Thanks for all the Fish

People taking on the role of dogs, ponies and cats in kinky play is pretty common. This image is the first I’ve seen that suggests dolphin might also be a viable pet play option.

Maybe it’s a new approach that Seaworld should consider? Movies like Blackfish have been a PR nightmare for them. How about letting the animals go and replace them with hot athletic submissive swimmers? I’d happily go watch a lady in a bathing suit try and train a naked man to balance a ball or jump through a hoop.

This is by the photographer Vassilis Pitoulis and entitled The Bait.

You’re a dirty, dirty voter

Given the US midterms are upon us (Go Vote! Go Vote!) it seems an appropriate time to feature this article by Justin Lehmiller on the differing sexual fantasies of liberals and conservatives. Lehmiller, who is a fellow at the Kinsey institute, surveyed thousands of American adults and discovered that while the frequency of fantasizes is shared, the subject matter isn’t.

Republicans thought a lot about swinging, infidelity, orgies and cuckolding. In contrast Democrats kinked on BDSM, masochism and D/s dynamics, leading Stephen Colbet to have some fun with the survey on his show.  Lehmiller attributes these differences to a theory called reactance, where people are drawn to what is forbidden to them. So conservatives, who traditionally support strong social structures and group cohesion, are drawn to activities that would disrupt that. Liberals, who prioritize individual freedom and caring for others, are similarly excited by dynamics that impose control and punishment. I’m not quite sure where that leaves people like myself, who find all of the above exciting. Does that make me a swing voter or just a pervert?

I hadn’t intended to turn this into yet another book themed post, but the discussion of conservative and liberal values reminds me of one of the best books I read this year – The Righteous Mind.  This is a total aside, as it’s not related to kink at all, but if you’re at all interested in psychology and how people reason about politics and religion, it’s absolutely worth reading. As someone from the liberal side of the fence it definitely gave me a better understanding and appreciation of the conservative mindset.*

In the spirit of bipartisanship, I’ll leave you with an image that should appeal to all. There’s clearly an orgy and voyeuristic angle here, as well as a BDSM one. It’s by sylverarts.

* I should qualify that when I talk about the conservative mindset, I’m talking about the traditional conservative values, not what Trump and the GOP have morphed them into. Trump is to conservatism as Bernie Madoff is to the financial planning industry.

Another trip to the library

I hadn’t intended a second post on books, but then this Daily Beast article popped up on my radar and I couldn’t resist featuring it. The book being plugged in it is ‘The Ultimate Guide to Bondage‘ by Mistress Couple. I’m sure the book is great, but what really caught my eye in the article was the broader value of kink and bondage that Mistress Couple describes, outside of simple sexual pleasure.

She talks about how consensual bondage helped her work through some traumatic experiences of her own, overwriting the negative with the positive. She also emphasizes how being vulnerable in safe situations can make you stronger. The article finishes with a lovely story of a nervous couple trying out bondage together at La Domaine Esemar. It’s not exactly a happy femdom story, given the woman ends up being tied, but it certainly comes across as a happy kinky story.

Mistress Couples Ultimate Guide To Bondage comes out on Dec 11th, just in time for Christmas shopping. Caveat Emptor – I’ve not read it and know nothing beyond what the article and Amazon page tells me. However, given the background and skills of its author, I’d expect it to be well worth acquiring. Plus, it’s nice to have a bondage book where the cover image is a bound naked dude, rather than the usual lithe lady.

Book Club

I’ve had a variety of book related links come my way recently, so I thought I’d gather and share them via a post.

Ferns has published volume 2 of her Happy Femdom Stories.  She’s shared a series of these on her blog and they always put a big smile on my face. There’s a huge amount of fantasy and professional femdom content online, but very few positive stories about real femdom relationships, so I love what Ferns is doing here.

Domina Jen is working on a book of her own and using Patron to support it. Check that out if you enjoy her writing and want to interact with her as the novel progressed.

Miranda Birch sent me a link to her site and asked if I’d feature her femdom fiction here. She has a large back catalog of work covering all sorts of kinky femdom scenarios, so that might be worth a look if you’re after new erotica.

Finally, I enjoyed this article on the passage of the bill that decriminalized sex work in New Zealand. There’s an associated book ‘My Body, My Business‘, featuring the stories of sex workers and their thoughts on the industry that’s due out later this month. That’s one to add to my Christmas list.

This pin-up librarian is by the American artist Gil Elvgren.

Martini with a Twist

My favorite part of any yoga session is drinking the gin martini at the end of it. Admittedly that particular finishing position (seated, legs crossed at ankles, glass stem firmly held in the right hand, lemon twisted) is my own particularly innovation, and not found in the more traditional yoga schools. However, I find it’s just the thing to achieve true relaxation after physical exertion.

Judging by this image, Blake Lively obviously shares my love of the gin martini with a twist. She’s even using a gin I like from the Pacific Northwest. The combination of a naked man with a kitchen countertop is more questionable. Particularly given this particular position hints at pegging. I think I’m safe in saying that nobody wants any santorum near their kitchen surfaces or their martini.

This was from Blake Lively’s instagram feed and is a promotion shot (I think) for her latest movie A Simple Favor.

Imagine the Spinoffs

It is generally said that all technology innovation is either driven by sex or quickly co-opted for sexual purposes. Apparently, at least according to this SMBC comic, the telegraph was no exception. Perhaps morse code should be a new mode option for Tens units?

As an interesting but sad historical sidenote – Samuel Morse was actually inspired to explore rapid long distance communication after his wife died and he missed her final days and burial. Heartbroken that he’d not been informed of her failing health, he set himself to create something faster than a man on a horse carrying a letter.

