Euphoria

The HBO show Euphoria is generating a bunch of coverage for its depictions of kink. It’s not a show I care to watch, so I’ve no idea how fair (or not) its coverage is. If the goal is controversy and debate, it’s certainly managed that.

The latest kink it has drawn on is mummification. That in turn has generated a lot of hand wringing about it’s potential dangers. For example, this Metro article and this in LAD Bible.

The concern seems a little misplaced to me. Or, perhaps more correctly, doesn’t draw the right distinctions. Wrapping plastic over the face for breathplay is definitely dangerous and not for beginners. However, that’s a different thing in my mind to mummification. Wrapping the body below the neck is a lot less risky. It’s not something to undertake lightly. You should always make sure you’ve done basic research, go slowly and have safety shears to hand. But it’s not a high risk activity like breathplay. In some ways it’s easier and less risky than regular bondage. A simple plastic wrap has less chance of causing nerve damage or twisting body parts awkwardly. I’ve done mummification lots of times and always felt safe. Only a small fraction of those experiences involved putting anything over my face.

This mummification shot from The English Mansion does feature something over his face. However, I doubt he’s going to object too much in this case.

Ada

As regular readers may know, I occasionally like to feature women who weren’t sexually dominant (as far as we know) but were amazing and impactful historical figures. For example, a couple of past examples include Julie d’Aubigny and Beryl Swain.

Today, inspired by this article on the Blue Stocking site, I’m featuring another – Ada Lovelace. Given I’ve spent a large part of my life writing software, she’s a figure near and dear to my heart. Her notes on Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine are the first example of what we think of today as computer programming. They pre-date the work of the equally brilliant Alan Turing by 100 years. From this article…

She then summarises how a sequence of computations would work on the Analytical Engine; with “Operation Cards” to define the operations to be calculated, and “Variable Cards” to define the locations of values. Lovelace discusses “cycles” and “cycles of cycles, etc”, known to contemporary programmers as loops and nested loops. She gives a mathematical notation for them, which comprises the first instance of a recorded software loop.

She then moves on to Note A, wherein she portrays an extraordinary concept of a general-purpose computing machine– a simply unparalleled vision.

Sadly, she died young, aged just 36. Babbage’s analytical engine was never built and history had to wait until the 1940’s and 1950’s for computer programming to return. That historical gap presents an interesting ‘what if’ moment that fiction authors have enjoyed filling.

There is a programming language named after Ada , although it’s sadly not a widespread one these days. That’s a shame, as I’d much prefer writing in something called Ada rather than the unimaginatively named variations of ‘C’ that are now common.

Image of Ada Lovelace as featured in this article on her in the New Yorker.

Dreaming

From a modern artist in my last post to a vintage one in this. The artist here is Bernard Montorgueil, whose work dates back to the 1930’s.

I think this is lovely idea for a drawing. You have the sleeping man and his dream, a beautifully attired but translucent domme riding his naked body. This was a new image to me, which seems kind of odd for an artist whose work is almost 100 years old. It’s nice to discover something new in something old.

You can find this and others at the Honest Erotica site.

Kami Tora Appreciation

I was left a comment by marc on this post pointing out that Kami Tora’s website had gone offline. I’ve also not seen any new content in his very distinctive style for a good while.

That’s a huge shame, as I’ve always enjoyed his blend of the playful and the erotic. Lots of tease, denial, chastity and milking, but with a healthy dose of humor. In fact on the first day of this site – back in the distant past of 2010 – I posted some of his work and added him to the artwork section.

Whatever he’s doing and wherever he is now, I hope he’s doing well. I’ve taken great pleasure in his work over the years and offer my thanks for all the wonderful art he has shared. Here’s a couple of them that caught my eye for this post.

While his primary site may be gone, you can still find his artwork in other spots. For example here.

Medication

I was amused to spot this vintage ad targeting doctors prescribing Valium (via reddit). Apparently relating well to women with domineering traits was a thing men needed medication for back in the 1960s. It’s a good job we live in (slightly) more enlightened times, or I’d be dosed up to my eyeballs. Although in my case, domineering traits leads to tension that’s more sexual than psychic.

I feel they missed a trick with the models used. We all know sex sells. Surely this was the perfect excuse for some more obviously domme fashion choices of the era?

A Moment

Here’s a moment captured. Something lovely to start the weekend.

I originally stumbled across it via tumblr, but a bit of reverse image searching tells me this is Madame Lule, a Paris based Dominatrix and BDSM coach. She has any number of similarly striking photographs on her site, which is well worth exploring. If you’re in the Paris area, her session information can be found here.

Sleepytime

I’m always intrigued to discover new kinks I’ve not heard of before. After 20+ years on odd corners of the kinky internet this doesn’t happen too often, but occasionally I’m still surprised.

For example, today I discovered Anesthesia is a kink. I obviously knew of medical fetishism and breathplay, but hadn’t realized that the drugs and equipment for anesthesia was also a thing for people. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. As a process, it has all the kind of elements that get fetishized. Lots of control, ritual, uniforms and special materials/equipment.

Personally, while I do enjoy medical play and breathplay, anesthesia alone doesn’t do much for me sexually. However, I could get into fetishizing a really good nights sleep.

I found this image via tumblr. I believe it’s by Leela Lapin who specializes in these kind of heavy medical fantasies. You can find more from Leela via her links page.

Down with the Lurgy

Apologies for the lack of recent posts. I came down with some stupid bug a few days ago and have been feeling pretty terrible ever since. It’s just a heavy cold, but I’m a bad patient and tend to retire to the couch and do nothing when I’m sick. Hopefully it’ll pass in the next dew days.

I think in these circumstances it’s customary to post a picture with a medical theme. Maybe a femdom inclined healing angel? This is Mistress Beate out of Studio Lux. She specializes in castration fetish, which might be a heavier treatment than my cold requires.

You can see more from Mistress Beate here. The Berlin based Studio Lux site is here.

Storage

I thought this was a pretty hot variation on a cage design. The outside is a standard cage, which is turned into a box with side panels, which in turn have slots for the shelves with limb/neck cut-outs. Combine it with the right bondage gear and it’d  be a highly objectifying set-up. Just imagine the door closing on you and the click of a padlock.

The creator is Mooser BDSM. Sadly they don’t appear to have a regular website, just an account on Twitter.

Shiny Maid

I’m continuing the maid theme from the last post with this image. As I’ve mentioned before, the French maid outfit isn’t really one of my kinks. However, if I was going to do it, this’d definitely be the way to go. I love how tight, shiny and restrictive this is. It’s both objectifying and aesthetically pleasing. And who wouldn’t want to be a pretty object?

Sadly I don’t have a source for this. I think I found it via tumblr.