Floating and Floaty

I couldn’t finish a trio of posts on bondage and its related equipment without featuring two renowned experts of both the tools and the art – Elise Graves and Troy Orleans. These two shots feature some beautiful leather bondage and a very cool suspended table. I also like the very simple clean space that they’re playing in. For me it always feels a lot more intense and serious to play in a ‘normal’ looking studio space than it does to play in all black dungeon with chains and whips hanging off the walls.

I know from experience that heavy bondage can create a floaty headspace. In this case it also looks like he’s floating in space.

I found this via a tweet on Elise Graves’ twitter feed. It’s obviously from her Bondage Liberation site, which contains all sorts of interesting intense bondage shots.

What’s in the box?

While I’m on the subject of unusual dungeon equipment, here’s an interesting bondage box from the English Mansion. I’ve never seen anything similar in any playspace I’ve visited, which, now I think about it, seems kind of surprising. I imagine it’d be quite a head trip and it doesn’t look too hard to manufacture. Although maybe it would be tricky to use? You couldn’t really wrap someone in place, so you’d have to wrap them first, and then somehow get them into the box. Of course you could always use a leather body bag with it rather than mummification, combined with packing material to pad for different body shapes.

I love the objectification element of it, although I’m not sure how my mild claustrophobia would cope. From the clasps on the side, I assume there’s a lid that would go on. That’s simultaneously hot and scary.

The lady on the other end of the nipple lamps is of course Mistress T.

Corner Time

This is a pretty clever design for a restraint system. It reminds me of a bondage chair, which is always one of my favorite things to be strapped to in a dungeon. They create a great sense of vulnerability, while also allowing the submissive to see the dominant and know exactly what she’s about to do to him.

In this case hanging the submissive on the walls not only removes the need for an extra piece of furniture, but also adds a touch of objectification. It’s not very clear, but I assume there’s some sort of shelf that he’s perched on, so all the weight doesn’t fall on the limbs. Just perfect for some CBT and nipple torture.

This particular piece of dungeon apparatus is located at the Sub Rosa space in Portland Oregon. This image came courtesy of Mistress Viola’s twitter feed.

Kitty O’Neil

Welcome to another post in my occasional series on women who were awesome without necessarily being dominant in the BDSM sense. In the past this series has included motorcycle racers, resistance fighters, film stars and aristocratic swashbucklers. The newest entrant into this series is all around daredevil and badass Kitty O’Neil, who died recently aged 72.

You might not know the name, but the odds are you’ve seen her in action at some point. She was the stuntwoman for the original Wonder Woman TV series, as well as movies like the Blues Brothers and Smokey and the Bandit. She also set water speed records (275 mph), water skiing records (105 mph), land speed records (512 mph average, peaking at 621 mph) and participated in tough off road races like the Baja 500 and Mint 400. If all that wasn’t enough, she did it after overcoming spinal meningitis in her teens and two bouts of cancer  in her 20’s. Oh, and she was also deaf, thanks to a childhood combo of measles, mumps and smallpox. What an amazing woman.

This is Kitty performing a 127 foot dive from a hotel balcony for the Wonder Woman TV show.

Thanks for all the Fish

People taking on the role of dogs, ponies and cats in kinky play is pretty common. This image is the first I’ve seen that suggests dolphin might also be a viable pet play option.

Maybe it’s a new approach that Seaworld should consider? Movies like Blackfish have been a PR nightmare for them. How about letting the animals go and replace them with hot athletic submissive swimmers? I’d happily go watch a lady in a bathing suit try and train a naked man to balance a ball or jump through a hoop.

This is by the photographer Vassilis Pitoulis and entitled The Bait.

You’re a dirty, dirty voter

Given the US midterms are upon us (Go Vote! Go Vote!) it seems an appropriate time to feature this article by Justin Lehmiller on the differing sexual fantasies of liberals and conservatives. Lehmiller, who is a fellow at the Kinsey institute, surveyed thousands of American adults and discovered that while the frequency of fantasizes is shared, the subject matter isn’t.

Republicans thought a lot about swinging, infidelity, orgies and cuckolding. In contrast Democrats kinked on BDSM, masochism and D/s dynamics, leading Stephen Colbet to have some fun with the survey on his show.  Lehmiller attributes these differences to a theory called reactance, where people are drawn to what is forbidden to them. So conservatives, who traditionally support strong social structures and group cohesion, are drawn to activities that would disrupt that. Liberals, who prioritize individual freedom and caring for others, are similarly excited by dynamics that impose control and punishment. I’m not quite sure where that leaves people like myself, who find all of the above exciting. Does that make me a swing voter or just a pervert?

