Corporal – Femdom Resource

Context Matters

The Guardian has a new article on a subject dear to both masochists and sadists hearts – pain. Its basic premise is that the perception of pain is highly contextual and complex. Someone might have a serious injury but power through the situation. The same person on another day might stub their toe and spend 10 minutes hopping up and down and swearing about it. Pain is perceived in the brain and so our mental state is a big factor in how intense we think it is.

It’s an interesting article but I don’t think its conclusions will be surprising to kinky folk who play with pain. I know my tolerance varies significantly, depending on things like stress, arousal, uncertainty and past history with my play partner.

One thing I hadn’t thought about was the how the perception of risk can affect tolerance…

“If we think ‘this is terrible, this is awful, it’s going to do me serious damage’ – those types of people will have lower tolerance.” This includes people who tend to be anxious or who catastrophise pain.

The perception of the damage being done can have a substantial role. A violinist is more likely to report higher levels of pain when a pain stimulus is applied to their dominant playing hand than when their other hand is subjected to the same stimulus, Moseley says – because an injury to their dominant hand could end their career.

That makes sense to me and is a useful thing to keep in mind when planning sessions. If you want to play harder then being able to relax and not worry about the end result is important. If you’re stressing about marks or injuries it’ll hurt all the more.

I hope this gentleman is feeling relaxed and worry free, otherwise that’ll really sting. I’m not entirely sure of the source here, but it looks like something from the Cruel Punishments site.

Subby School

I’m a bit late with a link to this article on a School for Submissives in Atlanta. It was first published just over a year ago. However, I thought it was interesting and still worth sharing. While the naming suggests classes and lessons, it sounds more like a support and experience sharing group.

It’s not something I’d find myself drawn to – I prefer to research and analyze alone – but I can see the value of the idea. Particularly if you’re mostly playing with lifestyle folk rather than professionals. There’s no link to the group in the article, but if you’re in Atlanta and interested, it sounds like they have a fetlife presence.

Of course I couldn’t mention a school without shamelessly using the opportunity to feature an attractive school mistress. Not sure what subject she teaches, but I’m willing to get a failing grade in whatever it is.

I think the originally site this is from has sadly ceased to be.

Tweaking the Image

Before AI there was photoshop. A favorite tool for kinsters who wanted to modify an image to align with their preferences. I’m always amused when scrolling through tumblrs and I stumble across a photograph modified this way. In an internet awash in explicit BDSM imagery, dedicated kink fans still want to create new ones that speak to their passions.

Here’s an example I spotted on the Assertive Ladies tumblr. Originally it was from a photoshoot for a failed ABC show called Mind Games shown back in 2014. The actor is Jamie Ray Newman. I’m not sure who gave her the paddle. They did a decent job of the tweak, although there’s clearly something a little off about the pose.

A Worried Look

I dug into the archives for this one. It’s from an old tumblr dump I took some years back. I’ve no idea who the original artist is, but it looks to be set in the 50’s, judging by their clothes and appearance. Inspired perhaps by the pulp novels of that time? I love their expressions. He looks worried. She looks both predatory and scornful. The clothes being neatly folded on the chair is another nice touch for setting the scene.

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.

Georgian Sexcapades

Anyone interested in the history of kink and femdom will probably enjoy this blog post by Anne O Nomis. It gives a behind the scenes glimpse of a new TV series about the history of sex and specifically about an episode on Theresa Berkley (featured here in a previous post). Working in 1820s London, using her own studio equipped with custom BDSM furniture, she was arguable the first modern dominatrix. Although she’d not have used that term to describe herself. Hopefully the show will live up to the level of research and care that Anne O Nomis has clearly put into it.

The above image dates from 1752, slightly before Theresa Berkley’s time. It’s a British print that now resides in the Library of Congress.

Kinky Toys

One of the most surprising movie franchises in recent years has been the Lego series. None of them are the next Citizen Kane, but they’re surprisingly watchable nonsense. It blows my mind that two of the biggest creative companies in the world – Disney and Lucasfilm – can take one of the biggest franchises in the world – Star Wars – and make a total hash of the various prequels and sequels. Yet at the same time someone can take a bunch of kids plastic blocks and turn it into a successful billion dollar movie series.

Shown below are are shots from a possible new addition to that series. After Lego Batman we have Lego Baton, aka Mistress Baton as captured by Bad Legoman. Their expressions are great as are his shiny red cheeks. Come on Hollywood – a wisecracking dominatrix with a sturdy right arm would make for a great character in your next Lego movie.

You case see more shots of Lego Mistress Baton punishing her miniature submissive via the original twitter thread.

Christmas Krampus

While the UK and US put a jolly and friendly Santa at the center of their Christmas celebrations, other parts of the world feature mythological creates with a touch more edge. For example, the Krampus from central Europe is a devilish male figure who beats misbehaving children with Birch rods.

As you might expect for a figure featuring corporal punishment and humiliation, there’s inevitably artwork of a kinky adult equivalent. In this case it’s a vintage German postcard of a female Krampus who beats badly behaved men. You can some more examples of the genre here. Doubtless they were aimed at adults who’d had childhood fantasies of Krampus beatings and couldn’t quite understand the strange thrill it had given them. Today it’d be fan artwork on a image forum. Back then it was saucy postcards.

The caption translates as ‘Greetings from the Krampus.’ I sourced this originally from this tweet by the Fake History Hunter.

Tis the Season

In the US we just celebrated Thanksgiving. It’s an important event on the calendar. Reaching it can mean only one thing – time to start shopping for Christmas! While the turkey roasting pan is still soaking in the sink, people are already hitting the (online) stores for gifts.

For kinksters looking for gift ideas then let me steer you in the direction of this post by Miss Pearl. She has a number of fine suggestions from the domme perspective.

Alternatively, for fans of corporal play, I’d suggest a perusal of the London Tanners site. Daddy An Li recently received a number of their toys and enthused at length about them in this video stream. Their equipment looks to be particularly fearsome and of a high quality.

This is Daddy An Li with a heavy leather cane from the London Tanners. Image sourced via this tweet.

Note: Anything I mention or link to comes with zero benefit to me and zero guarantees. I don’t carry ads and I don’t use affiliate links. I’m just sharing what I find interesting.

Harder or Softer?

A question for masochists and sadists whose play has been curtailed by the virus: What do you think this enforced absence and isolation has done to your desire to inflict or absorb pain? Does the lack of play have you craving intense beatings and no holds barred sadism? Or has the stress and strangeness of it all left you wanting intimacy and more gentle activities?

My impression from kinky social media is that the sadists amongst us (God bless them) are craving hard play. They have pent up energy to expend and can’t wait to unleash it. The general attitude of masochists is harder to read. I’m personally unsure where my headspace is at. I’d love to play again. I miss it desperately. I’m just not sure if I’m craving pain or not. The world is so weird, and my stress levels so distorted, I really have no idea how I’ll respond when I can session again. That’s a unique state of mind for me, but I guess we’re all living through a unique situation.

This is an old image from OWK. She clearly wasn’t in a conflicted state of mind about her sadistic tendencies. Hopefully he felt the same way from the masochistic perspective.