Mistress Scarlet recently published a post musing on the classic shot of a domme demonstrating that her cane is indeed bendy. I’m sure you’ve all seen the shot – she’s typically glaring into the camera and flexing the cane with both hands. Something like this or this. In her opinion it’s an odd pose that’s not typically seen in actual kinky play.
I have to admit that as a neophyte kinkster, that pose did push my buttons. I have no idea why. I’ve never been caned outside of consensual play, so I’ve got no particular framework for it. There was just something about the visual tension of the shot and the sense of purpose that made it work. I think I mentally categorized it as the standard warm-up position before taking a swing, much as a tennis player positions themselves to serve or a runner limbers up in front of the blocks.
Now I’ve had few cane stripes quite literally under my belt, I tend to agree with Mistress Scarlet. It’s not a pose that I really see people ever do. The most common resting position is with the cane straight down parallel to the domme’s leg, possible accompanied by a gentle tapping against ankle or her boot. Now what pushes my buttons is to see a domme purposely move into position behind me, cane pointing down but just swishing sideways oh so slightly. It’s like a conductor loosening her wrist before launching the orchestra into the symphony.
The artwork above is by the artist Yumine Guo. She has a wonderful collection of her artwork available on her tumblr. She also has a deviant art site and a blog worth visiting. The photograph was the original inspiration for the artwork as mentioned in her tumblr post. I’m afraid I haven’t managed to track down an original attribution for the photograph.
