Extremities

The contents of this article entitled ‘Your brain on BDSM‘ (and this 2015 one it links to) will be old news to a lot of my regular readers. It talks about endorphins and hormones and all the good stuff that hot kinky play can create in the brain. I’ve covered similar ground in the past (for example here), but what caught my eye this time was this section.

They inferred from the study that the changes in executive functioning were as a result of the brain redirecting blood flow from higher-order functions to lower-order functions.

I’m not sure what the blood flow in my brain does in a session, but I am sometimes aware of what it’s doing in the rest of my body. During really intense play, the kind that’ll leave marks for weeks, I’ll get tingling and coldness in my extremities. It feels like all the blood is getting pulled back from my limbs into my core. It’s a really weird sensation. Obviously numbness and tingling can happen when restraints are too tight, but I’ve had this happen with no bondage involved at all. It’s almost like my body is manning its defenses. It doesn’t know what the hell is going on, but it’s taking no chances. Get the blood to the critical organs and worry about those optional hands and feet things later.

This reaction isn’t related to what’s being hit, slapped or poked. It might be a CBT session, but the hands are the ones that lose the blood. It almost feels like the body going into shock, but in a fun sexy kind of way. Has anyone else experienced this? Or is my blood just really wussy?

Here’s Mistress Eleise doing the kind of damage that might cause anyone’s blood to run and hide. This is shot for Femme Fatale Films.

Travelling

I’m heading to Las Vegas tomorrow for a long weekend of food, wine and a game or two of poker. Apologies in advance if posting is therefore a bit erratic for the next few days.

Unusually, I’m planning to squeeze in some kinky fun. Vegas isn’t top of my places to visit for kink (as I’ve written before), but I feel in need of some pain and torment, and not the kind that comes when somebody cracks my aces in a Texas Hold-em game.  I’ve lined up a couple of sessions and hopefully I’ll some nice marks to remember the trip by. Possibly even some photographs to share here.

Sadly I’ll be bankrolling all my own gambling. Mr Bond may get the gorgeous Eva Green with a million dollar credit line and a private game to play in, I’ll likely be stuck with drunk tourists, grouchy locals and a coupon for the casino buffet.

This shot of Eva Green is (I believe) from a fashion shoot by Ellen von Unwerth.

Gaga and Maga

I was planning to write a third and final post on kink and VR tonight, but that’ll have to wait. I’m taking a timeout post to talk about the Grammy’s. I have exactly zero interest in the award show itself, but my eye was caught by two of the outfits on display. I think we actually had both sides of the kinky top/bottom divide represented.

Firstly, there was Lady Gaga in the outfit below. I can’t see a domme ever doing a scene in something like that, but it’s clearly inspired by all the dominatrix fashion cliches. Most of the time when the press reports someone was sporting a dominatrix look it just means they had black boots on, but Lady Gaga really went for it here. That’s a pretty full on fetish outfit.

On the other of the coin, there was Joy Villa sporting a Trump themed ‘Make America Great Again’ outfit. Now I know that might not look kinky, but keep in mind where she’s going. This is a show full of LA liberal showbiz types. The evening was predictably packed with jabs at Trump. So I have to say that’s a pretty masochistic thing to do. It’d be a bit like turning up at a PETA rally in Lady Gaga’s famous meat dress. You have to know you’ll be hated for doing it, so maybe that’s the thrill?

Better Than Life (cont)

In yesterday’s post I talked about VR porn and some of the issues I’d found when trying it out. While there’s room for improvement, it’s undoubtedly a unique experience that’s worth playing with. Most people trying it for the first time – whether they’re looking at adult content or not – come away suprised and impressed.

