If anyone knows any reason why this couple…

Wedding themed shots crop up fairly frequently in femdom imagery. I guess that’s not too surprising, given there’s traditionally a power dynamic associated with a wedding day. Although I’m not really sure if they’re reinforcing or subverting a theme. On the one hand there’s the cliche of the blushing virgin bride on her wedding day being deflowered by her virile new husband. Clearly they twist that idea on it’s head. On the other hand there’s the cliche about the husband losing his freedom and being simultaneously emasculated and domesticated by his new wife. In that case they play into the idea. As an aside, I think it’s also interesting that they follow the traditional femdom porn clothing conventions. The woman is in a special outfit denoting her role (white dress/black leather) while the man is dressed conventionally (smart suit/naked).

Typically wedding themed shots don’t do much for me. However, I like this one for the barely suppressed smile on the man passing the couple by. That’s exactly the kind of half-smile I’d be sporting if I passed this pair in the street. There’s always an ongoing and never resolved debate about PDS (in fact Orlando was writing about it just this weekend), but in this case I think they’re spreading a little mirth wherever they go. Particularly if there’s a beaming bride to go with that grumpy groom.

Wedding Pair

I found this image on Red Head with a Riding Crop tumblr. My internet sleuthing leads me to believe the photographer is on flickr as m.o.n.o.c.h.r.o.m.e. Based on his portfolio it looks like a candid shot snapped in the street, rather than something posed. I also believe it was taken in Edinburgh in August, which almost certainly means it was something to do with the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Given the leaflets the ‘groom’ is holding, I’m guessing they were drumming up support for a show they were staging. So it’s street theater rather than PDS. Does that make a difference to the debate?

Mouseketease

I’m a little nervous about posting this. The lawyers for Disney are notorious assholes fine, hardworking people who fiercely defend their companies property. I’m sure this is both fair use as a parody as well as being a creative work in it’s own right. But while I’m masochistic enough to enjoy whipping, burning and piercing, I’m not masochistic enough to want to get involved in a copyright dispute with corporate lawyers. I may be kinky, but I’m not crazy.

Anyway, it made me smile, so I thought it worth sharing. You expect this kind of behavior from Bugs Bunny, or even Tom & Jerry, but it’s quite against type for these two.

Mouseketease

I found it on the ‘A Velvet Underground‘ (aka Obey or Else) tumblr. The tag is hard to read but I think it is Twisted Terra. Unfortunately I can’t find an artist site under that name.

Unicorns

I’m going to use this post as a shout out to Peroxide and his quest for information on male submissives. He’s planning to write a how-to guide on finding and dating male-subs. He’s working off of the assumption that good ones are as rare as unicorns *.

I’m not sure about the unicorn bit. I’m pretty certain I’d have remembered frolicking with fairies in mythical forests. Or the acquisition of an enormous horn. That would have come in handy. I’ve also blogged and commented in the past on that 20:1 ratio thing. Personally I suspect the issue isn’t one of rarity, it’s one of filtering. There’s no lack of signal, but there is a hell of a lot of noise. I’ve no idea what the overall female dominant to submissive male ratio is, but I do know the noise produced by badly socialized and self-serving male ‘submissives’ is high.

Anyway, regardless of the mythical and technical analogies, I do applaud the idea. So if you’ve got any interesting thoughts or information for Peroxide then send it his way. In the meantime I’ll leave you with an image of a particularly feisty unicorn. I can’t say I recommend this attitude when someone is swinging a flogger in your direction, but the image did make me smile. It’s by the photographer Vlad Gansovsky, and I found it on Mistress Lilyana’s tumblr.

'The last great act of courage' by Vlad Gansovsky* Interesting aside: Unicorn is also slang in poly circles for hot-bi-babes willing to date couples. They are apparently highly sought after and equally rare. Being a unicorn hunter is not necessarily seen as a good thing.

