Channeling the inner dominatrix

If you keep an eye out for BDSM articles in the press, you’ll quickly discover there are two common templates that pop up repeatedly. One is the latest gossip on the 50 shades of grey phenomena. The other features a model or actress pulling on something vaguely fetishistic and being described as channeling her inner dominatrix. It might only be a pair of leather boots or a black shiny dress, but inevitably a dominatrix will be being channeled.

The latest story to use this template features Cara Delevingne and Karl Lagerfeld. It’s a particularly annoying example thanks to the two different collars Cara is wearing. It doesn’t make any sense to couple an aggressive domme look with collars that are designed for attaching a leash to. It seems they just throw any vaguely fetishistic gear together without a thought for what it actually means. Which is particularly bad when you’re supposed to be a fashion designer and the meaning, look and utility of clothes is your stock in trade.

By way of a contrast I give you the image below. These women really seem to be getting the hang of their inner dominatrix, and not a hint of leather, latex or overpriced couture clothing in sight.

Channeling their inner dominatrix

I found this on the Femdom Style Counsel tumblr. It’s originally from the Women Spanking Men site.

Silence is golden

I am by no means a stoic and quiet masochist. I make noise. Lots of noise. Screams. Moans. Grunts. Growls. I like to claim it’s a sign of good communication from the bottom. I’m letting the top know where I’m at. That’s true, but realistically it’s also about me dealing with pain and letting myself simply go with the sensation. It’s energizing to not think and simply react.

I’ve never had a domme try to make me stay quiet, although a few have shoved a gag in when necessary. I therefore think the young lady in the drawing below is being particularly cruel. She’s positioned him teasingly across her legs, spanked him and shoved a vibrator into him. And now he has to stay quiet while she reads her book? That’s harsh. Particularly if she’s adding the odd spank or two between pages.

Spanked, plugged and now sshhh'd

I found this on the Geek Domme tumblr. I think it’s fan art of two characters from a web comic called homestuck, but I’m not entirely sure.

Ed Lee

I was sad to read that Ed Lee, founder of Nu-West/Leda productions, had recently passed away. In an earlier era of really bad BDSM porn, he produced some of the most authentic and exciting corporal material around. As he describes in this interview, he was taking a big risk by doing so. The legal situation was very unclear and even if you won in court you could still end up bankrupt.

As a young femdom aficionado in the late 90’s I remember travelling down to London’s Soho specifically to hunt for Leda videos. I’d seen some of the still shots on-line and wanted to get my hands on some high quality VHS. There was only one shop that sold them (as they were illegal in England) and unfortunately they had a very loose approach to labeling their tapes. You’d buy 3 tapes and hope at least one of them was what it claimed to be. I suspect they were all pirate tapes, which no doubt would have infuriated Ed had he known. Being young and very nervous I never had the guts to go back and complain. After several trips and a dozen random tapes of all sorts of random porn (mostly rubbish), I’d managed to accumulate just 3 Leda ones. It was worth it though. The production values weren’t great, but the authenticity was never in doubt.

I’ll leave you with two shots from the short-lived Ma’am magazine he produced. Thanks for everything Ed.

Shot from Ma'am magazine
Shot from Ma'am magazine

Spanked over the chaise longue

This caught my eye when I came across it on the Who’s Sorry Now tumblr. It’s rendered in a very striking style. I don’t know the artist, but I’m guessing it’s the same person who did this piece. Both of them feature slightly androgynous submissive young men that put me in mind of Japanese animation and videogames. I was going to go on to suggest that BDSM and D/s might be an interesting basis for a JRPG, but given the dating games genre that exists in Japan, somebody has probably already done it.

It’s also unusual to see a chaise longue involved in a spanking scene, although when you think about it, that’s actually a very suitable piece of furniture for the task.

Spanked with a belt

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.

Added Barb to Femdom Artwork

As the titles suggests, I’ve added an entry in the Femdom Artwork section for Barbara O’Toole aka Barb.

I have to admit that her common themes of domestic discipline and older women with younger men doesn’t push my personal buttons. I like pain and submission for it’s own sake, not in a wider context of punishment. But I know she’s a very popular artist (RedRump and Underling are on record as fans) and she’s undoubtedly a deserving entrant in my femdom artist wall of fame.

Artwork by Barbara O'Toole

10 ways to tell if your sex article is rubbish

Reading Cosmo has always been a guilty pleasure. When I was young, and furtively reading copies my mother brought home, it seemed a fascinating window into a sophisticated adult world. Now I’m older, and find it in waiting rooms, it’s still a fascinating window into a different world. Unfortunately the world is one of absolutely nutty advice written by people who appear to have absolutely no clue what they’re talking about.

