Dating Bootcamp

BDSM pops up more and more in mainstream media sources these days. The latest is this USA Today article on a dating bootcamp featuring Domina Colette. She was there to help the attendees “…access their vulnerability and reflect on their definitions of power.”

I was lucky enough to play with Domina Colette a few years back and had a really enjoyable session. She’s a talented and empathetic domme. It’s obvious from her social media feeds that she’s heavily involved in BDSM education and I’m sure she did a brilliant job of teaching at the dating bootcamp. In the more dedicated BDSM realm she runs a regular two month-long Dominatrix mentorship class. You can find details of that here. The great shot below is the dommes who graduated from it last fall.

Image sourced from Domina Colette’s twitter feed.

Reaching In and Around

I hadn’t intended to turn this into a blog of newly discovered artists and artwork, but that has kind of been the theme recently. A lot of new people popping up in my feeds and inbox. In this case the image is from Dutch artist SleinadFlar. His work is a mix of kinks and fetishes, some femdom and some more general BDSM. I particularly liked this one for the contrast between her very composed and elegant appearance and his obvious vulnerability.

You can find more from Flar, including information on commissions, over at his DeviantArt site.

Kinky Festivals

If you’re on the west coast of Canada this weekend you might want to check out the Vancouver Fetish Weekend. As covered  in this article it runs from July 25th to 29th. I’ve no personal experience of it, but looks like it could be worth a visit.

Alternatively, if you’re located further south in San Francisco, then the Up Your Alley fair returns on Sunday July 28th. Not sure how much F/m attendance that has – it looks more M/m focused from what I’ve seen – but another option if you’re on west coast and craving some leather fun in the sun!

This was posted a few days ago by Evilyn13 on her Twitter account. I’m assuming it’s a shot from last years fetish weekend in Vancouver.

Watersports with Sigourney

I’m not sure if this is strictly femdom but, if it’s not, it’s definitely adjacent to it. Something about Sigourney Weaver’s devilish expression and confident stance make for a very striking image.

This was shot by Helmut Newton at the Warner Bros studio back in 1983. That was fours years after her breakthrough role in Alien and the year before Ghostbusters. Other images from the same shoot are very reminiscent of her role in that ’84 movie.

Office Pet

Continuing the theme of introducing new (to this site) artists, here’s something by Dirty Sparrow. I don’t think she has a primary website but you can find her and her work over on Twitter.

This example is particularly cute and fun. I love her rapaciousness and his shy but totally into it expression. I like to think it’s a bossy project manager with her favorite developer. He does great work, but needs firm guidance lest his attention stray.

Sourced via this tweet.

Guild of Dommes

Discussion about a guild or governing board for pro-dommes crops up every year or two. The latest example I’ve spotted was this thread triggered by Charlotte Douleur. If you’re new to professional domination or haven’t thought about it too much, then the idea might have some initial appeal. After all, BDSM scenes have inherent risks, there are significant sums of cash involved and relative strangers are meeting in isolated spaces. Why not have some sort of certification or oversight? However, the idea quickly falls apart when you think about it.

Who would appoint and manage the membership? How would they enforce anything? What would the rules on activities and behavior be? Whose standards are the right ones? How would you stop bad actors (asshole clients) stirring trouble with bogus complaints? How would you even investigate a complaint?

More opportunities for education and classes is obviously good and advocacy groups – like the kind Savannah Sly directs – are awesome. But I personally can’t see how an old school guild would ever work out.

In many ways, from the client perspective, the internet has already improved matters tremendously. As Sardax described in this post, in the old days you really took a chance based on nothing more than a few words in an ad. Now you can follow a domme’s social media feed, see what events she attends, get a sense of her interests, go along to domme led classes (see prior post), etc. etc. In major cities it’s pretty easy to find a pro-domme with a lot of experience and a high reputation. No guild certification needed.

Mentioning Charlotte Douleur does at least give me an excuse for featuring another of her lovely images. This was sourced via her twitter feed.

Previously posts featuring great bondage shots from Mistress Douleur can be found here and here. She’s London based and someone who falls very much into that category of experienced dommes with a strong reputation.

Professor of Pegging

If you’re NYC based and interested in kink workshops then you might want to check out the Taillor Collective. There’s a good article on them in The Cut which goes into particular detail on their pegging workshop.  It looks like they also run Femdom parties if you’re less into lessons and more into playing.

This isn’t an image from one of their parties. It’s a somewhat random strap-on shot I found via a tumblr.  No idea of the source but I like the apparent candid nature of it.