Lady of Mystery

I believe it’s compulsory around this time of year for blogs like this to post a sexy Halloween picture. It’s part of the contract you sign with the domain registrar. Or possibly the web hosting company. Somebody certainly requires it if you want to go on blogging.

I’ve done my bit in the past, but I generally not a happy Halloween participant.  So here’s something a little different to the usual big breasted horror movie character. While not an obvious mystical theme, I think the woman has a mysterious dark witchiness to her. She looks like she might have a beautiful modern house, with an extensive underground wine cellar, and you should pay no attention to the oddly out-of-place iron manacles or the strange chalk markings on the floor down there. Now run along and fetch her another bottle of that dark claret she loves so much.

This is by the artist Jn3 and you can see a lot more of his elegant work on his tumblr ‘Lost in the Echo‘. You can also buy prints here.

Fear at the Front Desk

I have a secret fear of checking out of hotels. Particularly if there’s a big line of people at the desk. Each time as I go to slide across the key, I give a little nervous smile and try not to catch the hotel employee in the eye. I always picture them fiddling around on their computer and then saying “Ahhh, yes sir. You were in that room. We’d be obliged if you didn’t make any future bookings at our hotel.”

I’m obviously shocked at this statement, but as I start to protest they look me straight in the eye and loudly say “You know what you did. We all heard the noises! The young couple in the next room were most disturbed. We told them the screams were just a loud horror movie you were watching, but I know what that young lady was doing to you! You should be ashamed.”

Of course this has never happened and almost certainly never will. If hotels barred people for getting a little freaky in their rooms, then they’d have a lot of empty hotel rooms (with some exceptions). But that doesn’t stop me getting just that little bit nervous and sweaty when it comes time to pay the bill.

My most recent reason for this fear was an opportunity to play with Miss Margot of NYC in my hotel on the last full day of my trip. We had a blast, indulging in all sorts of great kinky activities. Like most NYC hotels the room was pretty small, but unlike most hotels, the bed had all sorts of useful tie points to take advantage of. That fact, combined with Miss Margot’s skills and travelling bag of rope and toys, made for a great way to spend a final afternoon in Manhattan. Hopefully we didn’t scare the other guests too badly.

This photograph of Margot doesn’t exactly fit my femdom theme, but I liked it so much I wanted to share it. It was taken by @ohgodwhy_me and shared via Margot’s twitter feed.

Miss Margot actually works as a professional switch, offering sessions as a bottom, sub, top or domme. I checked very carefully before leaving Seattle and, despite looking under the bed and down the back of the couch, still couldn’t find my dominant side. However, if you lean switchy and are looking for a versatile professional in NYC then you should definitely check out her site. And if you also fear the hotel front desk, I’m sure she could arrange a playspace for two of you.

Triple Bondage Trouble With Mistress Tess

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was lucky enough to get not one but two sessions on my current trip with the amazing Mistress Tess. We split them as 2 hours and then 4 hours, with my original thinking being that we’d start with a gentle warm-up and then get into the heavier stuff in the longer second session. In the event we started with intense and awesome, followed by even more intense and even more awesome, which turned out to be just fine with me! There was a lot of bondage in both, but we only snapped photographs in the second one.

That second session started with a leather body bag, and straps, and rope, and more straps, and some locks, and then more straps. This abundance of leather and bondage was complemented by some electrics attached to the only skin showing – the cock and balls. You can see all this in these images – torso, angle, side and close-up. I should add that throughout this Mistress Tess was spinning an imaginative medical experimentation fantasy, with me as the object at the focus of it. Apparently amputation and castration might have been in my future – but luckily, this time at least, I escaped with all parts intact.

We then moved on to some metal bondage on her pegboard bed, as shown in this overhead shot. I’m sporting some particularly sexy boots, and the metal spheres just in frame at the bottom are actually enclosing my hands. The metal creates an interesting head space, as there’s a little more initial wiggle than ropes or leather, but at the end of the wiggle it’s hard and immovable metal. Everything’s bolted down, so you feel very much part of the apparatus, rather than simply held by it. While I was bolted into place, Mistress Tess took the chance to do some piercing and continue to zap my delicate bits.

Finally, we did something entirely new to me  – a wet pack. This consisted of multiple cold wet sheets being wrapped around me to swaddle the body.  As a newbie to the process I got the lightweight version, which didn’t feature sheets that had been kept wet in the fridge for hours, but it was a still a major shock to the system. Apparently a wet pack is a genuine medical ‘treatment’ that used to be used in asylums to restrain/cure/punish patients.  Tess being the bondage aficionado that she is, didn’t just stop at sheets, as leather straps and then plastic wrap were added to finish the encasement off. You can see the final result in this image and this image. Luckily, body heat eventually warms the sheets, so it becomes almost relaxing. I say ‘almost relaxing’ because of course, with Doctor Tess in the clinic, the restraints are only the start of the procedure…

It was a genuinely awesome experience, and I was giddy and burbly for many hours afterwards. The technical elements of the play were exceptional and, as I mentioned the last time I played with her, Mistress Tess  is also brilliant at spinning a verbal fantasy. There was a lot of tease, denial and creative sadistic storytelling to go along with it all.  It’s unfortunate that I live a 6 hour flight away, otherwise I could see myself spending a lot of time as a specimen in her laboratory of kink.

This shot is a close-up from the first scenario. You can see the white rope pulling the body bag tight, with the padlocks locking the straps into place.

If you’re in the NYC area and interested in seeing Mistress Tess, then her professional site is here and her twitter here. If you can’t make it to NYC then her OnlyFans account has a lot of great content and is here.