m ordering a pint of something cool and refreshing at a bar. I guess if the bartender was hot and served it in this fashion, then maybe, but most British pubs don’t offer that kind of customer service. If they did, I might never have left the old country.

I found this on the Female Dominance in Mainstream Media tumblr.

Don’t fight it

I’ve been a fan of Dan Savage ever since moving to Seattle and discovering his column in The Stranger. A recent interview with him in Refinery29 caught my eye for this quote…

Sex always wins. Sex is more powerful than you are. Sex is 500 million years old. It built us and it will build whatever comes after us. People like to pretend that they’re in charge of their desires or their sexuality, and they’re not. You’re in charge of how you act on them, but you can’t dam it up.

One has to be a little careful with this kind of statement. I’m glad he added that part about ‘how you act on them’, because there’s a danger that people can use the idea of sex being in charge as an excuse for all sorts of shitty behavior. However, that said, I do like the underlying message he’s trying to get across here. We may control our actions, but our desires and sexuality flow from deep and complex forces that nobody fully understands. Trying to stop them or ignore them is pointless. Our goal should be to channel them into responsible and healthy actions that enable us to fully explore them.

I’m afraid I don’t know the artist who created this. I believe it’s fan art of a couple of anime characters – Nagisa Hazuki and Gou Matsuoka.

The challenge of definitions

This dailydot article entitled ‘What is BDSM‘ will probably not contain anything particularly new or interesting to regular readers. However, one part did catch my eye…

In The New Topping Book, co-author Janet W. Hardy describes BDSM as “an activity in which the participants eroticize sensations or emotions that would be unpleasant in a non-erotic context.”

I’ve never seen that definition before, and my first instinct was to say that it couldn’t possibly be true. BDSM is packed with sexy fun, so surely that must include activities that are pleasant in a non-erotic context. But the more I thought about it, the more I struggled to come up with some good examples to invalidate the definition.

Certainly, the kinky things I enjoy wouldn’t be fun in a non-erotic context. If I’m being whipped, pierced, bound, beaten, suffocated, bitten or burnt then it’s either a great play session or I’ve been kidnapped by a serial killer. There’s not a lot of room in between. Even for non-masochistic stuff, it’s hard to think of a good example that contradicts the definition. Things like foot worship, humiliation, CFNM, blackmail and service are no fun without an erotic context. And things like fetishistic outfits, anal penetration, chastity play and tease and denial are inherently inseparable from eroticism.  So what’s left?

The only thing I can suggest are splooshing and looning. They seem like they could be both non-sexual fun for some people and hot sexy times for others. But while they’re definitely kinks, I’m not sure they count as BDSM. So I think that means the definition stands. Unless anyone out there can come up with an activity that breaks it?

Here’s a lady enjoying both a cake and anilingus. That’s definitely kinky, but is it BDSM? And while cake can be non-erotic, can the same be said for eating it while getting your bottom polished?

Problems

Apologies for the inactivity on the site recently. Over the weekend there was yet another technical issue with my web hosting company that took the site offline for many hours. That’s the third repeat of the issue in as many months, but like all modern technical companies, it’s almost impossible to get a human contact and a clear technical answer on what the problem was. Then, just as soon as I got that fixed, I screwed my back up and ended up horizontal on the floor. Being unable to bend or sit is not really conducive to blogging.

Anyway, hopefully the site is back and my back is good. Or, if good is too much to hope for, at least it’ll let me sit and type for short periods. By way of apology, here’s a hot and sexy image from the ever talented Yumine Guo. I’m not a CFNM fan per se, but there’s something lovely about his naked openess and her casual and clothed perch on the couch.

The head and other stuff

I love the construction and elegance of this drawing. There’s a striking contrast between the detail used for the head and the sparse but expressive lines used for the body and cock.

One of the oddities of BDSM is that there are endless tortuous and inventive things that can be done to all the different part of the body, yet it often ends up being about what’s happening in the head. I don’t mean in the slightly cliched sense of the brain being the biggest erogenous zone, but that intense sensations cause a turning inwards and a focus on a sense of self. When pushed hard I often feel I retreat to my head and inner-consciousness, with my body becoming abstract and somewhat distant. This drawing captures a little bit of that feeling for me.

The artist is Robert Richards. His work almost exclusively features men, but feel free to imagine a hot dominant woman in an exciting outfit of your choice just slightly out of frame in this picture.

Doctor Who?

The BBC has announced that the new Doctor Who will be Jodie Whittaker, the first woman to take the role. The reactions to this were entirely predictable: A lot of positive comments; a lot of whining about the PC police ruining the character; a lot of internet analysis of the significance of the decision and what the subsequent whining tells us about society and internet culture.

I used to watch the original series as a child, when Tom Baker and Peter Davidson took the role, but I’ve never really got into the recent revival of the series. As I’ve mentioned before, for someone with geeky tendencies, I’m not big on sci-fi and fantasy shows (with one exception). I’ll probably check out this new incarnation of the Doctor however. Jodie Whittaker was good in Broadchurch and, if the scripts are decent, I can see her creating an intriguing version of the character.

I was tempted to finish this post with some hot Doctor Who cosplay, but decided that the image below was more suited to this blog. It features the characters Amy Pond, Rory Williams and the eleventh Doctor. I’m afraid I don’t know the artist.

Hades and Persephone

Apologies if you had trouble reaching the site over the weekend. My site hosting service was screwed up again, much to my frustration.

The artwork below is by Jessica Madorran, and is a twist on the traditional representation of Hades and Persephone. In Greek mythology Persephone was the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of the harvest and agriculture. When the god of the underworld, Hades, kidnaps the beautiful Persephone the result is a great famine, as Demeter curses the land while roaming it looking for her daughter. Zeus eventually brokers a compromise, with Persephone spending just one third of the year in the underworld with Hades. During that time Demeter grieves for her daughter, causing us mortals to get stuck with winter. Not quite sure why abducting a helpless maiden should get you a compromise deal of 4 months visitation, rather than say a well deserved thunderbolt up your ass, but that’s Greeks gods for you.

The twist in this artwork is a gender reversal, with a female Hades and a male Persephone. I like that change, but it’s odd that someone would commission such a piece. Is there such a thing as a greek mythology gender-swap fetish? Apparently so.

You can see more of Jessica’s work here.