Bondage – Page 43 – Femdom Resource

Cluck, cluck, gibber, gibber, my old man’s a mushroom, et cetera

I always knew I wasn’t crazy. And now I have proof. Proof I tell you!

According to the survey described in this article, people practicing BDSM are psychologically healthier than those who don’t. Admittedly the survey was of 900 BDSM practitioners from the Netherlands rather than me specifically, but I’ll take what I can get. Nice to know that paying someone to stick needles into my genitals is a sign of good mental health.

I’ve no idea how carefully they chose their sample set, but I was interested to note that the Dom/Switch/Sub percentages for men was 48/18/33 and for women 8/16/75. It was also interesting that while all categories scored higher than non-kink folks, the dominants scored the highest, then the switches and finally the submissives. So while I might saner than those people not hitting each other with sticks, I’m still bringing up the rear in the kink community.

Finally, to finish, here’s a picture of a well adjusted couple working on improving their psychological well being.

(Image Removed)

I found this image on the mira-mel tumblr. I’ve no original attribution. Weirdly, and for the first time I can remember, Google’s image search confuses it with other images and therefore returns the wrong pages for it.

Vampire Kiss

This beautiful image is entitled ‘Vampire Kiss’ and is by the artist Pain And Lust (free deviant art login required). A lot of porn color images get turned into monochrome to make them appear more ‘arty’ and erotic. This is a nice example of an original image using that palette in a very deliberate way to great effect. Based on the comments, I believe the artist with her slave is shown in this linked image entitled ‘My Slave’.

Yambler

As regular readers might guess, I’m a big fan of tumblr. Most of my images for posts come via tumblers, and I love the way their reblogging and following mechanism makes it easy to walk a network of similar content. I also like the simplicity and uncluttered layout that tumblrs tend to promote. For a site like this one I want the control and security that comes with owning my own domain and running open source software. But if I had any spare time at all, I’d definitely be tempted to set up a tumblr to complement my posts here.

It was therefore disconcerting to read today that Yahoo is going to buy tumblr for $1.1B. That’s not a company with a great track record in acquisitions, as flickr and geocities users will tell you. Large corporations that rely heavily on advertising dollars also do not mesh well with sites heavy in pornographic content. On the positive side Marissa Mayer did promise “not to screw it up”, which at least suggests some self-awareness and understanding of history. However, to avoid the screwing, they have to understand what the ‘it’ actually is, and I wouldn’t bet a dollar on that.

Bacchus has been blogging heavily on this topic in the last few days. So if you have an adult tumblr I’d advise reading his posts on tumblr’s robots.txt behavior, searching your tumblr and backing up your tumblr. In the meantime I’ll leave you with an image from the 11% of adult material on tumblr. I found this on Alternative Femdom. I believe it’s originally by the photographer Valentin Casarsa.

White Shirt, Armor bonus +1.

I was amused but slightly saddened to stumble across this post over at the Repair Her Armour tumblr. It provides some entertaining drawings of the typical outfits for female characters in on-line role playing games. As you’d expect practicality is not high on the requirement list. Obviously just the thing you want for protection when charging into a cave full of orcs is a metal bikini and stiletto heels.

Predictably enough there’s a dominatrix style outfit on the list. The tumblr artist also gets bonus points for noting that these games often can’t seem to decide if it’s supposed to be a dominatrix or a slave outfit. They just throw a bunch of leather, chains and spikes at it and call it good. Some kinky photographers do much the same thing.

I’m not opposed to some leather and chains now and again, but even in a BDSM setting they can get a bit old. So it made a nice change to find these two images, with nary a hint of cow hide in sight. Just a barefoot woman in a white shirt taking charge of her guy.

The images are from the Woman Worship site. I found them originally on the Geek Domme tumblr.

For anyone wandering about the slightly odd title – armor bonus is an old RPG term and reflects just how much protection an item of clothing gives. Oddly the strange metal bikinis and leather lingerie that female characters get stuck with often seems to offer the same protection as a full suit of armor. In this case her white shirt isn’t going to help much against a bunch of orcs, but this guy doesn’t look like he’s about to put up much of a fight.

Bondage mouth puppet

I’m continuing the Japanese femdom theme, but coming forward a few decades. I’d guess this is from the 80’s or 90’s, although I don’t have an original attribution.

The mouth and nose are often neglected in BDSM play. Gags get stuffed in, hoods pulled over or faces fucked, but it’s rare to see people actively playing in a narrow focused way like this. Which is odd, because it’s such a sensitive and important area. It’s how we taste, smell and breath. It’s how we communicate. It’s packed with both nerve endings and symbology. It’s an opening into the body. A vulnerability.

Of course there are some practical considerations. It’s hard to hide marks on the face. I did some face rope bondage with Troy Orleans earlier this year, and didn’t pay too much attention to her warning about the marks that were left. I stopped at a tiny Italian cafe on my way home and wondered why the guy kept glancing up to stare at me as he fiddled with his espresso machine. It wasn’t until I looked in the mirror back at my hotel that I saw the unmistakable deep rope impressions that ran from the sides of my mouth up across my cheeks. I don’t think the barista could have been in any doubt what they were.

As I mentioned I’m afraid I have no attribution for this. It looks like an image scanned from an old BDSM magazine. I do have a shot from another angle showing a close-up of the face.