I thought for this post I’d try and suggest some kinky femdom niches that might fit with the constraints of the current systems. Unfortunately, my kinks don’t really align to the suggestions below, so I could be way off base here. That said, if I was going to suggest who’s likely to get the most out of the current technology cycle, it’d be people into…

  • Giantesses
    Unless you manage to find a domme who has encountered strange radiation from space, this is pretty tough kink to fulfill. However, I think it works great in VR. With a low camera it’s easy to create a sense of being small and insignificant. You can do the same in regular films, but it’s a way more effective technique in 3D and 360 degree vision.
  • Fetishisation of things like boots, heels, legs, etc.
    I found the inability to touch or interact was frustrating, but if you just want to look at something and admire it from different angles, then VR would probably work better than a regular movie.
  • Humiliation, abuse and teasing.
    There’s a significant existing market for POV shots of dommes insulting and teasing the audience sitting ‘at their feet’ (for example). This’d clearly be a lot more compelling an experience with a life size three dimensional domme doing all the sneering.  If you want to be a pathetic worm who isn’t fit to speak to or touch your domme, then the lack of interaction or feel wouldn’t be a problem.
  • Sadists.
    This one is a bit of an odd one, but I think there might be a market for videos from the top perspective. As a masochist I get off on the physical sensation of pain. That’s hard to simulate currently in VR. A sadist gets off on the reaction of the masochist, and that can be observed in VR. I found one short flogging clip filmed in 3D from from the dominant POV, and it felt like a very different experience than a regular flogging clip. It put me far more inside the top’s head than normal, which was an odd place for a submissive.

The problem with all these ideas right now is the lack of content available and the lack of consumers with the right equipment willing to purchase it. That’s a catch-22 that can only be solved with time. But if I was a kinky VR porn producers, I’d focus my efforts on those four areas and hope for the best.

This Giantesses artwork is by Accasbel on DeviantArt. Of all the kinky niches that’ll work in VR, I think Giantesses is the one that’ll benefit the most.

Better Than Life (or not)

I recently purchased a HTC Vive Virtual Reality system. It’s a technology I’ve always been interested in – I even worked on it back in the 90’s – so I was intrigued to try out the latest and greatest systems. There are lots of companies investing in this space, including Facebook, Sony and Google, but the Vive looks to be one of the more advanced options right now.

Obviously, for the purposes of writing this post, I had to try out some VR porn. My readers deserve a proper investigation into the topic I thought. It would have been almost be selfish of me not to look at it. My top piece of advice for anyone in a similar research mode would be to buy the Virtual Desktop application. It makes browsing and running movies in different VR formats a breeze. When you have to deal with clunky headsets, headphones and twisty cables, the last thing you want to be doing is pulling it all on and off while you try and figure out why the naked people aren’t showing up properly.

Based on the very limited number of movies I’ve tried so far, my impressions are mixed. It does undoubtedly give you a much greater sense of presence and of being ‘in the scene’ than a regular movie. Sometimes, with the performer close and talking directly to camera, it was almost uncomfortable, a sense that my personal space was being invaded. Taking the headset off can be quite disconcerting, the sense of being elsewhere is so strong, that coming back to reality is a jolt.

However, making it more real in one aspect also highlights how unreal it is in others. You can’t touch. You can’t feel. You can look around, but not move around. The actors can’t interact with you. In that sense, it was much more frustrating that regular pornography. Watching regular femdom movies will often make me wish I could do a scene with the domme involved, but I never want to actually be in the scene I’m watching. It wouldn’t make any sense to think that – it’s obviously a movie. VR scenes did create that kind of frustration. I wanted to feel the pain, the pinch and the pull. I wanted that cock getting whipped to really be mine. Instead it was like my body had been anesthetized. Ironically, the virtual reality material actually created a greater desire to go out and play with real people in actual reality.

I’ll follow-up with some more thoughts on this topic in a post tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s a shot of Maitresse Madeline and Mike Panic in a cuckold scene from the Kink new VR studios.

Oh, and 10 kinky bonus points (no redeemable value, offer not applicable in all States, participants must be over 18 years old) to anyone who can tell me where the reference in the title comes from. As a hint, it’s a comedy reference.

Wallet

As a final post (for the time being) on the sometimes complex interactions between professional dominants and their submissive clients, here’s a short article on Bella Bathory and her ‘Wallet’. It’s written by Bella’s partner Siouxsie Q, and tries to tease out exactly what their dynamic is.

