What am I, Psychic?

After publishing my previous post on counting strokes in corporal punishment it struck me there was one related thing even more annoying. That is expecting me to automagically know that I’m supposed to do it.

There’ll be the initial hit, then a pregnant pause, followed by a “Well? What do you say?” The brat in me is always tempted to come back with something like “Hmmm. Ow I guess?” But no, it’s always the “One, Thank You Mistress” that has to follow.

This is really part of a bigger pet peeve of mine – assuming that everyone plays the same way. i.e. Their way. I’ve had dommes in introductory sessions tell me off for not knowing the ‘proper slave positions’.  Like there’s some goddamn illustrated manual we’re all supposed to read before we get our kinky freak on. I’ll happily follow orders, but I need to be given them first. There is no one true way.

I’m afraid I don’t know who this is wielding the brush, but she does look like she’s enjoying it.

Count the Ways

Marcelo recently put up a controversial tweet on the protocols of corporal play. He’s since deleted it, so I can’t quote it directly, but the main thrust was that a lot (most?) subs dislike having to count the strokes when receiving a thrashing. He suggested that it takes them out of subspace and doing a ‘thank you’ per stroke seems fake.

I’m not sure why he deleted it. Hopefully it wasn’t because he got a lot of disagreement, because I’m on his side on this one. Obviously there’s no objectively bad play style here – YMMV and I’m sure some people love that protocol. But personally I find it weird to repeatedly say thank you and the counting always pulls me out of subspace. It makes sense in a very traditional school roleplay scene, but I’m not sure why it’s so common outside that niche. Or at least, why it’s so often the default way to do a corporal scene.

The only time I’ve really enjoyed counting the strokes is when it’s done playfully. Sometimes I’m not sure if a stroke really counted or not. Was it a sighting tap or the real thing? What if I don’t count and it really was one? But if I count it, and it wasn’t one, I’ll look like a wuss! That kind of dynamic can be really fun when executed in a teasing way. But if we’re going  for a serious beating, then at least let me zone out into subspace.

I sourced this image from an old tumblr feed. Hunting around led me to this photo print by coop, which appears to be from the same series.

Blowing Smoke

I’ve successfully navigated another loop around the Sun. Older but no wiser. It has been a year where I spent far too long working in front of this keyboard. Lots of time at my virtual place of employment. Not enough time enjoying situations like the one below. Working always involves some degree of blowing smoke. It’d be nice to find the time to get some of the literal variety blown in my face during the evening.

The image is watermarked to Coherent Light but they don’t appear to be around any more. That’s probably not too surprising, given it’s from 1997. I was still in my 20’s then, which now seems a ridiculously long time ago.

Making Music

Here’s an unusual type of forniphilia I’ve never seen before – a submissive as a music stand. While most forniphilia looks less practical than the inanimate equivalent, this one actually seems like it might work better. They can both hold and turn the pages as needed.

The photograph comes courtesy of NYCs Lady Harper Chase. I’m sure she’s a very accomplished musician,  but it does strike me that for a devious and less musically talented dominant there’s a great opportunity for unexpected torture here. Get your human music stand all rigged up in place, then pull out an instrument you’ve never played before and try to learn it using the most basic beginner tunes. I’d imagine an hour of ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ on a badly played violin would be enough to get most submissives reaching for their safeword.

Original source for the image is via this tweet, photographed by photopupnyc. Lady Harper Chase is a NYC based pro-domme and you can find her professional site here.

Love Swing

As a not-so-proud owner of an officially bad back, this kind of shot always makes me wince. I can’t imagine my physical therapist declaring it an approved way to stretch. On the plus side, this set-up does at least have a lot of padding for his wrists and ankles, making it better thought out than similar ones I’ve seen. He just better hope she doesn’t stand up and try pump the swing high like we used to do as kids.

I believe this is by the French visual artist Eric Madeleine in a series titled Corps-objet (Body Object).

No Basis for a System of Government

I have little love for the British royal family or the current Conservative government. However, I have to give a shout out to its member Penny Mordaunt for pulling off this look during the recent coronation. She’s not exactly the Lady of the Lake, but as sword wielding maidens go, she’s doing a fine job.

Apparently she sported the sword for 51 minutes which turns out to be quite a feat.  I’d never vote for her, but if any dragons show up and need slaying she might be just the woman for the job.

Smiles and Champagne

Continuing the happy BDSM theme – here’s a shot from the recent International FemDom Summit in Bucharest. Technically I guess it only shows the dommes smiling. It’s not clear what the footstools think of the whole situation. However, I’m going to assume their happy about it. I think I would be.

I have to admit I wasn’t aware of the Femdom Summit, but judging by their twitter feed it seems like an interesting event with a lot of great attendees. You can read a blog post on it by Mistress Ayn here. There’s also a twitter list of the attendees here.

Smiles and Strappado

This lovely shot – courtesy of Elise Graves and Bondage Liberation – reminded me of the old tumblr ‘Happy BDSM.’ Its content was exactly as its name suggests and was featured here in past posts.

The original site is now sadly defunct, gone the way of most tumblrs, but I’m a little surprised that nobody has thought to resurrect the concept. For kinky folks I think its contents effect was much the same as seeing posts of cute animals doing adorable things. It’s an ‘ahhh’ moment – a little hit of endorphins and happiness before we go about our day.

You can find the original image, along with others from this scene, via this tweet. Elise is a professional rigger, bondage model and domme based in SF. You can find her Bondage Liberation site here and her twitter feed here.  The male performer is the West Coast based Ruckus.