Replacing Max

One of the oldest discussion forums for femdom, and particularly professional femdom, has been The Hang at Max Fisch. Sadly, these days it seems somewhat neglected and forlorn. Whoever owns it has pretty much left it to rot, and while it still kind of works on a good day, the load times are long, the moderation AWOL and the support pretty much non-existent.

Anyone looking for a working alternative that doesn’t actually look all that different might want to check out The Buzz at domina.ms. They’re using what looks like exactly the same forum software with many of the same forums, but running on decent hardware and with proper moderation and support. It’s not as busy as Max used to be, but as The Hang continues to decline, I’d expect and hope it’d pick up more participants. I just created my account there.

If anyone has any other suggestions for active and well managed femdom forums, then feel free to leave me a comment and I’ll take a look and potentially link to them. Running this site takes up most of my kinky writing energy, so I don’t tend to do a lot of forum participation, but I do enjoy browsing them and linking to interesting posts I find.

One of the more frequent domme posters on The Buzz is Mistress Ayn (594 posts according to her profile). She’s shown here in a beautiful recent portrait by the inimitable Sardax. If you’d like to see her in person, she’s based in Atlanta.

Tingling in all the Right Places

Physical mementos of sessions are nothing unusual. Over the years I’ve had all kinds of marks, bruises and tender parts to admire after our play has finished.  Tonight is a little different, as I have a light but persistent tingling sensation in my nipples and genitals. It’s almost like a very gentle electric current is being applied.

This tingling comes courtesy of Ms Savannah Sly and the carefully cultivated stinging nettles from her garden. The odd thing is that in our session together the sensation only seemed to last a few minutes from the initial application of the nettle leaf. It was fairly intense, particularly when applied to the glans, but relatively brief. Only at the end, when cleaning up and getting dressed, did awareness of the tingle return. I guess the brain can only focus on so much at once, and all the pinching, biting and medical stapling that Savannah was doing quickly overtook the tingling.

Allegedly yogurt or apple cider vinegar are helpful in relieving the effect. I was tempted to experiment and post the results, but in the end I was just enjoying the tingle too much. It was a nice reminder of a very fun session.

Fortunately for me, just a small number of nettle leaves were involved in my scene. It wasn’t the enormous bundle on display here. That looks like it’d cause a bit more than a tingle.

I believe the original site this image is from has ceased to exist.

At Ease in the Garden

Here’s a final entry in my trio of posts that fall under the category of  “Not for me, but wow, is that’s a lovely image’.

I love her composed elegance, and the color coordination of their outfits. Black, white and red used perfectly throughout. They even found a white bench and red riding crop. Plus, it’s nice to see a domme in a stylish hat that doesn’t look like a cast off from a military surplus store.  Personally, I don’t like playing outside or doing public scenes, but this shot really works.

I believe this from a modern Femdom magazine called ‘Goddess Love’. Apparently such things still exist in Japan, and even feature artwork from Sardax. I’m not sure if you can get it the US or Europe, but any Japanese readers might want to take a look. It makes me sad we don’t have similar magazines in the US/UK anymore.

Cute Pony and Owner

I’m not personally a fan of participating in pony play. Being a pony often appears to involve hard physical work, and no part of that is sexy to me. I’d rather play the part of the lazy stable lad who gets whipped by the lady of the manor for not cleaning her boots properly. But I digress. I mention ponies because I stumbled across this image by The Smutty Rogue. It’s cute as hell, and has a fun playful energy to it. I believe its modeled on DrPonyBatBond and Mistress Michelle Lacy. It’s not going to convince me to pull on a pony hood, but femdom art like this is always appreciated.

You can see more images in this series via this tweet. The artist will also accept commissions.

Warning Signs

I thought I’d continue my previous post on the incompetent domme and the site she shoots for with a few follow-up thoughts.

Firstly, always be alert for warning signs in any kinky interaction – whether it’s playing in person or simply buying someone’s BDSM porn. I remember seeing the site in question advertise for film slaves with the condition that they’d only waive the usual session fee if the slave didn’t use their safeword. That’s obviously a horrible incentive structure. The submissive is liable to push beyond safe limits to avoid paying and the domme is encouraged to push hard in order to save the company money. I should have called them out when I saw that, but somehow it slid past me at the time.

Secondly, be smart about where you consume porn from. If you like a lot of low risk activities, then it probably doesn’t matter who the domme is. Femdom Empire features a lot of crossover models from the regular porn world,  but they tend to stick to activities like pegging, foot worship, facesitting, tease/denial. etc. I’ve never seen them do extreme scenes that create non-trivial risk. On the other hand, if you’re more into things like impact play, heavy bondage, CBT and medical play, then pick sites that feature a lot of well known pro-dommes. For example, The English Mansion site definitely features edgier activities, but it’s also run by a well known domme and features a lot of top professionals.