I’ve recently seen a few blog posts pointing to a Jezebel article mocking Cosmo’s BDSM advice. However, I have to say they’re a little late to the game. Cliff over at The Pervocracy has been entertainingly pulling apart their sex advice for years now. And while mocking Cosmo sex advice is like shooting fish in a barrel – if it’s a tiny barrel, and a big fish, and it’s dead already, and you’ve got a shotgun – I have to say she’s doing a much better job of it then Jezebel. Here’s a taster from her most recent post

If you ask him out on a second date, he’ll likely feel emasculated… and that’s pretty much the worst thing you can do to a guy.

It’s gotta be inconvenient having your gender role defined by what someone else does. You’re going along, being all masculine, and then your date fucks it up and breaks your masculinity so you have to be feminine! And you don’t even own a decent pair of heels so then you have to go shopping! Talk about a pain in the neck!

And here’s a snippet from her take on their article on that book

Maybe it will discuss how BDSM exists as a community, how it encompasses a broad range of activities and motivations, and above all else, how crucial enthusiastic consent and explicit communication are in BDSM!

Suprise-attack him with a few of these tonight… and that’s an order.

…Maybe not.

Use the back of a brush to swat his thighs when he steps out of the shower–wet skin is more sensitive.

That’s not a sexy surprise, Cosmo. That’s battery.

If you’ve not read any of The Pervocracy articles before, then I think you’re in for an entertaining treat. In the meantime, I’ll use the flimsy above reference to a swat with a hairbrush to feature this image. It’s of Miss Dawn, a professional disciplinary from Cambridge in the UK.

Miss DawnIf you find yourself in the Cambridge region and fancy a swat across the thigh with this hairbrush (wet or otherwise), Miss Dawn’s session information is here. I originally found the image on the Strict Women tumblr.

Popping my cherry

A recent post by Underling posed what I thought was an interesting question for submissives. He was writing about spanking, and in particular that first experience…

…do you remember your first time? What prompted that initial collision of palm and derriere? Was it spontaneous, planned, paid for? Was it all you’d dreamed of and more, or were you left wondering what all the fuss was about?

He follows the question with a nice story describing his own first time, featuring a slightly surreal but ultimately satisfying session with a nice professional dominant lady.

My first adult spanking was also in a professional session, but it was oddly late in my kinky career. During my first few months of BDSM ‘for real’ (as opposed to in my fevered imagination), I did a pretty good impression of a kid in a candy store (apologies for the clashing mental image). I wanted to try everything. Ropes, whips, canes, needles, nipple clamps, gags, cuffs, pegs. You name it, I wanted it attached, inserted or applied at speed. Yet oddly I never got around to a traditional over the knee spanking. Somehow it seemed a little old fashioned.

I ended up having my first spanking almost accidentally. We’d been trying to do a suspension scene, and it just hadn’t worked out. I was having some joint issues, we couldn’t get the balance right, the rope harness was too tight, Libra was on the cusp of Capricorn, the BDSM gods were grumpy, etc. Normally a suspension will take a full session, so when it didn’t pan out we suddenly had extra playtime, and Lydia decided that a spanking was the right way to fill it. So like Underling my first time had a touch of the surreal, but in my case it was because it caught me so unawares. My thought process ran along the lines of “This is weird. Why am I getting over her knee? How is this going to work? It’s almost like…ohhh…we’re spanking! That’s kind of fun!”

Since then I’ve done it a number of times and always enjoyed it. I don’t get the rush from it that I think true spanking aficionados experience, but I like the close physical contact and the intimacy of it. Whipping and caning can be quite isolating. The pain makes me turn inwards and focus on my body. But a spanking is definitely a shared experience.

After The Spanking by UnderlingImage is by Underling from his site Underling’s Humblings.

Spanking the monarch

Here’s a nice piece of femdom fan art by SpankingFemFatale. For those of you who don’t recognize the characters (shame on you!) it’s the evil mastermind known as The Monarch and his partner Dr Girlfriend (later known as Dr. Mrs The Monarch). They’re from the show the Venture Brothers, a post-modern cartoon series which packs a huge number of pop cultures references and allusions into every episode. I always found the smart and competent Dr. Girlfriend very sexy despite, or maybe because of, her deep gravelly voice. For those who have never seen the show, here’s a short clip of her in action.

Spanking The Monarch