The dividends of distraction

Scientists have found that being distracted helps people deal with pain. The only surprising thing to me is that they’re only just discovering this fact. Masochists could have told them this long ago.

The fact that pain is only experienced in the brain is the kind of thing movie super villains like to purr while they’re heating up the red hot coals for the hero. Yet it happens to be true. I’m frequently astonished how non-absolute pain can be. What seems horrible early in a play session can be easily tolerated later. Similarly a steady strong stimulus (say from an electro-stim device) can quickly become unnoticeable when overwhelmed by a suddenly intense sensation (like nipple clamps being ripped off). Lots of things can act as a distraction. In the original article they tried stress balls. I’ve also found that my screaming, ladies in tight outfits and sticking needles in delicate body parts (by aforementioned ladies) works equally well.

The image below shows a great set-up for the converse situation. It’s really hard to tolerate pain when you’re very focused on it, and this bondage set-up will enforce that. He can’t relax, zone out or shift focus. He has to try and maintain his balance will anticipating the blows. That creates an interesting but really intense head space.

Intense SceneThis is from the Divine Bitches site.

Financial Domination (alternative version)

Courtesy of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal here are some wise words on choosing role playing scenarios.

Personally I’ve never been much for financial responsibility, as my bank balance will attest. While the tradition approach to financial domination does nothing for me, a strict lady with a cane and good ideas for managing my 401K would be appealing. Fin dommes talk about wallet raping their pay piggies. I wonder if there’s a market for investment dommes who beat clients for not diversifying their pension portfolios?

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Steamy

Celebrities offering bad medical advice seems to be an unavoidable modern phenomena. It’s a bit like athletes thanking God, male politicians on women’s health or Donald Trump on pretty much any topic. I really wish they’d keep their mouths shut and opinions to themselves, but sadly that seems to be too much to ask for.

In the medical field we’ve had Jenny McCarthy spewing nonsense on vaccination, Suzanne Somers making dubious claims on cancer and  Gwyneth Paltrow’s bizarre diet advice. The latest from the fair Gwyneth is particularly entertaining – vaginal steam cleaning. Apparently it’s a real thing.

You sit on what is essentially a mini-throne, and a combination of infrared and mugwort steam cleanses your uterus, et al. It is an energetic release—not just a steam douche—that balances female hormone levels
Gwyneth Paltrow

As you might expect the experts, those crackpots who waste time building expertise over years of study, are less than impressed. Apparently a good blast of steam to your nether regions will not balance your reproductive hormones. Crazy but true.

While the health benefits may not exist, I do wonder if the device might find a second home in kinky play spaces. It sounds like it might be a lot of fun, particularly if used on skin already warmed up by some corporal punishment. Just add some bondage straps to the throne and fire up the boiler. As an added bonus, everyone would finish up with sparkly steam cleaned bottoms. Just make sure it’s not too hot. Having a ‘blistered bottom’ should remain a figurative expression rather than literal.

A Warm Bottom
I’m afraid that despite my best efforts, I was unable to find a suitable femdom images featuring steam. So instead here’s a man getting his bottom warmed in a more conventional way. This is from the Women Spanking Men site.

A quiet night in the dungeon

I was whipped, shocked and penetrated tonight. So all in all, an excellent evening in the dungeon. According to Lydia I pulled some entertaining but odd expressions when she put an electrified metal sound down my urethra. That didn’t surprise me. As I told her afterwards, I pull odd expressions when doing tasks as basic as taking the lid off a jar, writing email or slicing bread. Given that, expecting me to be Mr. Inscrutable while shocking my genitalia is expecting a lot.

I now plan to go and collapse on the couch with a cup of tea. I’ll finish the post with an appropriate image of someone else pulling a nice expression while focusing on the task in hand. This is from the Strapon Dreamer site.

Penetration

A great expression

I’m always keen on interesting CBT shots, but it’s the expression on the ladies face that really makes this image. I like to think he has just moaned loudly and that’s her reaction to it. Half amused at his cries and half quizzical about the level of pain. She’s pondering does it really hurt or is he exaggerating? Should she should give it another twist to see if she can get an even better sound out of him?

GreatExpressionThis is from the Divine Bitches site. I’m afraid I don’t know the name of the lovely lady in the glasses. I found it on the Alternative Femdom tumblr.

Miss Peel

I was sad to read of the recent passing of Brian Clemens. He wasn’t exactly a household name, but as the man behind the 60’s TV series The Avengers, I’m sure a lot of my readers have enjoyed his work. It featured two wonderful British actresses in Honor Blackman and Dianna Rigg, both of whom sported some fine fetishistic outfits. Aggressive women in catsuits with guns – what’s not to like about that?

Emma PeelThis is Diana Rigg as Emma Peel. She went on to play Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo in the Bond movie On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

The bandwagon rolls on

Having spent the last year or so all over the internet, Fifty Shades of Grey is now popping up on my television. The movie is due out next month and the trailers are running frequently. I’m just hoping it doesn’t come up as a topic of conversation with any of my non-kinky friends. After a few drinks I’ll probably be unable to avoid ripping into it, which might lead to speculation about how I know so much about it.

An article on it that I would be happy to point my friends to is this one in (of all places) the International Business Times. If features San Francisco’s Mistress Morgana, Seattle’s own Mistress Matisse and submissive Stephen Elliot. They do a good job of talking about the complexity and variety in kink, as well as emphasizing the need for consent.

I find it amusing that although most regular people primarily think about maledom when they think about BDSM (in my opinion), it seems like that the majority of articles on it feature female dominants. I don’t think there’s any great underlying social subtext to that. It’s just that journalists are busy/lazy and virtually all professional dominants are female. It’s much easier to find the contact details of a local pro-domme via a quick web search than it is to track down a lifestyle male dominant.

MorganaThe above image is of Mistress Morgana. She’s a BDSM professional, educator and guide. If you’re in the San Francisco area and interested in experiencing that wooden spoon for yourself, her contact details are here.

Pacific Rim

The rather cute images below are part of a fanfic series from the Pacific Rim movie. You can see the complete collection of illustrations in the series here. It’s well worth checking out the entire set of images. I thought the originally movie was a fun monster flick, albeit with a fair loose plot. The original Raleigh/Mako pairing had good chemistry, but some strap-on action would certainly have improved matters.
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Cosmo article shocker

Mocking sex articles from Cosmopolitan magazine is no great challenge, although it can be amusing. They have a reputation for coming up with some ridiculous advice. For example, I give you toilet paper bondage.

When I saw an article from them entitled ‘I took my boyfriend to a dominatrix‘ I therefore didn’t have particularly high hopes, but it’s actually not terrible. Admittedly it’s a very short, fluffy throw-away piece. Yet there’s no jaw dropping idiocy in it or horrible factual errors. They were also smart enough to pick a talented and well known domme in the form of Mistress Wynter. I can almost imagine a couple reading the article and being encouraged to try a visit themselves.

I’ve always thought that more people should treat sex workers as an educational resource, particularly when it comes to BDSM. After all very few people would take up a sport or hobby that required specialized skills and used a variety of potentially dangerous equipment and then expect to make it up as they went along. Particularly if said dangerous equipment was in the vicinity of their naked genitals. In that situation smart people either join a local club or hire a professional instructor. BDSM obviously offers the club option, but not everyone wants to mix a social scene into their sexual play. In that case a pro-domme is an excellent alternative for learning new techniques.

Mistress WynterAbove image is of Mistress Wynter with a hooded slave as photographed by Anthelian. She’s a NYC based pro-domme and if you’re interested in utilizing her educational skills her contact info is here.