Finally, if you’re a submissive, don’t think you can delegate all safety concerns to the domme. Playing safely is a joint responsibility. If you’re concerned about raising issues mid-scene – which I’ll admit can be difficult – then build into more intense play slowly over time. That makes it much easier to adjust course or raise concerns between sessions when you’re in a clearer headspace. I’d rather look forward to playing again and pushing just a little further than leave a scene with an injury or a messed up mental state.

Talking of the English Mansion, heavier activities and professionals who know what they’re doing, here’s Domina Liza in a shoot for them. She’s certainly someone who knows how to correctly wield a single tail.

It’s all in the Mind

The NYT has a short but informative article  on the complex relationship between brain and body when it comes to pain. It’s tempting to think of the body as the source of all physical pain and the brain simply reporting on the signals it receives but, as the article explains, it’s a lot more complicated than that. As every masochist already knows, and doctors are learning, pain is contextual, and the reprocessing that happens in the brain can make a big difference to the perception of the sensation.

I also found it interesting that the article draws a connection with itching. Ever since I got involved in kink, I’ve been fascinated by how that phenomena can be modified by my situation. In normal circumstances I find it almost impossible to not scratch a bad itch. The more I resist doing so, the greater the intensity and the compulsion to resolve it. I can’t think of anything else. Yet once in bondage, itches fade away. It’s almost like my brain has a switch it can flip – if I physically can’t fix the itch then no point bugging me about it. I’ve never had to stop play to get an itch scratched. But when the ropes or straps come off, any irritation immediately returns.

This lady is about to administer a two for one deal – pain and itching combined, thanks to a big bundle of stinging nettles. This is obviously originally from Femme Fatale Films.

Memorial Parade

The New Orleans Dominatrix Convention is coming up in October. Specifically it runs from the 4th to the 8th. I’m sadly not going to be there, but if you can attend, you might want to look out for a Second Line Parade that’s being organized. It has been put together by Simone Justice to remember and celebrate the lives of people the BDSM community has lost in recent years. As their press release says…

More than 100 dominatrixes will strut The French Quarter dressed in full fetish regalia comprised of leather, latex and thigh high boots while dancing to a brass jazz band, waving parasols and handkerchiefs.

The second line parade is a uniquely New Orleans tradition, held for many kinds of occasions, and anyone on the street is welcome to join in the revelry.

You can read more about this New Orleans tradition here. It sounds like this one should be quite the event. If you know of anyone you think should be specifically called out for this memorial, then Simone Justice has been collecting suggestions.

I’ve no idea what fetish outfit Simone Justice plans to wear for the parade, but based on this image, I’m sure any attendees will be in for a visual treat. If you’re interested in seeing her in her professional capacity, her main site is here.

Strange things are afoot at K Shoes

A recent post by Mistress Sidonia featuring a list of ads featuring dommes, led me to this 1989 advertisement for K Shoes and their high heels.  I love this for multiple reasons. Partly it’s the classic 80’s style, with the shoulder pads and the black and chrome office. Partly it’s the great ball cutting shot and sound effect, which I’m amazed they got away with. Mostly it’s because I remember K shoes (and Clarks, who took them over) from my childhood. It feels like I spent a countless number of hot summer afternoons with my mother, trying on their shoes, looking to get the cheapest possible option that’d fit me. I hadn’t thought of them for years, so it was very strange to see this ad in this context and have all those old memories resurface.  Life likes to spring these odd surprises on your now and again.

Of course, I couldn’t let a post like this pass and not take the opportunity to feature a shoe themed image. This gentleman seems to have invested in some sturdy footwear, but forgotten the rest of his outfit.

1930’s Domme

This is a companion shot to a well known image that has been floating around on the web for years. I featured the more common shot in a post way back in 2011. I always liked that image, so was very pleasantly surprised to discover this other, less well known one, of the same domme by photographer Charles Guyette.

I think they’re both wonderfully erotic shots, and that’s from someone who has spent a couple of decades experiencing all the kinky imagery an uncensored internet has to offer. I can’t even begin to imagine the effect they’d have had on a submissive male 80 or more years ago. I’m guessing that for anyone lucky enough to have a hard copy of this back in the day, it was a well hidden and highly treasured possession.

I discovered via the mrunderheel’s twitter.

Stylish in White

This isn’t really femdom, but I’ll give myself a pass on that just this once. I love the duality of this image. On one hand the models pose and the image composition is a very conventional fashion one. Much more D&G than S&M. The lapel, collar and zip elements also suggest a more conventional fashionable outfit. On the other hand, it’s this incredibly fetishistic, monochromatic latex suit, with extreme boots and a skin tight hood. Those contrasts really make the image work for me.

This is from Reflective Desire. You can see some more shots of the same outfit on their twitter feed.