The cutting edge of gender issues (beware of icebergs)

I was amused to read this gawker article on an ironic Fox News snafu. The original Fox article was all about the benefits of traditional marriage and traditional gender models. Unfortunately for them the picture they picked to illustrate it was of the first same-sex couple to get married at the Empire State Building. Sadly they eventually spotted their faux-pas and changed the picture.

Although the picture problem was funny, the article itself is also pretty amusing. My favorite section is …

Prior to the 1970s, people viewed gender roles as as equally valuable. Many would argue women had the better end of the deal! It’s hard to claim women were oppressed in a nation in which men were expected to stand up when a lady enters the room or to lay down their lives to spare women life. When the Titanic went down in 1912, its sinking took 1,450 lives. Only 103 were women. One-hundred three.

Now I’m a man. Far be it from me to dictate when life was best for 50% of the world’s population. But I have to say that as general measure of happiness and liberty, the “chances of dying in a cruise ship disaster” test doesn’t strike me as the most representative one. If I had to pick between early access to lifeboats and say the right to vote (8 years after the Titanic sank), equal pay (<50% in 1912, and still only around 75%) and protection from workplace discrimination (not introduced till the 60’s), then I’m taking my chances in the icy waters. Although if I have to also listen to that God awful Celine Dione song then it might be a trickier decision.

While it’s idiotic to use simple gender based social conventions as markers for oppression, that doesn’t mean the social niceties themselves aren’t worth preserving. I enjoy the opportunity to display some old fashioned manners. Sadly, while standing for a lady is common enough, someone asking me to adjust their garter is a touch rarer. While this shot has an older feel to it, but is actually from 1981. It’s by Helmut Newton for Vogue.

Helmut Newton

The good old days

After mentioning the bad femdom porn of yesteryear in my previous post, it seemed a shame not to share some. This struck me as a particularly brilliant example. It’s so bad I think it actually becomes good again, by virtue of making me laugh.

The lady on the left is brandishing her flogger like it’s a long dead skunk that she wants to keep as far from her as possible. The lady on the right is falling out of her strange outfit, while expressing a strong revulsion to the idea of actually hitting the gentleman’s bottom. And for a man about to be trained by two wicked bitches in leather, he looks remarkably cheerful. He’s no doubt justifiably confident that he’s unlikely to need his safeword in the scene. What I find particularly amazing is that judging by the titling, this was the lead image for the magazine or the photo-spread. They must have looked at all the other shots and gone – “That’s it! That’s the one to lead with! This really sets the scene for the air of powerful dominance and complex sensuality that we’re trying to put across here.”

There’s a lot of justifiable complaining about bad femdom porn. I can’t deny that there’s a lot of it out there. But in an hour on tumblr you can find more good BDSM porn today than you could have found in a month of hunting in the 90’s. And I dread to think what it must have been like for kinksters prior to the spread of the internet.

Booted Discipline

I found this in a collection of vintage shots at Femdom Times.

Minion required

I’ve spent the evening packing for my upcoming New York trip. Not a fun time. Traveling to LA or Vegas is easy. Neither the climate nor the restaurants demand any sort of significant planning in the wardrobe department. Throw a few short sleeved shirts and a sports coat in a carry-on and you’re good to go. Manhattan in January is quite a different packing proposition.

What I really need is a minion to take care of it. I think I’d suck as a dominant, but having a minion seems like it should be easier to deal with. You never see evil masterminds worrying if their minions are having their needs met. Or doing any aftercare post massacre. Or blackmailing world leaders just because their minions always had a thing for financial domination. They just stick them in a colored jumpsuit and tell them to guard the hollowed out volcano. Can we not create a D/s/m hierarchy for lazy submissives like myself?

While I return to jumping up and down on my case, I’ll leave you with a shot of someone being looked after appropriately. I’ll bet she doesn’t have to worry about shlepping her overstuffed carry-on bag around icy streets.

Submissive caring for shoes of dominant

I found this on the Domina Desires tumblr. It’s originally by Kajali on deviant art, and is entitled Venus In Furs I.

