A thesis worth reading

After yesterday’s lengthy post, here’s something short and sweet courtesy of the artist Caroline O’Grady.

The two images below are taken from her thesis series entitled Dom & Sub. The first is Instigation (part 1) and the second is Post-Play (part 4). You can see the others 3 parts over at on her blog. There’s also Negotiation, Play and Aftercare.

I love the fact she’s using these as part of her academic thesis at her College of Art. It’d certainly make for a more interesting Viva Voce than the dry and boring discussions that typically result.

Instigation by Caroline O'Grady
Post-Play by Caroline O'Grady

Uh huh huh huh

A few posts ago I was writing about domination for dummies. This post is the double converse of that – submissive who are dumb. It was sparked by the tumblr of Mistress Ouch and her series of posts on some of the dumb things wannabe clients say to her. I found them highly entertaining. A few of my favorites were…

“Hi Mistress, I want a really simple easy session and since all that other stuff you do is gross and weird you’re probably really glad to have such a simple easy boring session. Can I have a discount?”

“I disagree with your boundaries. I am very logical and your boundaries are very illogical. Let me use my awesome logic skills to show you how stupid and crazy your boundaries are. Why aren’t you agreeing with me? You’re stupid and crazy.”

“Wait, you’re letting me choose when I get to come in? You mean you don’t dominate me during the booking process?”

She has plenty more amusing example of obtuseness from the little s brigade. They’re well worth a read as examples of the kind of idiocy that pro-dommes have to regularly sort through.

I thought picking a picture for this post might be tricky until I stumbled on the one below. Butthead would make the stupidest submissive possible. I don’t think they ever did a Beavis and Butthead episode featuring a pro-domme, which feels like they missed a trick. The dialog just writes itself. It starts with “Uh huh huh huh. We’re totally going to do it. Come to Butthead”. Swiftly followed “Owww! Get off me you asswipe! That hurts”.

Butthead dreams of a dominatrix Daria

This image was never part of the TV show. It’s taken from a 1997 book called The Butt Files.

Extraordinary aim

This is kind of a screwed up image. It’s by German Jim and, like a lot of his work, has a composite feel to it. The vintage drawing seems to have been married with a photograph for the face.

However, artist techniques aside, what’s really odd is the aim of the lady. I’ve done a number of GS scenes and, to be frank, women are not the best aimers in the world. They don’t have the pipework for it. If they can hit my mouth, from a few inches away, seven out of ten times, then I consider myself ahead of the game. Hitting the target from a standing position while staring in a different direction and wearing a big skirt, well that’s a goddam miracle. I’m blessed with better aiming equipment, and I couldn’t pull this shot off. This lady should pee for the Olympics.

German Jim

Pegging praise

The origin and subject of this artwork is a little obscure. It’s signed as ‘Faun Songs’, which would seem to map to this deviant art account, although I can’t see it in the gallery there. It started out on a similarly named tumblr, although I found it on the Vengeful Goddess tumblr. I believe it’s fan art of two characters from a webcomic called Homestuck, which I’ve never heard of before but is apparently fairly big in its own way.

Whatever the source and inspiration, I like it a lot. There’s a real warmth to both their interaction and the style with which the drawing has been rendered. The hand around the throat and the murmured expression of praise are also nice touches that really make the scene work.

Pegging Praise

The oldest trap?

I’m always a fan of pulpy novels featuring predatory female figures. This one’s particularly good, with both a sultry blonde and a tough as nails older woman. However, the catchy line above the title – “She lured him into the world’s oldest trap’ – is a bit puzzling.

The luring part is fairly obvious, given the flashed leg and low cut top. But what’s the world’s oldest trap? In modern internet slang that would imply that the older woman was packing a penis in her panties. Given the context though, I doubt that’s it. Marriage doesn’t make sense, as that’s a relatively modern social idea. The same goes for monogamous coupling and child rearing. I’ve got to think that the world’s oldest trap is a pit covered in branches. That’s how they used to catch woolly mammoths after all. It seems an odd way to catch a guy, but it’s the only thing that makes sense to me. I guess it might still be better than relying on your OK Cupid profile.

