Mainstream – Page 44 – Femdom Resource

Gangs of New York

One look at their footwear tells you these are not people who actually ride motorcycles. Yet I still like this shot. The old school British motorbikes are very stylish, as are the leather outfits. As an image it’s almost a double cliche. It was shot for Vogue by Peter Lindbergh in 1991, and obviously apes the biker iconography of the 50’s. Yet looking at it now, it is also a great example of the kind of supermodel photo shoots that were so common in the 80’s and 90’s.

The models featured are Naomi Campbell, Karen Mulder and Helena Christensen. The photographer was Peter Lindbergh. You can see more images from the shoot here.

Never interview naked

I thought this was an interesting article on how we intellectually react to an image of someone naked. The simplistic view is that we objectify them, treating them as less than human. The article claims that it’s more complicated than that, and that while we do consider them less intelligent, we also think they’re more sensitive.

In one experiment … the photo showed either just the head or also the shirtless torso. When presented shirtless, targets were seen as having less competence. This is just what you might expect from research on objectification: we’re easily induced to see others as mere objects, pieces of meat without thoughts of their own. But it wasn’t that simple. Shirtless targets weren’t seen as devoid of all thought. They were actually seen as being more capable of emotions and sensations than their less exposed selves. They didn’t have less mental life but a different mental life.

They even used Timothy Greenfield-Sanders Porn-Star Portraits book in one experiment and found that varying the sexuality of the pose simply moved people along the lower-competence/higher-sensitivity curve. True objectification never actually occurred.

Given that all the personal images posted on this blog feature a naked me, I can only assume my readers think I’m a delicate and emotional creature, who is thicker than a whale omelette. This also has interesting implications for the CFNM fetish. Often that’s treated as a power dynamic or a humiliation scene. I now wonder if there’s also a degree of subconscious role reversal in it for some men. Cultural cliches categorize women as emotional and men as intellectual. Based on the above finding, CFNM images would reverse that broken stereotype.

I thought this image (found on homer’s blog) was an appropriate one to use for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it’s obviously a CFNM shot. But it’s also an animal roleplay, and that seems to align with the intellectual/sensitive split. We don’t think of animals as competent. Nobody expects their dog to balance the household accounts or fix that leaky tap in the guest bathroom. But we do assign a lot of emotional attributes to pets. Dogs are seen as particularly dumb but sensitive, which is apparently much like our views on naked humans.

Fashion victim

I’m back in freezing Seattle after my jaunt down the coast to California. From a food and friends perspective the trip was a storming success. If you’re in LA and looking for great restaurants I’d strongly recommend Scratch Bar, Ink and hinoki & the bird. They were the three standouts of all those I tried.

From a kinky perspective it wasn’t quite as successful. The original person I planned to see had a scheduling conflict and we never could quite align our calendars. Then my alternative choice turned out to be sick and unable to play. At that point, rather than ringing around for a last minute beating, I decided it simply wasn’t meant to be. Instead I went clothes shopping in Beverly Hills. That’s an entirely different level of masochism. The sales assistants might not dress in leather, but they can certainly inflict punishment. I got a figurative screwing that was more expensive than a literal one. Although at least I ended up taking more home than a sore bottom.

The topic of clothes and fashion does give me an excuse to feature some fashion based femdom. This is for voodoo hosiery and taken from their 2010 ad campaign.

Talking over a bear

This rather intriguing artwork is by the artist Waldemar-Kazak. It’s called ‘Talking over a bear’ and you can see the original full size version over on his Deviant Art page. I’m not exactly sure what the story is behind it. There’s a very 50’s feel to it, an edge of melancholy created by his expression and a weird sexy vibe (at least in my strange brain). It looks like it should be an illustration for a twisted short story in something like the New Yorker.

I originally came across this in the Femdomarts tumblr.

Airline femdom

After this post Servitor quite rightly took me to task for having no good examples of airline femdom. He cited the NOFX track S&M airlines (great band, but not their best track), the artwork of the brilliant Sardax and his own particular riffs on the theme.

All these are fine examples, but I think he’s missing one of the best, albeit most subtle ones. That would be the Delta safety video featuring the stewardess who is definitely not a fan of smoking. I’m sure that many a submissive flyer felt a delightful inner quiver when she did her finger wag (around 1:50 in the video).

I’d always assumed she was an actress hired to film the video, but it turns out she’s a Delta flight attendant who has continued to work as one. That’s particularly impressive given how many delta flyers must have asked her for a personal reprise of her starring role.

Beauty of my dish

Japan has a rich tradition of erotic artwork. Shunga prints have recently become well known and admired in the West. This piece is of a more recent vintage and is by the artist Ryoko Kimura. It’s entitled ‘Beauty of My Dish – My man’s body dish for L’opera gateau au chocolat’ and if you’re interested in purchasing it or similar works it sold for around $32,000 US dollars back in 2005.