What would your mother say

Via Spanking Blog comes an entertaining story of how an indiscreet spanking led to an awkward parental conversation. Followed by an even more awkward awakening of long dormant parental kink. I’m not sure what would embarrass me more. My parents finding out about my kinks, or me discovering theirs.

It actually puts me in mind of a conversation I’ve had about this topic with a close friend of mine. She knows about my kinky preferences and has raised the question of what I share with my family. She has a young daughter and hates the thought the she might grow up concealing a huge part of her identity. I understand that. If something’s important to their child it’s important to the parent. At the same time I can’t begin to imagine having that kind of conversation with my parents. The endless analysis of my childhood and exactly where they went wrong would drive me insane. Nobody needs to hear how their toilet training simply must be related to their interest in S&M. Amateur psychology, parental guilt and embarrassing sexual details might make great subjects for a Woody Allen film, but I don’t need it whenever my family are in town.

At least the original story gives me a chance to feature an entertaining spanking themed shot. I’m not sure if this is a plea for mercy or a prayer for punishment. Either way I suspect this ends with that hairbrush getting deployed at speed.

Spanking Prayer

I found this on the Led Marriage and Chastity (aka Carolus666) tumblr. It’s originally from Lina’s House of Discipline.

Cross-dressing meth priest liked sex in rectory

This is another post that isn’t particularly femdom themed. It also features the third kinky priest I’ve blogged about in the last week or so. But when I saw the title of the article, as replicated above, I couldn’t resist posting it. The San Francisco Chronicle carried the story in question, and pretty much nailed it in the heading.

The chronology of events isn’t exactly clear from the write-up. Becoming a Catholic priest was obviously step one. Not a great career choice in my view, but fair enough. From that I think he moved onto the cross dressing and having sex with men in the rectory (make your own pun up there). Good for him on that progression. Then he opened an adult video store, possibly the one fact they didn’t manage to cram into the title. Again, I think that’s a perfectly fine and respectable thing to do. Finally, he concluded his richly decorated resume by manufacturing and dealing meth. That’s the point I have to part company with him. It’s a disappointing move for a man of God.

My favorite line in the whole crazy article is…

rectory personnel became concerned and notified diocese officials when Wallin, sometimes dressed as a woman, would entertain odd-looking men, some who were also dressed in women’s clothing and engaging in sex acts.

It makes me wonder – did they need all those things in place before they became concerned? Would the cross-dressing have been OK, but the sex acts really put it over the edge?

I’ll leave you with a cross-dressing image, courtesy of Kimberly Wilder, that’s at little more aligned with a femdom theme. I think she’s being teased with the key to her chastity belt.

Kimberly Wilder drawing

Dear Abby

Pauline Phillips, more commonly known as the columnist Dear Abby, died on Wednesday. You can read her NY Times obituary here. Not having grown up in the US, she wasn’t a big part of my cultural background, but I’d certainly seen and enjoyed her writing.

Reading advice columns is always a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. It’s fun to either feel smug at coming to the same conclusion as the columnist or indignant at how foolish their advice is. Not to mention the ‘sightseeing at the asylum’ element of occasionally encountering a nutty letter from a bewildered person in a strange situation. Dan Savage, writing in his tribute to Dear Abby, quoted what is by far the best and most concise response I’ve ever seen in an advice column.

Dear Abby: Two men who claim to be father and adopted son just bought an old mansion across the street and fixed it up. We notice a very suspicious mixture of company coming and going at all hours—blacks, whites, Orientals, women who look like men and men who look like women. This has always been considered one of the finest sections of San Francisco, and these weirdos are giving it a bad name. How can we improve the neighborhood? — Nob Hill Residents

Dear Residents: You could move.

In tribute to those women who dress like men and vice-versa, here’s an entertaining image I found on the sex is not the enemy tumblr. Personally I always appreciate a woman in a sharp suit.

Woman And Man

I’m afraid I don’t have an original attribution for the image.