Tag: Vintage

Size Con

The Daily Dot has put up a thoughtful article on the subject of shame and kink. It’s anchored around the authors virtual attendance at SizeCon – a convention for fans of microphilia and macrophilia. I had no idea such a convention existed, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Where there is porn of something, then there will be forums and fansites, and that means meet-ups and conventions can’t be far behind.

One of my takeaways from the article is that being kinky doesn’t always translate into being open minded or tolerant. As the author writes…

Most of the sex clubs, 18+ panels, and sex ed courses I’ve attended make plenty of room for D/s, S/M, and bondage but don’t really care for anything more fantastical. Or if it comes up, it quickly becomes a joke.

Just because people are operating outside mainstream ideas of sexuality, doesn’t mean they’re not going to set up their own alternative hierarchies and gatekeepers. Much like with free speech, it’s easy to be supportive when something fits with your proclivities. The challenge is to be inclusive and supportive when it doesn’t align. I always try to remind myself that me not liking something – whether it’s a particular kink or a food or a movie – is my loss. It’s not a problem with the thing itself.

I don’t have a kink for size, but I do like this image. The tweet I sourced it from credited it to ‘Gibson’ from 1920.

Updated: Thanks to a helpful email I believe the Gibson in question is Charles Dana Gibson, an American illustrator who created the Gibson Girl.

Oh Sir!

A final post on school bullies. This one continues the theme from yesterday of nervous teachers with very forward students.I particularly like his expression and the position of his hands. He looks like he’s trying to become one with the wall. In contrast she’s pushing forward, pulling backwards and floating in the air.

I’d guess this in an illustration from a 1950’s or 60’s pulp novel about college professors and their insatiable students. Sadly I’ve not managed to track down who the original artist was.

Update: This is the front cover of the Amy Harris novel Prize Pupil, publish in 1966. Based on this page, the artist is unknown.

Update 2: A reader suggested that the artist in question is Robert McGinnis. That’s very possible as it’s definitely in his style, but I don’t have a link for the attribution.

Paul Kamm

I’m continuing the fine art theme with this post. In fact, I’m even continuing the theme of German artists working between the World Wars. This is by Berlin artist Paul Kamm, who published work in the 1920’s and 30’s. Sadly there’s not a lot of information available online about his background or work. Goddess Ezada Sinn has a post on him along with some of his drawings here.

Offered Prayer

This is by the German artist Rudolf Schlichter. Born in 1890, he survived the the first and second World Wars, despite his work being labelled as degenerate by the Nazis. I’ve featured his work before, and I assume the model in both paintings is the same. According to this article it’s an Elfriede Elisabeth Koehler aka Speedy, who shared his interests in “buttoned boots, bondage and masochistic games.” Clearly the disdainful sneer, beloved of many twitter findommes, is not a new invention.

Wighead

This drawing is by the artist Wighead for a 1930’s novel entitled ‘A Genoux Esclave’. You can see more from the book here and there’s an article on the potential identity of the artist here. I discovered the art and its background via this tweet.

These days the idea of a French maid in a sexy black and white outfit with stockings and a little cap exists almost entirely in fetish scenes and silly Halloween outfits. It has become purely a sexual trope. Yet black and white maid outfits in the 19th and early 20th century were a real thing. They were just far more practical. Here’s a picture of one I found from the same era. So what we’re looking at here is a fetishistic interpretation of what was a contemporary uniform of the time. I find it interesting to look at the artwork from that angle. It has a different feel when you consider it from the perspective of a 1930’s kinkster.

Hanging on the Telephone

Here’s a final post in my short series on making connections with pro-dommes in the pre-internet era. This is a photograph of what I’m sure was the expectation/hope in every submissive’s mind when he plucked a card from a phonebox and got up the nerve to dial (quite literally) the number. A fabulous domme clad in full fetish gear, whip in hand, just waiting for his call. That’s very different to today of course, where the submissive assumes the domme will be checking her email, while clad in full fetish gear, whip in hand, just waiting for his message.

I’m afraid I don’t have any background on the image. I found it via this tweet by mrunderheel. I’d guess it’s from the late 70’s or early 80’s.

Vintage Breathplay

It’s rare to see this activity in a vintage shot. Corporal punishment and bondage is fairly common in older shots, and medical play not unheard of, but I can’t recall seeing breathplay before.

It makes me smile, as it’s an activity I love. I particularly like the eye contact they are making, as that’s a key part of any breathplay scene for me. People talk about power exchange as an abstract D/s concept, but breathplay creates a focus that crystallizes that exchange. The power over someone’s breath is literally life and death. If I’m giving that up then I want that other person to be very much in that moment with me.

I found this image via this tweet.

Jennifer Brooks

A final image in this vintage themed series of posts. Miss Brooks below is Jennifer Brooks who started out as a spanking model and gradually shifted into playing primarily dominant roles over time. I knew her from her work in the Leda videos from Ed Lee. I hadn’t realized until I start researching this post that she actually went on to start her own company for spanking films called Brooks Applications and also published the Femdom magazine Behind the Scene. You can see an example cover from Issue 4 (1993) of that here. 

I’m pretty certain I’ve browsed examples of her latter work, without actually realizing it wasn’t associated with Leda. My bad. She shut down her company just over 10 years ago in 2009. Whatever you’re doing now Miss Brooks, thanks for all the great magazines and videos you created over the years.

I feel I can’t complete this post without a callout to the text alongside the cane image above. It’s not often that kinky porn will include a phrase like “Guaranteed to break the will of the most wretched curmudgeon…” Kudos to whoever wrote that caption. As a man who sees curmudgeon in his future, I’d agree the cane is an excellent implement to break that particular affliction. 

Name that Toy

Today’s vintage shot features a rather strange toy. It looks like a feather duster that got attacked by moths or a device for scrubbing out boiler pipes. I’m not sure if it’s a tickly thing, a slappy thing or a hitty thing. A softer way to cane someone maybe?

I’ve seen similar toys in other old kinky shots, so it was clearly a thing you could buy back then. I’ve never encountered it in a modern playspace or seen one for sale online, so presumably it wasn’t a lot of fun to use. Any ideas from readers on what exactly this strange thing is and how it’s used?

Doggishness

Continuing the vintage theme, here is what looks like an early example of public humiliation and/or puppy play. I say ‘looks like’, because it turns out that this isn’t a D/s or porn shot, but is in fact Art. I originally guessed it was a domme in 60’s London, but it was actually shot in Vienna in 1968 as a piece called “From the Portfolio of Doggishness.” Clearly I don’t have to explain to my highly educated readers what makes this art rather than a couple of kinksters screwing with the locals for giggles, as I’m sure it’s self-evident.

The woman holding the leash is Valie Export and I have to say I do like her slightly disinterested pose and expression here. I would say it’s hot, but that obviously wouldn’t be appropriate for a serious artistic piece of this nature. 

As a slightly random observation, I do think it’s funny that the image of Lucy SweetKill I featured recently appears to capture the idea of Doggishness far more accurately than this image does. Almost all dogs are way more enthusiastic about going for a walk than the man (Peter Weibel) is here.