Apologies for the lack of recent activity. I’ve been having a lot of fun doing sessions in London. Between those and visiting fancy restaurants it hasn’t left a lot of time for blogging.
On Saturday I was fortunate enough to play with Mistress Miranda at her Bondage Laboratory. We snapped many photographs which I haven’t yet had time to sort through. I’ll therefore do a more detailed write up in a later post when I’m back in Seattle. In the meantime I thought I’d share a thought on bondage that the session triggered.
It’s never occurred to me before but I think there are really two types of bondage: Reaction control and body control.
Reaction control is the sort of bondage most BDSM play features. It’s cuffing hands out of the way, fixing feet to a St. Andrews cross, tying someone spread eagle on a bed, etc. It’s the type of bondage you can forget about when other things are going on. I call it reaction control because it’s mostly about stopping reactions like pulling away or covering yourself. It’s enough to keep the body exposed and vulnerable but that’s all.
In contrast, body control is the kind of heavy bondage which seeks to immobilize all parts of the body. It’s bondage that uses multiple layers and techniques to lock things down. Think of straightjackets combined with straps, padlocks, ropes, harnesses and gags. You’re always aware of bondage that controls the body this way, no matter what other sensations you’re experiencing.
You could argue that’s this distinction is really just a matter of degrees. Bondage severity definitely exists on a continuum. However, I think there’s a distinction in intention and effect. Reaction control bondage is a precursor to the main event. Setting it up feels like a step to establishing a scene, rather than the scene itself. Body control bondage is the main event. It’s deeply arousing even before anything else has happened.
For example, take the shot below. This was the first set-up Mistress Miranda used in our recent session. There’s a body harness suspending me, a spreader bar on my ankles and stiff armbinders with mittens which are wrapped with straps and attached with rope to the spreader bar. There’s also a head harness which immobilizes the head and a gag. Layering all those components and feeling my body get locked into position got me into subspace very quickly. Even if the scene had stopped with the bondage, it still would have felt amazing. The various torments and pleasures that got added after the bondage were thus a very happy bonus rather than the main event.
