Tag: Hood

Why not both?

One final comment on the recent ‘Fetish or Fashion’ pop-quiz I’ve been running. Servitor posed the very reasonable question: Why not both?

That’s a fair point. As far as the resulting images go, they contain significant elements of both fetish and fashion. I guess I should frame the question around the image creators and their primary industry. Is it a pro-domme / fetish producer or a model being paid for a shoot with a (relatively) mainstream publication. Is it someone who spends more time in dungeons and playspaces than they do strutting a catwalk? What kind of animal do they usually have at the end of a leash? Petite Pomeranian or a perky puppy boy?

There’s clearly a healthy interchange between the fashion and fetish worlds. However, I’m not sure it’s always a equally balanced exchange. A lot of pro-dommes are extremely fashion aware. Unfortunately, on the flipside, fashion editors and photographers often seem confused about kink. A charitable take would be that they’re deliberately re-interpreting and re-contextualizing kink to tell their own stories. After all, their ultimate goal is different to someone creating material for a kink or fetish market. A less charitable interpretation would be they’re raiding kink for easy shock value and then haphazardly mashing its elements together without any really understanding.

I think the distinction between fashion or fetish often doesn’t come down to the clothes, styling, make-up or beauty of the subjects. It’s down to their understanding and intelligent use of the kinky elements. Or not.

This mainstream fashion shot is from Vice Serbia, features rapper Sajsi Mc and was photographed by Alek Živković.

Meditative Metal

A final post in my metal bondage series. Where the last two looked pretty intense, this looks almost relaxing. I think it taps into that protected and secured headspace that some bondage can create. Although having said that, now I look closely, those metal thumbcuffs might be a touch intense. It’s often the little things that can mess with your mind the most.

This image is from the twitter feed of Bondage in Paradise, featuring Queen Ariana Chevalier and Ms. Luna.

No Heavy Breathing

Good news for German kinksters. The Berlin bondage studios are open again for business. They’d originally been shut under an order that covered brothels, but a court has decided that the order was discriminatory. Brothels remain closed, but bondage studios and massage parlors can reopen.

Given that yesterday Germany had 569 new coronavirus cases, compared to the US single day tally of almost 70,000, it’s not surprising they’re starting to relax restrictions. However, I do find the logic of the court somewhat odd.

Brothels were different for other reasons, the court added, including the fact that sex involved a dramatically elevated breathing rate, which increased the risk of spreading infection.

I’m going to guess the judge behind this ruling has never been involved in a BDSM scene. Elevated breathing rates are very much part of them. Being beaten, shocked, pierced or trampled will tend to do that to you. I’d also suggest that people screaming and moaning are both common in BDSM and great ways to spread a virus. Even breathplay, which sounds like it’d be safe, isn’t great. There’s nothing like an extended period of no breathing to encourage the taking and expelling of great gulps of oxygen when the chance arises.

Here’s at least one way to reduce the chance of viral transmission. Artwork is by Zblabla.

Dronification

I love the fact that after many years of immersion in kinky culture I can still stumble upon new things. For example, I give you the kink of dronification, which is totally new to me. In hindsight it seems like an obvious combination. Obedience, latex, objectification, submission and hypnosis are all hot button kinky topics. Why wouldn’t people put them together? The hive dynamic, with it’s singular queen and mindlessly obedient worker drones, is ripe for twisting in this way. Plus, its masks and visors make it totally suited to a world of coronavirus.

This image from Reflective Desire isn’t strictly a dronification image, but it has a lot of the elements. There’s latex, objectification, submission and all sorts of fun stuff going on.

If you like this image I’d urge you to check out the Reflective Desire site. They have a ton of great content like this.

Howl at the Moon

This NYTimes article on wolf-kink erotica and copyright battles is nothing to do with femdom, but too fun not to share. I love stumbling on these odd kinky niches that people are incredibly passionate about. It’s like exploring an ancient underground lake. There’s a small innocuous looking entrance hole on the surface but when you drop through there’s this huge complex space with all sorts of weird evolution happening in the depths.

