The alpha female submissive?

More ruminations follow on the often espoused theory that submissives are frequently thrusting, successful alpha types in daily life. I hadn’t intended to write quite so much about this, but the more I ponder it, the more flaws I see in it.

In my original post I used the expression ‘submissive people’, but that’s not really accurate. I almost never hear of female submissives described in this way. The powerful controlling person who needs to let go in the bedroom is always a man in a ‘stressful’ job. He needs to take a timeout and not be himself for a while. When it comes to female submissives the more common descriptions center around secret yearnings, a desire to be controlled and tapping into fantasies. It’s about giving in to her deep desire, rather than stepping outside of the self.

In other words male submission is being positioned as taking a break from the normal state of affairs, where female submission is about a desire to return to a more natural order. To me that says much more about the way society perceives gender and power dynamics than it does about the nature of submission. It’s fundamentally an inconsistent view motivated by the need to fit it into conventional structures.

Cute Collared SlaveThe cute slave in this image is doubtless getting in touch with her inner desire for submission. Of course if she was a man then this would have been shot in between power lunches and organizing leveraged buy-outs on Wall Street.

The original source for this is the Everyday Slave site. I found it via the Alternative Femdom tumblr.

Keeping the beautiful people in shape

The very night I landed in LA I spotted this story about an LA domme called Snow Mercy running a fetish fitness class here. I didn’t sign up but I’m beginning to think I should have. After several lengthy meals a bit of kinky purging to go alongside the binging would have been good for me.

What particularly made me smile, in a rueful way, was spotting this post from last month on her facebook page and the corresponding image below on her instagram feed.

Casting call: one very attractive experienced male “slave” needed for a one-hour shoot tonight in a Beverly Hills mansion. I’m shooting with Playboy models for a Brazilian reality TV show. I’m cast as a Domme (big surprise)

I’m actually staying in Beverly Hills. If I’d been here a month ago maybe I could have really made it a vacation to remember. Not to mention having some great holiday snaps to share. I’d have been OK on the experienced part of the necessary qualifications. Maybe less so on the attractive part. Certainly in comparison to the other models featured.

Mistress Snow Mercy administers a spanking

You can play with Mistress Snow Mercy at the Dominion in LA.

The Duke of Burgundy

As far as film titles go, The Duke of Burgundy isn’t an obvious one to use for a period piece movie focusing on a lesbian D/s relationship. It is also rare to see this kind of opening statement in a mainstream newspaper’s film review…

The Duke of Burgundy is the most tender love story you’ll see in which a woman forcefully urinates in her lover’s mouth

While it might be unusual, the majority of the reviews seem to love it. There’s that one in the Guardian, another in the Austin Chronicle and this one in the IndieWire. From their descriptions it seems to be a movie that really has an understanding of the dynamics of BDSM and some of inherent contradictions in a Dom/Sub relationship.

It’s not released until October 10th, but I’ll certainly be looking out for it after that. In the meantime it gives me an excuse to feature a fun vintage shot. These two ladies seem to be enjoying both nautical dress-up and spanking.

Vintage Spanking

The person in pink

I generally love unusual kinks, even when they are not my own. There’s something quite cheering about seeing people put the effort into getting off in unusual ways. A couple of years ago I wouldn’t even have added the ‘generally’ qualifier to that opening statement. Sadly time brings wisdom. I once mentioned my pleasure in other peoples unusual kinks to a domme, which prompted her to put me straight by relating a fantasy involving defecation and chickens that a client had shared with her. That might not have been the most unpleasant mental image I’ve ever had, but it was certainly in my top five.

Fortunately the image below is from the fun and cheerful side of kink. Heavy bondage can often be portrayed very seriously, so this body cast shot makes a nice change. I particularly like the drawn in eyes, hair bow and bright pink color. An all white cast would be too medical, putting me in mind of the soldier in white from Catch 22. Pink gives it a more playful air. Even the site name has a fun twist – Cast Your Enthusiasm. That’s much more appealing than crudeness like Divine Bitches or Ballbusting Chicks.