Bondage as art

A Guardian article on Nobuyoshi Araki caught my eye recently and sent me on a trip down memory lane. If you haven’t heard the name before, he’s a prolific and famous Japanese photographer. He’s probably best known for his images of Kinbaku, aka women in bondage (for example this, this and this). The article itself is a fairly silly one on on the nonsensical topic of art versus pornography, but the man himself has a special place in my heart.

I originally came across his work in the 1990’s when I was still in college. One of the major British television networks showed a documentary about him, which was surprising given the explicit nature of his artwork. The program featured a lot of bondage and showed him working with riggers and models to create complex and beautiful shots. I found it amazing. At the time my exposure to BDSM imagery, and particularly bondage imagery, was very limited. The UK had strict rules on BDSM porn and most of it was either sloppy cheap vintage bondage or cheesy commercial rubbish. Yet here was a real artist taking the subject seriously, working with a skilled team, and showing how beautiful proper rope bondage could be. It opened my eyes to the potential of BDSM for being more than just a bit of kinky fun in the bedroom.

Unfortunately, for the purposes of this blog, I’m not aware of any femdom slanted pieces that he has done. So instead I’ll feature some alternative Japanese bondage, in this case it’s a vintage piece from 1954.

You can see more from the same publication in this gallery. I believe (based on Google Translation) it’s from a magazine called Kitan Club.

Mouseketease

I’m a little nervous about posting this. The lawyers for Disney are notorious ~~assholes~~ fine, hardworking people who fiercely defend their companies property. I’m sure this is both fair use as a parody as well as being a creative work in it’s own right. But while I’m masochistic enough to enjoy whipping, burning and piercing, I’m not masochistic enough to want to get involved in a copyright dispute with corporate lawyers. I may be kinky, but I’m not crazy.

Anyway, it made me smile, so I thought it worth sharing. You expect this kind of behavior from Bugs Bunny, or even Tom & Jerry, but it’s quite against type for these two.

I found it on the ‘A Velvet Underground‘ (aka Obey or Else) tumblr. The tag is hard to read but I think it is Twisted Terra. Unfortunately I can’t find an artist site under that name.

Watch out for splinters

It’s odd how often derelict and abandoned buildings show up in the more artistic BDSM shots. I really can’t imagine a worse place for a scene. Damp and decaying wood. Cold breezes. Rusty nails and broken glass. Vermin. Dangerous footing and no sturdy anchor points. It’s pretty much the definition of a bad place to get naked and tie people up. But it does look cool, which is no doubt the motivating factor.

This is my third and, for the moment, final Femdom/Femsub post. While the backdrop might be interesting but impractical, I do like the top’s outfit. It’s not exactly standard domme wear, but it is sexy and does fit the scene. This is also a nice image to spin a story around. Is she in the process of rescuing the tied up woman? Or is she about to kiss her and abandon her?

You can find out more about the image here. It was shot by Joseph W Carey. The domme is Sister Dee from Top Grl and the submissive is Luna Vary. I originally encountered it on the Beauty of Submission tumblr.

Underlying motives

I occasionally enjoy reading anti-porn and anti-sex work blogs. Although enjoy is probably not the right word. I find it cathartic to get annoyed and swear at my monitor now and again. Possibly this is related to my masochistic tendencies. It also helps me to a better understanding of the motives of the people behind them.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to worry about what happens when sex and money collide. Sex is a powerful motive force and undoubtedly bad things can and sometimes do happen when it combines with capitalism. I also don’t think it’s unreasonable to worry about how sex is represented in popular culture. However, whenever I go and read the work of these activists (like Gail Dines or Melissa Farley) it’s pretty clear they don’t care about these things. If they did they’d do proper research, provide solid data, talk to a wide range of the participants and present nuanced arguments that capture the inherent complexity of the issue. Instead they provide garbage fact sheets and arguments that dissolve like tissue paper when people such as Brooke Magnanti so much as glance at them.

What these people really want is control over others. And not the good sort of control that involves rope, blindfolds and safewords. They want to control how people live and how they think. I was reminded of this fact when I came across an article by Gail Dines on the new James Franco Kink movie. Unsurprisingly she’s not a fan, but the part that really caught my eye was…

The usual defense of Kink.com is that the women signed a contract and hence agreed to the acts. But as attorney Wendy Murphy of the New England School of Law argues, “torture doctrine is not hampered by concerns about consent because, as a matter of law and policy, one cannot consent to torture.” And anyway, what does meaningful and informed consent mean to the women subjected to these degrading and painful tortures, which are designed to break the body and the spirit?
Gail Dines in counterpunch

She’s not arguing that this material shouldn’t be filmed and distributed. She’s arguing that the very idea of consent in BDSM is meaningless. She emphasizes this opinion by repeatedly conflating the awful non-consensual tortures performed on prisoners at places like Abu Graib with what people consent to do for Kink.com. In her world not just porn would be banned, but BDSM itself would be outlawed by government mandate. The underlying motive here is not to help sex workers or target the issues the commercialization of sex creates. It’s to control how everyone behaves.

I’ll leave you with an image of the kind of activity that obviously should be illegal. That poor man can’t possibly be in his right mind to consent to such inhumane treatment. Although I guess it’s possible that he’s taking advantage of her and she therefore shouldn’t be allowed to be exploited like this. Either way, the evil pornographers taking advantage of these poor helpless people is the Captive Male site.

Tag: Bondage

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