Crazy for you

Continuing the theme of artwork and fictional characters, here’s Bellatrix Lestrange (from the Harry Potter series) as illustrated by Chris Ables. I’ve never actually read the books, but I do appreciate the sentiment. The crazy evil characters are always the most interesting ones in any story. Doesn’t matter if it’s Hannibal Lecter, Malificent, Blofeld or the Joker. Conventional evil is simply unpleasant and quickly dispatched by the hero. Crazy evil is fascinating and always gets to return in the sequels.

You can find more of Christopher Ables’ work on his site.

Alter ego

Catwoman has not been treated kindly by the movies. Anne Hathaway played the character beautifully, but got stuck with an incoherent sprawling mess of a movie. Michelle Pfeiffer looked fabulous in her latex outfit, but got stuck with another incoherent mess of a movie. In both cases the the respective directors (Christopher Nolan and Tim Burton) turned in their weakest movies when they incorporated the catwoman character. Clearly attractive women with whips have a detrimental effect on screenwriters and directors.

On the plus side the movie characters have resulted in a lot of great fan art. This particular take on the Michelle Pfeiffer version is by hotcake on deviant art.

The common man’s guide to bad books

The growing mainstream visibility of BDSM has led to a burst of kinky novels, guides and memoirs. A particularly active niche within this growing category has been the pro-domme autobiography and how-to guide. In theory this should have led to a lot of exciting reading. Anyone who has chatted to an experienced pro-domme will know they have many great stories to go along with their technical skills and insight into the complexities of human sexuality. In reality the results have been pretty mixed, with most books being, shall we say, less-than-great.

The latest contender is The Posh Girls Guide to Play by Alexis Lass aka Domme Dietrich, as featured in this NY Post article and this MF thread. It’s a kind of guide and memoir combo deal. The good news is that it’s not in that less-than-great category. The bad news is that it’s much worse than that. Admittedly I haven’t read the whole thing, but the look inside feature on the Amazon site told me all I needed to know.

I could probably deal with the juvenile writing style that reads like a cross between a teenager’s diary and a Cosmo article. The frequent mentions of her posh upbringing is weird, but I don’t think that would ruin it for me. I could even cope with her crass attempts to tie the whole things into the awful 50 shades trilogy. But some other things are just too annoying to ignore.

You might think that a book by a pro-domme would feature some positive thoughts on female domination. Even if the book covered a variety of gender and D/s combinations, surely the F/m one should be there somewhere, right? Yet no. As far as I can tell (both from the book and her interviews) it automatically defaults to the conventional submissive female role. The only submissive males are laughable clients in the commercial dungeon. Write about female submission by all means, but don’t act like it’s the goddam natural order of the world.

Next on the list of the “You’ve got to be kidding me…” was this gem.

S&M is archaic and rusty term that does not represent all or most popular dominant and submissive roleplay …. [We’ll have] nothing plucked from the psycho torture toy chest. This guide is intended for adventurous, whole and healthy women…

Well fuck you very much lady. A lot of us like a little S and a touch of M. And we don’t appreciate the implication that we’re not whole or healthy because of it. You’re drawing a bunch of arbitrary lines between what’s kinky and cool and what’s weird and deviant. I think I must have missed your nomination as ultimate ruler of acceptable kink. Is it to late for me to vote?

The final gem that almost made me laugh out loud was the guide to who the book is for. Apparently if you answer yes to just one of these questions, then BDSM is for you…

6. My lover and I are fighting too much, and it’s taxing our relationship.
7. I would love to tone down the stress in my life.
8. I am a dominant female and I’m wondering how it would feel to be relieved of control and play a submissive role in a ‘tryout’ play experience.

Yes, that’s right – if your relationship isn’t working out, and you’re fighting a lot, then clearly the best thing to do is to get ropes, gags and whips involved. That applies even if neither of you have any interest in BDSM. Just go ahead and get your kinky freak on. There’s absolutely nothing that could possibly go wrong in that situation. As for (8), I refer you to my earlier comments. Obviously if you’re a dominant female who brought a book by an ex pro-domme expecting some suggestions on female dominance, well more fool you. You probably deserve a good spanking.

The image is the author in question – Domme Dietrich. I might not appreciate her writing, but I have to admit she does look fabulous in a black corset.

Victoria’s history

I found this recent Slate article on the history of the Victoria’s Secret company interesting. I’d always assumed that fancy lingerie stores were a standard fixture in the boutique shopping areas of most cities. Apparently that only became true in America in the 1980’s when Victoria’s Secret went from a company founded with $80,000 in ’77 to a $1.9B empire by ’95. I was particularly amused by the fact that the founder originally created it because the department stores made him feel like a ‘deviant’ for shopping there and he wanted somewhere for men to be comfortable. I know quite a few dommes where that embarrassment and deviance factor would count as a bonus not a drawback.

Of course this story gives me an excuse to feature a suitably frilly image with a hint of femdom. This is Larisa Fraser shot for Bonprix lingerie.