PDS – Femdom Resource

Making himself useful

Continuing my image theme from yesterday’s post of public objectification, here’s a man making himself useful. She gets somewhere comfortable to rest while texting her friends. He gets to provide her with somewhere comfortable to rest while texting her friends. It’s a win-win.

As a side observation, it does seem that the style of public play scenes often differs between Asian countries and US/Europe. Obviously I’m broadly generalizing here, and only going from what photographs show up on-line, so treat this as a very casual observation. But it seems when US/Europeans make a scene in public they do it in a very clearly kinky way, often with props and costumes involved. I’m thinking of images like this or this or this. These feature people who clearly left home with a kinky plan to execute. In contrast a lot of images I’ve featured from Asian countries look like this or this or the image below. They have a more casual look and a sense of normality to them. You can almost believe that they’re going about their daily lives, just with a kinky slant. It’s a style I personally find a lot hotter than the overtly fetishistic public scenes.

5 signs you’re reading a crappy magazine

Femina, an Indian magazine for women, has 5 signs that you might be a dominant woman. It’s kind of amazing, although not in a good way. Apparently, liking to have sex on top, initiating sex or simply showing a man how you like to have sex is a sign you might have dominatrix tendencies. I guess non-dominant women are expected to lie on their backs, wait for their partner to notice them, and just hope that whatever their partner likes also gets them off.

There’s certainly value in articles emphasizing you don’t need to have a wardrobe full of leather and the ability to swing a bullwhip to be a dominant woman, but this kind of bullshit is pretty depressing. The subtext is that sane and entirely normal sexual behavior for a man, like initiating sex or wanting to be sexual adventurous, is kinky for a woman. I guess the options according to this magazine are either doormat or dominant.

Oddly, the idea of standing on your partner to reach high shelves doesn’t seem to be covered by any of the article’s 5 signs. Although since having sex on top is dominant, maybe shopping on top falls into the same category?

I’m afraid I don’t have an attribution for this image.

Normality

Anyone who thinks being kinky makes them special should probably think again. According to The Journal of Sex Research, interpreted via this article in Maxim magazine, almost 50% of adults have unconventional sexual desires. Which kind of raises the question: At what point does unconventional become conventional? If kinky people make it to 51% of the population do we have to start describing non-kinky people as the unconventional ones?

Of course sometimes sexual desires can be complicated to pigeonhole in a simple classification system. Is this scene exhibitionism, public humiliation, shoe fetishism or simple D/s? Whatever it is, I think it puts the pair of them into the ‘unconventional’ half of the population.

Public Display

God Save the Queen

This image is likely to raise a smile with anyone who has been a tourist in London. For those that don’t recognize it, the setting is outside Buckingham Palace, the official residence of the Queen of England. Clearly there’s more than one Queen in the area deserving of hommage. I love the fact there’s all different people posing for the standard tourist shots, while she proudly poses for her alternative version.

I found this on the Dominalova tumblr. Based on the associated comment, I believe this is Mistress Evilyne – a London based pro-domme.

Quirky and kinky

I was done with posts on public play, temporarily at least. Then a commenter left me a pointer to an intriguing video that I just had to follow-up.

Regular readers may remember the story of the lady in London leading her man by a leash. It generated an unusual amount of media speculation and, as I covered in a follow-up post, turned out to be an art project. In that follow-up post I featured this image and jokingly commented that “I wonder what artistic statement they’re making?” I’d assumed it was a conventional kinky image, or possibly a provocative shot from a photographers portfolio. As it turns out, thanks to my very helpful commenter, I now know it actually was a more extended artistic work.

It’s taken from a 2 minute film entitled The woman and her Man, featuring a lady, her helpful submissive and a street preacher. It’s a quirky piece, kinky but not freaky, gently amusing and kind of cute. No Oscars will be awarded, but it’s unconventional and I liked it. The creator has a couple of different YouTube channels – ImaginePark and GirlFairytales. The movies and acting are a pretty mixed bag, but if you liked that first movie a couple of similar ones include The Women on the Bench and Famine Relief.

For an accompanying image I thought I’d step it up from my previous subtle fare. In some of the earlier comments we were debating where exactly the line on public play should be drawn. Here’s a good example of something that everyone can hopefully agree on. It’s hot, but probably isn’t acceptable outside the Folsom Street Fair.

I’ve actually failed to trace the original source of this image. I believe that’s Mistress Madeline and that Folsom is the only place that would allow this kind of public scene. But if anyone has any better information, feel free to let me know.