Pink Body Cast

Fetish fail

I could start a blog based purely on showing terrible representations of kink and fetish in celebrity culture. The commonest scenario is describing any celebrity dress with a hint of straps, leather or latex as a dominatrix outfit (for example this recent article). That’s just journalists being lazy and cliched, but now and again you get cases where the celebrities and artists have been the ones to make a hash of things. The recent photoshoot for V magazine, featuring Katy Perry and Madonna, is a great example of this.

They’re obviously going for a retro-fetish look, probably inspired by Bettie Page, but they don’t have a fraction of the presence she brought to her shots. Somebody should explain to them that fetish and kink are all about powerful desires and sexual attraction. And, as with all powerful feelings, they can risk invoking aspects of darkness, danger, yearning and compulsion. There’s none of that in these shots. Just two women wearing silly outfits and exhibiting no chemistry together. Although is narcissism a fetish? If it is, then they could at least have one fetishistic element covered.

Katy Perry and Madonna for V magazine

Paging Dr Stoker

Apparently vampires had the right idea all along. According to recent research, young blood can reverse the effects of aging, although the researchers are strangely quiet on necessity (or not) for virginity on the supplier of the blood. Unfortunately, before everyone rushes off to check out the price of mortgages on gothic castles and what outfits they can accessorize with an opera cape, I should point out they’ve only tested it on mice so far. It also needs to be administered via transfusion, so neck sucking isn’t going to help with any wrinkles.

While immortality doesn’t appear to be quite within our reach just yet, the story does give me an excuse to feature some sexy female vampires. This artwork is by the animator and artist Bruce Timm. He’s worked on numerous animated series from DC comics, and is the co-creator of the Harley Quinn character from the Batman series. This is a cover from a British horror magazine, that I found here.

'The Vampire Lovers' from the Little Shoppe of Horrors magazine

Rope & candles

I don’t feature a lot of posts with female submissive imagery. In fact, looking at my post tagging, there have been around 60 Ff images, out of over 1,200 total posts. That’s not because I don’t appreciate it. I enjoy its aesthetic and can relate to the submissive experience of any gender. The problem is that so many Femdom/Femsub images end up fixated on the submissive at the cost of the dominant and the dynamic between them. They end up being femsub rather than femdom, and I figure there are quite enough pictures of bound and gagged women floating around with a blog about female dominance adding to them.

This image is an example that strikes the right balance for me. The dominant is an integral part of the scene, and it nicely captures a moment of tension. It also continues the Shibari theme from yesterday’s post, which pleases the anal retentive blogger in me. It’s by the artist RedPandaDee and, according to his comment on it, the dominant is Saki Kamijoo and the submissive is Skinny Redhead. You can see a video of Saki Kamijoo at work here.

Saki Kamijoo by RedPandaDee

Furry little assholes

You’ll be glad to know that the title doesn’t refer to a continuation of the enema theme from yesterday’s post. Instead it references a post by Stabbity which poses the question: Why is the pet in a pet play scene always the bottom?

That strikes me as an excellent question. I don’t think it would work to top as a dog. They’ve got a natural follow the leader obedience built in. But what about cats? As Stabbity points out they’re adorable furry little assholes, and clearly sadists. It’s always important to remember that a domestic cat would eat you if it could. Although it’d probably play with you for a while first. They’re only tolerating humans until someone invents a tin opener that can be operated by a paw *.

I’m not big on serious roleplaying, but I can imagine having a lot of fun with a top acting in a cat like manner. Plenty of scratching, nuzzling, trampling and swatting. As a bottom getting to be the scratch post, fuzzy ball and the comfy bed would all be fun experiences.

I’m afraid I don’t have any pictures of that style of play, but the subject does give me a chance to share these adorable photographs. Isn’t that one of the cutest pet play couple you’ve ever seen?

Pet play
Pet play

These images are from the Pet Play and Pony Girls site. I found them on the Rope Pup tumblr.

* Quote shamelessly stolen from Terry Pratchett.