He’s not quite a client, and he’s not quite a friend. He’s not quite an employee, and he’s not quite family. He’s a unique combination of all four, more akin to a squire or a butler than anything else.

This image is from Bella Bathory’s instagram feed. If you’re interesting in arranging a session then her website is here.

Isabella Sinclaire

While I’m on the subject of professional domination, here’s a recent podcast featuring Isabella Sinclaire. It’s kind of long at just over an hour, and targeted at a mainstream audience, but it has some interesting thoughts on her career, life outside work, style of play, etc. I was particularly intrigued by her comments about working with couples where both identify as submissive. She feels that the 50 shades films triggered a lot of exploration of BDSM, but people often discovered they both wanted to bottom, and so came to her to learn how they could switch as needed.

If you’ve not heard of her before, I think it’s safe to say she’s one of the most well known pro-dommes in the US. I’ve featured her in the past (e.g. here and here), she runs a well known fetish production company and she hit the mainstream via this ad.

If you’re interested in a professional session with Isabella, then her site is here.

Dana Kane

In the early years of this blog there was a fair amount of discussion, in both posts, links and comments, about the validity and authenticity of professional domination. Some maintained that the financial aspect always made the D/s dynamic inauthentic. A few people even held that pro-dommes were a significant negative influence on kink and femdom and the community would be better off without them.

Over time that kind of discussion seems to have faded. Possibly I’ve convinced people that while the professional aspect certainly makes a difference, it’s not the defining characteristic or necessarily a negative one. Possibly everyone who argued otherwise has got fed up and gone elsewhere. Maybe I’m just more sure of myself and therefore less likely to take offense and pick an argument.

If I was still regularly engaging in that kind of debate, then I’d certainly want to highlight a post (from 2015) by professional disciplinary Dana Kane on her relationship with one of her playmates Paul. It’s entitled ‘Can I come to your funeral?‘ and, as the title suggests, it’s both a powerful and emotional one. It covers both the development of their relationship and what happens when Paul becomes ill. It’s tricky one to summarize beyond that, so I’m not going to even try. Just go read it. I think it does show what a caring person Ms Kane is, how important kinky relationships can be to people, and also how complex and conflicted they can potentially be.

This image is of Dana Kane spanking Michael Darling for the Dreams of Spanking site.

Twitter Tantrum

Amazingly, while I was posting yesterday about the kinky T-Mobile Ads, Verizon and T-Mobile were getting to a ridiculous twitter feud over them. It ended up getting covered in a whole bunch of places, for example here and here. Some people even got upset with Verizon’s line that “Unfortunately no one will hear your safe word if you’re on @Tmobile“. Personally I thought that was kind of funny. Not sure how you get offended by it.

There has been a lot of controversy in the US in recent years over rulings treating corporations as people. Perhaps those opposed to that have been going about it the wrong way. These corporations are acting like people – specifically petulant teenagers on social media. So they should be able to get involved in politics, but only with the allowance they earn from cutting the lawn and taking out our garbage. And if they don’t behave themselves, we’ll ground them and take away their twitter account.

I believe this is the model Elena Berkova enjoying some quality texting time.

Superb Owl

America had some kind of sporting event combined with a pop concert and a product fair on Sunday. Yes, it was once again time for the annual Superb Owl (as coined by Mr. Colbert).

I’m tempted to make a joke about the Falcons being big breathplay fans, given how much choking was involved, but that feels like it’d be a cheap shot. Instead I’ll focus on a couple of the more amusing advertisements. T-Mobile enlisted the excellent Kristen Schaal to spoof Fifty Shades of Grey with this initial ad and then this follow-up. I say it was a 50 SoG spoof, but frankly Kristen’s character seems way more into enjoying kink than any of the characters from that sad series.

Weirdly this isn’t the first time I’ve featured T-Mobile. A few years ago they had an ad with Carly Foulkes on a motorcycle that pushed mine and I’m sure a few other people’s buttons. Somebody in their marketing department clearly has a kinky streak.

I’ll leave you with a shot of a woman doing to a man what the Patriots just did to the Falcons.

I’m afraid I don’t know who shot this. I found it on the Femdom Times site.