The beauty of dominant women
Here’s an unusual image for its time. Whipping and other forms of corporal punishment is pretty common in vintage shots. Bondage occasionally pops up, as do feet and boot fetishes. But I can’t remember seeing a watersport or toilet play vintage shot before. It must have been a particularly shocking image for its time. It still packs a punch even now.
I’m guessing it was taken in Europe in the early 1930’s, but I don’t have a specific attribution. I sourced it via Madam Is All.
I’m kicking off a new week with some vintage art, sourced via the Madam Is All tumblr. There’s no signature anywhere, but I’d guess it’s by the artist Paul Klamm aka C Soulier. That would date it to the 1920’s or 30’s. You can see more from the same artist on the Smiles and Spanks site as well as the Spanking Artwork site.
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.
This 1897 portrait, by the famous American artist John Sargent, is of a Mr. and Mrs. Stokes. It’s unusual for the era, with Edith Stokes front and center in casual street clothes, while her husband Newton takes a more passive background position.
I love the dynamic, with the wife full of life and confidence in the center, while he adopts a neutral, almost servant like position. The same dynamic and energy captured in a modern photograph wouldn’t look out of place on my femdom social media feed.
According to this article it was originally supposed to be a more traditional painting, featuring her in an evening gown standing alone near a small table. It was Sargent’s idea to switch to street clothes and pose her petting a Great Dane.
But when the dog became unavailable the day Sargent went to fetch it, it was Newton himself who, as he writes, “had a sudden inspiration, and offered to assume the role of the Great Dane in the picture”
Given the dynamic of the picture, and the fact the husband was inspired to take the role of a dog / supporting accessory in the picture, one can’t help but wonder if there was a hint of femdom in their relationship. This article on the pictures expresses the view…
Newton was ahead of his time, confident and secure enough to be relegated to the literal shadow of his wife.
Which may well be true, but it might also be true that he actively enjoyed that role.
Churchill famously described British naval tradition as rum, sodomy and the lash. I’m not sure if there’s any rum in the cocktail being poured below, but there’s definitely a lash and he’s posed perfectly for a bit of sodomy as well. Looks like a fun way to experience that particular historic trio. Judging by their clothing the image is set in Churchill’s era, although I’m not sure when it was actually created.
I found this via the madam is all tumblr. I’m afraid I don’t the source or original artist.
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.
Just a regular morning start for your typical busy dominatrix. On her way to work clutching her trusty single tail. Those slaves aren’t going to whip themselves.
I suspect the identity of this leather clad lady has been lost to history. All the references I could find simply say generic things like ‘vintage dominatrix’. If you can help me attribute it then please leave me a comment. I’d love to rescue her from anonymity.
I’m going to close this series of vintage themed posts by returning to the first one in it. Several readers reached out via comments and emails to say that the domme in the photograph was a Mistress Antoinette. I’d not been aware of her until now, but by all accounts she was an amazing person.
This Rialto Report article provides some interesting background, with tributes from the likes of Dita Von Teese and Annie Sprinkle. Among her many accomplishments was publishing the fetish and femdom Reflections Magazine and creating the fashion company Versatile Fashions. You can hear from Mistress Antoinette as well as see some of her creations in this 1997 video of the Dressed To Thrill Ball.
One reader was kind enough to send me a lovely story of his interaction with her back in the 80’s. I’m sharing it below with his permission.
Way back In 1983, while driving back to San Diego after a few days of climbing in Yosemite National Park, I visited her fetish clothing store, Versatile Fashions Boutique. To my delight she was in the store that day, and was very kind when I told her that I was a longtime fan who loved being submissive to women. She had a reporter coming in for an interview, and for his benefit I was allowed to play her slave, footstool, bootlicker, and errandboy while she chatted merrily and casually with the reporter. It was a wonderful experience for me, exercising my macho rock climber persona on one day, and my worshipful slave persona the next. Plus she was just such a decent person with a big heart and a wonderful sense of humor.
She’s now retired and, based on this article, is sadly suffering from some health problems. She was clearly a kinky pioneer with a great personality. I’m sure we all wish her well in retirement.
Although Ms Antoinette has retired, the fashion company continues today under the brand Versatile Corsets.
I’m continuing both the vintage and Jamie Gillis themes with this post. As I’ve written before, this movie popularized the title ‘Dominatrix’, despite being a really terrible movie. It was basically a regular 70’s porno with some weird sex acts thrown in.
What I admire in hindsight is the marketing of this kind of material. As a teenager it used to drive my crazy. I’d discover what I thought would be some hot kinky material, and it’d turn out to be 30 seconds worth of kink in 90 minutes of nonsense. Now, with more kinky material on the internet than I can shake a whip at, I can admire the chutzpah of the 60’s and 70’s porno salesmen. They repeatedly managed to sell the sizzle without the sausage being anywhere in sight.
I always enjoy posting and gently poking fun at the fashions and tropes of vintage fetish shots. However, I should make clear that I’ve the utmost respect for the people who created them. They were operating at great legal risk, with very limited funds and no easy way to distribute their material. They had no blueprint for what BDSM material should look like and no easy way to get customer feedback. Sex workers today complain – with total justification – about the limits credit card companies and social media impose. Yet the idea of being able to simply snap and tweet an image would blow the mind of a 60’s fetish photographer. They had to deal with printing physical magazines, postal inspectors keen to sieze their material, paper mailing lists of nervous customers and the mob money that funded a lot of pornography.
If, like me, you love reading stories about the early days of kinky porn, then I’d highly recommend this Rialto article on Leonard Burtman and his wife/model Jutka Goz (aka Jennifer Jordan). Using a photograph of Jutka dominating Jamie Gillis as jumping off point, it tells the story of Leonard Burtman, one of the pioneers of kink and femdom porn. Along the way it touches on such famous names as Weegee, Bettie Page, Irving Klaw, Rene Bond and of course Jamie Gillis. I found it fascinating and touching. I particularly loved the 2018 interview with Jutka, who seems like she’s living her best life in Beverly Hills.
These two images are of Jutka and Jamie Gillis, both taken from the Rialto article. For anyone wondering if she was really dominant, I’m afraid the answer is no.
Jutka remembers the modeling work as entertaining and enjoyable: “It was fun to get dressed up and be outrageous,” she says. As for whether she had a personal interest in spanking, leather, or domination, she laughs: “It was only a role. I’m a good bullshit artist.”
My thanks to DrewP for point me to the article via a comment.