I did search for wolf themed femdom images but, while it might be popular in the printed word, it’s not a major porn theme. Instead here’s the domesticated equivalent. I do like the fact she’s letting him crawl on the grass rather than the stony path. He must have been a good doggy.

Once again the image search engines have failed me on this one. I don’t recognize the domme or the location. If anyone can help me attribute it, feel free to leave a comment.

A New Take on the Easter Bunny

Personally I don’t celebrate Easter. I’ve no children and no belief in God. However, if I did decide to partake, then having a lady deliver me an Easter egg stuffed with pornography would be a pretty good starting point. That was the plan of a woman in Florida who allegedly wanted to educate people. You’d think people would be grateful for some entertainment while they’re stuck in quarantine at home but apparently that’s not the case, as she’s now been arrested.

There’s not a lot of good femdom themed Easter imagery, with the possible exception of the bizzare but entertaining photograph I posted last year.  For this years post I’ll go with an image Mrs Athena De Sade – very much from Belgium and not Florida  – shared on her twitter feed. This is her with a beautiful but subdued submissive bunny.

You can see more from Mistress Athena on her website. She primarily sessions from an Antwerp location.

Pony Patronage

At the start of the year I posted artwork from Michael Manning that was commissioned by @DrPonyBatBond, featuring him with Mistress Michelle Lacy. I mentioned at the time how happy it made me to see someone actually paying an artist to celebrate their kinks and relationships. What I hadn’t realized was that this was not a first. DrPonyBatBond reached out to me and mentioned that the Michael Manning illustration was just one of over sixty similarly themed pieces that he’s commissioned over the last few years!

If you’re interested in seeing more of the pieces and hearing the background to them from DrPonyBatBond and Mistress Michelle Lacy, then Dirk Hooper has an excellent article on them here. It features more of the art and interviews with the two featured subjects. They’re a nice example of how a professional relationship can, in some cases, be a rich and nuanced one.

There are so many fun illustrations in the article that it’s hard to pick a favorite to feature, but this one by Moon Eater did catch my eye. It has a nice blend of the playful and the serious.

Strange Comfort

I’ve been in a bondage frame of mind recently. I think it’s the cold weather. There’s something comforting and relaxing about certain types of bondage. Almost like being gently hugged. That sense of relaxing into an embrace, with no further thought being necessary. Some people like to avoid the chill by cuddling in front of a roaring fire. Others tilt towards layers of rope, tight leather straps and isolation hoods. I think my dream scenario would be to combine the two, with heavy bondage and cuddling in front of a roaring fire. I really need to make that happen someday.

This image is by the artist Harry B, sourced via this tweet.

Black, White and Leashed

This fabulous image comes courtesy of Mistress Lucy SweetKill via this tweet. It’s a common trick to convert explicit shots to black and white in order to make them look more ‘arty’, but this has clearly been constructed from the start with a monochrome palette in mind. The elegant simplicity of the outfits paired with the blank but shaded background work beautifully. 

I particularly like the contrast between their universal body language and the extremism of the appearance. A dog walker’s attention being caught by something while the dog pulls ahead on it’s leash is a common sight on city streets. Deploying that body language here makes an otherwise stark and fetishistic scene so much more human and relatable. 

Fetish Pony

Fans of fetish artwork will recognize the distinctive style here of Michael Manning. He’s the creator of well known series Tranceptor and The Spider Garden. What I particularly love about this specific piece is that it’s a commission by  @DrPonyBatBond, featuring him with Mistress Michelle Lacy. In a world where content creators have to fight to get paid for their work, and erotic content is constantly being stolen, it’s great to see someone commissioning original artwork from an artist they admire. The nature of the piece and the kinks involved also fit beautifully with the artists personal style, resulting in a very memorable image.

If you’d like to commission your own piece from Michael Manning, then his commission page is here. Alternatively, you could subscribe to his Patreon here.