Being useful

I thought I’d continue the public theme from yesterday’s post with this rather cute couple. I like the bowed head and the firm protective hand on the shoulder.

Like a lot of kinky activities, it’s surprising how much complexity and variation there is in public play. For some it’s tied to a humiliation kink. For others its a kind of exhibitionism. Getting away with private play in public is another popular alternative – the hidden butt plug, the covered lacy underwear and the remote controlled electostim. My favorite variation is the helpful submissive. It’s subtle D/s, nothing too freaky and with just an undercurrent of control. It’s about making the dominants life more enjoyable in ways that just tweak the usual social rules and expectations.

I’m afraid I couldn’t track down an original attribution for this shot.

Enjoying the sights

My solution to easy blogging while on vacation is to ~~shamelessly steal~~ promote other great blogs. In this case it’s the work of photographer Natasha Gornik.

This setting should be recognizable to anyone who has visited Central Park in NYC. The horse drawn carriages are the more famous means of viewing the park (and have drawn the ire of the new mayor), but this looks like one of the pedicabs. Typically they carry tourists, but in this case it’s Mistress Alex and Keith who are enjoying the sights.

I love the contrast between the formal and the fetish in the shot. You can read Natasha’s take on shooting it, along with other images from the scene, in her original post.

A stroll in the city (update)

A couple of days ago I blogged about a woman spotted in London taking a man for a walk at the end of a leash. There was a lot of social media speculation about who they were and what they were doing. Well apparently the ‘mystery’ has been solved. According to this article in the Independent it was an acting/art project designed to provoke and film the reaction of passersby. The guy was the ‘director’ who’d recruited the woman via an acting website.

Hmmm. It reminds me of an artistic project I’ve been trying to put together. It’s a very provocative, but very creative piece. Absolute nothing, and I want to make this very clear, absolutely nothing pervy about it. I’m looking for 2 or 3 talented actresses willing to challenge their ideas of what theater can be. Nobody with latex or leather allergies please. Past experience with knots would be a bonus, as would trapeze skills and small hands. I’ll provide the male talent, the location and a very detailed script. Obviously as a starving artist I can’t offer any monetary compensation, but I can promise an unforgettable experience.

While I wait for the applicants to come flooding in, this story does give me a chance to post another PDS scene. From the sign this looks like it was shot in Portland, but I’ve zero background on it. I wonder what artistic statement they’re making?

A stroll in the city

This rather silly article popped into my inbox today. It features a smartly dressed man being led around London on a leash. Apparently it provoked a twitter thread with the hashtag #manonleash. I realize it’s not something you might see everyday, but for a cosmopolitanism city of over 8M people, I’m surprised it provoked that much interest. I’m pretty certain if you did it in San Francisco nobody would bat an eyelid.

It’s a good job it wasn’t this couple taking their daily exercise. It might have provoked a twitter meltdown and articles in the national papers.

This photograph is from Serious Bondage.

If anyone knows any reason why this couple…

Wedding themed shots crop up fairly frequently in femdom imagery. I guess that’s not too surprising, given there’s traditionally a power dynamic associated with a wedding day. Although I’m not really sure if they’re reinforcing or subverting a theme. On the one hand there’s the cliche of the blushing virgin bride on her wedding day being deflowered by her virile new husband. Clearly they twist that idea on it’s head. On the other hand there’s the cliche about the husband losing his freedom and being simultaneously emasculated and domesticated by his new wife. In that case they play into the idea. As an aside, I think it’s also interesting that they follow the traditional femdom porn clothing conventions. The woman is in a special outfit denoting her role (white dress/black leather) while the man is dressed conventionally (smart suit/naked).

Typically wedding themed shots don’t do much for me. However, I like this one for the barely suppressed smile on the man passing the couple by. That’s exactly the kind of half-smile I’d be sporting if I passed this pair in the street. There’s always an ongoing and never resolved debate about PDS (in fact Orlando was writing about it just this weekend), but in this case I think they’re spreading a little mirth wherever they go. Particularly if there’s a beaming bride to go with that grumpy groom.

I found this image on Red Head with a Riding Crop tumblr. My internet sleuthing leads me to believe the photographer is on flickr as m.o.n.o.c.h.r.o.m.e. Based on his portfolio it looks like a candid shot snapped in the street, rather than something posed. I also believe it was taken in Edinburgh in August, which almost certainly means it was something to do with the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Given the leaflets the ‘groom’ is holding, I’m guessing they were drumming up support for a show they were staging. So it’s street theater rather than PDS. Does that make a difference to the debate?