I hadn’t intended to turn this into yet another book themed post, but the discussion of conservative and liberal values reminds me of one of the best books I read this year – The Righteous Mind.  This is a total aside, as it’s not related to kink at all, but if you’re at all interested in psychology and how people reason about politics and religion, it’s absolutely worth reading. As someone from the liberal side of the fence it definitely gave me a better understanding and appreciation of the conservative mindset.*

In the spirit of bipartisanship, I’ll leave you with an image that should appeal to all. There’s clearly an orgy and voyeuristic angle here, as well as a BDSM one. It’s by sylverarts.

* I should qualify that when I talk about the conservative mindset, I’m talking about the traditional conservative values, not what Trump and the GOP have morphed them into. Trump is to conservatism as Bernie Madoff is to the financial planning industry.

Another trip to the library

I hadn’t intended a second post on books, but then this Daily Beast article popped up on my radar and I couldn’t resist featuring it. The book being plugged in it is ‘The Ultimate Guide to Bondage‘ by Mistress Couple. I’m sure the book is great, but what really caught my eye in the article was the broader value of kink and bondage that Mistress Couple describes, outside of simple sexual pleasure.

She talks about how consensual bondage helped her work through some traumatic experiences of her own, overwriting the negative with the positive. She also emphasizes how being vulnerable in safe situations can make you stronger. The article finishes with a lovely story of a nervous couple trying out bondage together at La Domaine Esemar. It’s not exactly a happy femdom story, given the woman ends up being tied, but it certainly comes across as a happy kinky story.

Mistress Couples Ultimate Guide To Bondage comes out on Dec 11th, just in time for Christmas shopping. Caveat Emptor – I’ve not read it and know nothing beyond what the article and Amazon page tells me. However, given the background and skills of its author, I’d expect it to be well worth acquiring. Plus, it’s nice to have a bondage book where the cover image is a bound naked dude, rather than the usual lithe lady.

Book Club

I’ve had a variety of book related links come my way recently, so I thought I’d gather and share them via a post.

Ferns has published volume 2 of her Happy Femdom Stories.  She’s shared a series of these on her blog and they always put a big smile on my face. There’s a huge amount of fantasy and professional femdom content online, but very few positive stories about real femdom relationships, so I love what Ferns is doing here.

Domina Jen is working on a book of her own and using Patron to support it. Check that out if you enjoy her writing and want to interact with her as the novel progressed.

Miranda Birch sent me a link to her site and asked if I’d feature her femdom fiction here. She has a large back catalog of work covering all sorts of kinky femdom scenarios, so that might be worth a look if you’re after new erotica.

Finally, I enjoyed this article on the passage of the bill that decriminalized sex work in New Zealand. There’s an associated book ‘My Body, My Business‘, featuring the stories of sex workers and their thoughts on the industry that’s due out later this month. That’s one to add to my Christmas list.

This pin-up librarian is by the American artist Gil Elvgren.

Martini with a Twist

My favorite part of any yoga session is drinking the gin martini at the end of it. Admittedly that particular finishing position (seated, legs crossed at ankles, glass stem firmly held in the right hand, lemon twisted) is my own particularly innovation, and not found in the more traditional yoga schools. However, I find it’s just the thing to achieve true relaxation after physical exertion.

Judging by this image, Blake Lively obviously shares my love of the gin martini with a twist. She’s even using a gin I like from the Pacific Northwest. The combination of a naked man with a kitchen countertop is more questionable. Particularly given this particular position hints at pegging. I think I’m safe in saying that nobody wants any santorum near their kitchen surfaces or their martini.

This was from Blake Lively’s instagram feed and is a promotion shot (I think) for her latest movie A Simple Favor.

Imagine the Spinoffs

It is generally said that all technology innovation is either driven by sex or quickly co-opted for sexual purposes. Apparently, at least according to this SMBC comic, the telegraph was no exception. Perhaps morse code should be a new mode option for Tens units?

As an interesting but sad historical sidenote – Samuel Morse was actually inspired to explore rapid long distance communication after his wife died and he missed her final days and burial. Heartbroken that he’d not been informed of her failing health, he set himself to create something faster than a man on a horse carrying a letter.