A Hell Of A Woman

Often this kind of pulp cover is associated with some fairly poor fiction. But this story is actually by the great Jim Thompson. I’ve not read this particular novel, but he’s famous for such works as The Getaway, The Grifters and The Killer Inside Me. He also collaborated with Kubrick on The Killing and Paths of Glory (although didn’t receive proper credit). If you’re a fan of the pulp crime genre he’s definitely an author worth exploring.

Aahh, puppy!

This struck me as a nice follow-up to yesterday’s post. That had the sense of an eager puppy. This one seems more like a naughty puppy vibe. They make for a cute couple, but I get the sense she’s not entirely happy with him at this moment.

Me and my mistress

The title of the image is ‘Me and my mistress‘. It’s by the artist zephyrian Boom. You can see more of his work at Deviant Art (free login required). I originally came across the image at the Adore Femdom tumblr.

Mouseketease

I’m a little nervous about posting this. The lawyers for Disney are notorious assholes fine, hardworking people who fiercely defend their companies property. I’m sure this is both fair use as a parody as well as being a creative work in it’s own right. But while I’m masochistic enough to enjoy whipping, burning and piercing, I’m not masochistic enough to want to get involved in a copyright dispute with corporate lawyers. I may be kinky, but I’m not crazy.

Anyway, it made me smile, so I thought it worth sharing. You expect this kind of behavior from Bugs Bunny, or even Tom & Jerry, but it’s quite against type for these two.

Mouseketease

I found it on the ‘A Velvet Underground‘ (aka Obey or Else) tumblr. The tag is hard to read but I think it is Twisted Terra. Unfortunately I can’t find an artist site under that name.

Contemplating the situation

This young lady appears to be taking a moment to pause and reflect on the situation in front of her. I’m not sure if it’s intended to represent a moment before, during or after the use of that whip. Whichever it is, I like her air of calm contemplation, with just a hint of what could be amusement.

Artwork by Leone Frollo

This lovely watercolor is by the Italian artist Leone Frollo. The Femdom Artist site has a selection of his other works available.

Estrogen and subspace

While I was writing yesterday’s post on the brain’s response to pain I stumbled across another related article. It addresses the hoary old argument of pain tolerance in men versus women. It’s commonly said that women have a higher tolerance and this article claimed to have found a reason for that – estrogen.

One way estrogen helps women to cope with pain, he says, is by increasing the availability of endorphins — brain chemicals that help dampen the pain response.
When estrogen levels are high, there’s an increased number of areas in the brain where endorphins can “park.” The more “parking places” available, Zubieta says, the more endorphins there are on call, waiting to flood the body with “feel good” chemicals capable of overriding pain signals.

According to the article in yesterday’s post, brains all react to pain in a similar way. How individuals respond is down to social conditioning and secondary factors like the production of endorphins. And based on this article, women have a natural advantage on the endorphin front. When it comes to bragging rights, I’m not sure this really helps. It implies that it’s not down to simple mental toughness or fortitude. Women (in general) just have more natural opiates floating around their brain.

More pertinently, for the purposes of this blog, it makes more wonder if women tend to experience a more intense subspace. The rush associated with endorphins is a big part of subspace, and having more on tap would suggest a potential for a deeper experience. The fight or flight reaction is also part of getting into subspace, and that’s another thing men and women experience differently. Both sexes produce cortisol from the adrenal gland under stress, but women produce more oxytocin which counters the effect of cortisol and creates more relaxing and nurturing feelings. I know from personal experience that my subspace contains elements of all these things, from the rush of endorphins through the edginess of adrenaline to the calmness of oxytocin. But if men and women typically produce different proportions of these it would suggest the subspace they experience might typically be different as well.

Whatever the science of all it – and I’m most definitely not an expert – it does give me an excuse to feature some hot F/f artwork.

You talk too much honey by Shiniez

This artwork is by Shiniez and you can find a lot more on his Deviant Art pages.