Mistress Stephanie Locke

I have to admit to being very conflicted on social media. It’s ability to spread lies and poison is undoubtedly high, but at the same time, it does enable me to discover amazing people. As an example, I give you Mistress Stephanie Locke.

I first encountered Mistress Locke via a series of black and white images posted on usenet back in the 90’s. I had absolutely no idea who was in the images, but I remember being transfixed by them. I thought they were the hottest thing I’d ever seen, but I couldn’t understand why I reacted as strongly as I did. It was only later that I realized I was reacting to the realism in the shots. Most femdom and kink shots at the time looked horribly staged and featured bored models.  There were lots of floggers being waved towards the camera by people who looked desperate to escape their boots and corsets. In contrast, the shots with Stephanie Locke seemed to feature people who were genuinely interested in who they were beating and why.* It amazes me that today I can read the thoughts and tweets of a domme who seemed like a mythical figure to the young paltego.

Sadly I don’t have a copy of the original usenet series of images that first caught my eye. The image below looks like it’s from a few years later on. I just wish I was at DomCon in LA to pay my respects in person. I love this selfie she posted with a crop on the bathroom counter.

* It’s also possible that the fact that I have a thing for dommes in glasses also played a role here.

Playing with Domina Akira

I’m safely back in Seattle, my short San Francisco trip at an end. Before I left I was lucky enough to be able to sneak in one final session. Following my usual algorithm, having played with someone I know well, I wanted to play with someone new to me. Via the Domme Sisterhood site I found Domina Akira and I was fortunate enough to find a suitable time before my flight left for us to meet.

Her style was definitely different to Yuki’s – more formal and interrogative – while still mixed in playful and teasing elements.  There was some interesting arm rope bondage in a style I’d not experienced before and, while I’d never describe myself as a foot fetishist, I did discover a liking for having a domme’s bare foot smooshed into my face. I suspect that’s more a scent and objectification thing than a foot thing per se. Despite the fact that I’m not a fan of more formally structured scenes, I think the session actually worked out really well. The fact she laughed a lot as she hit me was certainly a big plus!

Domina Akira also demonstrated the instinctive reactions I’ve come to recognize in all great dommes. Namely, immediately poking and slapping all the tender places I’d acquired in earlier sessions and beating my ass prior to getting on a plane (point 4 from here). I think she might have been disappointed that I only had a 2 hour flight back to Seattle rather than a 10 hour one back to England.

This image is taken from Domina Akira’s image gallery. If you’re in the Bay area and want to schedule a session, her contact page is here. She also has tour dates posted for the next few months via twitter.

A Double Dose

I’m fortunate that most of the feedback I receive for this blog is positive and appreciative. That said, there is one singular and common complaint that I find regularly jamming up my inbox. It generally follows the form of – ‘I love your witty writing and insight into kink. But why can’t we have more of it? One blog just isn’t enough! Can you please give us more of paltego?’

I find these kind of complaints somewhat annoying, but I also hate to disappoint anyone. So for this group of totally genuine and not at all imaginary people,  I give you a lengthy interview with me on the blog of the fabulous Miss Ava Zhang.

In all seriousness, it was an interesting and enjoyable process to think through the questions Miss Zhang posed, as well as pleasure to hear her feedback. While I have this site as my personal soapbox, I try and keep posts here short and to the point. Writing in more detail forced me to clarify my thoughts and do a degree of self-analysis. That’s probably an exercise I could do with repeating more often.

Miss Zhang is based in NYC, but also tours regularly. I’ve not been lucky enough to session with her (yet!), but based on my interactions for this interview, I think she’d be an amazing person to know and submit to.

I love the blend of elegance, composure and just a touch of fetish in this shot. It’s from Miss Zhang’s gallery page.

Saying ‘No’ to men

LA’s Natalie West has a written an interesting article entitled ‘I tell men “no” for a living: What a dominatrix knows about #MeToo‘. As the title suggests, it touches on issues of consent, boundaries and the men who potentially violate them, from her perspective as a domme. I normally like to pull out a representative post quote from these kind of articles, but this is a dense piece that doesn’t lend itself to excerpting. If you’ve come to this blog for hot sexy stuff, then stick to this picture from her professional site, but for anyone looking for a more thought provoking read, it’s worth checking out.

This is from her gallery page. If you’re in the LA area and want to a session, then booking info is here.

Funny Mummy

After some seriously depressing politics, I felt a touch of humor might be required. And I can’t think of anyone who can combine humor, playfulness and some seriously intense bondage quite like Lady Hinako. The mummification image below is from her twitter feed. It makes me smile each time I look at it. The second image, of Mistress Hinako herself, is from a different scene and taken from her blog post entitled Hinako Hospital. Even in medical play, she manages to inject (ahem) some fun decoration of her submissive.

