I have to admit to being very conflicted on social media. It’s ability to spread lies and poison is undoubtedly high, but at the same time, it does enable me to discover amazing people. As an example, I give you Mistress Stephanie Locke.
I first encountered Mistress Locke via a series of black and white images posted on usenet back in the 90’s. I had absolutely no idea who was in the images, but I remember being transfixed by them. I thought they were the hottest thing I’d ever seen, but I couldn’t understand why I reacted as strongly as I did. It was only later that I realized I was reacting to the realism in the shots. Most femdom and kink shots at the time looked horribly staged and featured bored models. There were lots of floggers being waved towards the camera by people who looked desperate to escape their boots and corsets. In contrast, the shots with Stephanie Locke seemed to feature people who were genuinely interested in who they were beating and why.* It amazes me that today I can read the thoughts and tweets of a domme who seemed like a mythical figure to the young paltego.
Sadly I don’t have a copy of the original usenet series of images that first caught my eye. The image below looks like it’s from a few years later on. I just wish I was at DomCon in LA to pay my respects in person. I love this selfie she posted with a crop on the bathroom counter.
* It’s also possible that the fact that I have a thing for dommes in glasses also played a role here.