Virgin Island is a reality TV show from the UK featuring 12 virgins on a 3 week intimacy retreat. Their virginity is unwanted and so the viewer gets to watch them work with sex therapists/surrogates and overcome their issues around intimacy. It sounds like the kind of show I’d absolutely hate and watching it would create a serious risk of death by second hand embarrassment.
However, it actually gets positive reviews and seems to have been created with some thought and a lot more sensitivity than the average reality TV show. I’m still never going to watch it, but it’s good to see thoughtful coverage of sex in a genre that typically leans into the exploitative.
I mention it here because an episode in the last season actually featured some femdom. One of the participants (Ed) was interested in submission and got to roleplay it with the resident BDSM coach – Shelby Devlin. There was exploration of spanking, forniphilia and some mild humiliation. All fun stuff and I hope Ed gets a chance for more kinky exploration in future. Preferably without a camera crew around.
This is the aforementioned Shelby Devlin. She’s a sex / intimacy and BDSM coach with a Master’s degree in Sexuality Studies. You can find her general website here and one that seems more targeted to BDSM and Kink coaching here. She runs workshops that are detailed here.
I believe this photograph was created by Alyssa Keys Photography.
Talking of U.K. reality TV there’s a show on ITV at the moment called Nobody’s Fool which is basically a combination of a quiz show, the Krypton Factor and The Traitors. It’s not the sort of programme I would normally watch, but one of the contestants is Melissa Todd a dom who I have been spanked, caned and generally punished by several times. During the second episode she disclosed what she did for a living whilst it caused some amusement the other competitors seemed to just accept what she does. I’ve only watched 2 episodes so far but she seems to be doing well.
Interesting. Doesn’t sound like my kind of show either, but nice to hear Melissa Todd is on it and doing well. Flying the flag for kinksters everywhere. I’ve never met her but I have featured her here in the past. Always been impressed with her writing and work.
-paltego