Wedding Bells

Did you hear about the two dommes getting married? It’s sounds like a setup, but there’s no punchline. It’s just a happy positive story to put a smile on your face. As posted on twitter here, Mistress Evilyne (who I’ve posted about in the past) is getting hitched to Goddess Anastaxia. The arrangement was sealed with the presentation of the pearl ring that belonged to Anastaxia’s grandmother. Many congratulations to the happy couple!

There’s so much stupid bullshit in the world these days, one can forget how many other things have changed for the good. Here I am cheering for two dommes getting married after discovering the fact via my kink  centric twitter feed. Twenty years ago that sentence would have blown my tiny brain.

Goddess Anastaxia and Mistress Evilyne are both based in London. The actually offer double dommes sessions together. I’d imagine being topped by a married couple would be a fairly unusual experience.

What seems to be the problem, officer?

This image made me smile, although I suspect it may only be my British readers who have a similar response. Stern female police officers aren’t exactly rare in femdom imagery. However, they’re typically US uniforms, or some more generic European outfit with militaristic overtones. It’s rare to see a classic British outfit, complete with a white shirt, black jumper and elbow patches.

No offense to the two stars here – Mistress Baton and Leicester Governess – but this put me in mind of the movie Hot Fuzz. That takes a classic British Bobby setting and put a humorous spin on a modern US style action movie around it. I’m sure these two talented ladies can administer a sound thrashing to a guilty man, but I also suspect a hot cup of tea might be at the end of it.

Mistress Baton (who I’ve featured here previously) is normally based in Johannesburg, but I believe she’s currently touring and taking sessions in England. The Governess is based in Leicester and her professional site is here.

Kink with Homework

This article on Mistress Velvet is (deservedly) all over my social media feeds and inbox. The title, in classic Huffington Post fashion, encapsulates the story – “Meet The Dominatrix Who Requires The Men Who Hire Her To Read Black Feminist Theory.

It’s a surprisingly well done article. It gives Mistress Velvet space to expand on the intellectual and emotional challenges of her job, while omitting a lot of the salacious detail that usually accompanies mainstream articles like this. Her relationship as a black domme  with her mostly white, cis and well off clients is obviously a complex one. I love the fact that she’s managed to structure her sessions as positive for both her and her clients, while also creating a platform to explore issues of race and privilege.

If I’m not only doing these physical things to them, but also saying, “Hey, my graduate education is also focused on BDSM as healing for black women, and I think about this all the time.” Then they’re like, “Whoa, yeah, she’s the real deal.” They kind of get terrified. But I think it makes it more real for them.

I don’t think I’ve ever been assigned homework by a domme, but I do understand the kind of dynamic she describes above. Submissives typically enjoy things that pull them mentally back into that D/s dynamic, even many days after playing. Something as simple as a bruise can remind them of the dommes presence and physicality. I’d imagine engaging with writing and arguments that she’s passionate about would have a similar ability to conjure a sense of her presence.

Mistress Velvet is based in Chicago. If you’d like to schedule a session, her contact information is here.

Catsuits in NYC

Humiliation types scenes in public spaces are pretty common in Femdom imagery. I’m sure you know the type of scene I mean. There’s a domme in sensible clothes leading around a submissive in slightly less sensible clothes, while random bystanders look on with varying degrees of amusement, shock and puzzlement. Something like this one.

It’s not really my kind of scene, so I was therefore pleased to see an alternative variation on a public scene in this post from Miss Ava Zhang. It features Miss Zhang and Domina Dia Dynasty cruising around NYC in shiny rubber suits. No humiliated submissives in sight. Just two dommes having fun in great outfits. Amusingly the only place they weren’t welcome was a kinky whip cracking meetup in Central Park, where apparently whip cracking and hot dommes in latex was just too much fun to have all in one public place.

You can see more images from their NYC adventures in the post here.

My inner feline

What’s better than playing with an awesome domme in LA? That would be playing in LA and then playing with the same awesome domme a week later in Seattle. Yes, God was good to me this week. Although technically it was more Mistress Iris and her travel schedule than God. They are at least similar in their ability to bring grown men to their knees.

I got to enjoy some amazing tease and denial, along with sensation play and some sounding thrown in for good measure. Most of my play partners would liken the noises I make in a session to a dog or a bear. There’s a fair amount of growling, snarling and barking that goes on. I think today might have been the first time I purred in a session. Clearly Mistress Iris is bringing out my inner feline. I didn’t even know I had one.

This is Mistress Iris with not me. I can only wish I rocked a garter belt and pair of stockings like that. This is from Mistress Iris’s twitter feed.