CBT – Page 12 – Femdom Resource

For Science!

The io9 site recently published an article discussing four fascinating papers on the subject of measuring pain. The studies in question were all done back in the 1940’s with the goal of coming up with a reliable and reproducible method for quantifying levels of pain. The scanned versions of papers can be read online: Paper 1 (1940), Paper 2 (1947), Paper 3 (1947) and Paper 4 (1948). They’re fairly readable and easy to understand, assuming you having a grounding in basic maths and science.

Pain in itself is a curious topic, as it’s such a uniquely subjective experience. We normally build understanding by shared references. Yet, if I tell someone my back hurts, how do we establish a common reference point? With external stimulus, like color or sound, we can measure the spectrum or the loudness irrespective of a person. Something like taste or smell is a little more complex, but there’s at least an external object (the food itself) to breakdown and analyze. It’s also possible in those cases to construct a common language from more primitive elements (sweet, bitter, salt, etc.) Just look at wine tasting notes for an example of that approach in action. But with pain? How do you measure something that’s completely internal, and can manifest at any point in the body, to a huge range of stimulus, or sometimes to no apparent stimulus at all?

The scientists behind these papers tackled the problem by proposing a scale for measuring pain, with a unit called the dol. They created it using controlled doses of heat on volunteers, and measuring when they could detect a difference between the heat intensity levels. They discovered that on average people could distinguish 21 levels of different intensity between nothing and maximum pain. This maximum wasn’t some safety limit set by the scientists. It turns out that there’s an upper limit on pain, a maximum beyond which increased intensity isn’t detected as greater pain. Working with this 0 to 21 detectable level changes, they assigned 1 dol =equals 2 levels, and created a 0 to 10.5 pain scale.

There’s all sorts of interesting bits of data in the papers. For example, mood and fatigue made no difference to the perception of pain, but gripping an iron bar tightly or hearing a very loud sound did. That fits the common intuition that being distracted from pain lessens it. They also showed that pain did not sum over an area. In other words, the intensity of the pain was purely related to the intensity of the heat energy applied, not the size of the area it was applied to. Initially that seems a little count-intuitive, but it does fit to the idea that being distracted can help reduce pain. One thing that can distract you is a different pain. That wouldn’t be true if pain was additive.

The most interesting finding is one that I think the io9 article misunderstands, or at least misrepresents. It says…

The study’s authors concluded that 8 dols of pain equaled four successive two dol experiences. This arithmetic aspect of the dol contrasted existing beliefs of the subjective nature of pain.

That seems to suggest some sort of progression in time, where you can reach very high pain levels by repeatedly applying a low pain stimulus. That’s not what the study found. What they discovered was that the scale is linear. So the increase in intensity between 1 and 2 dols, is perceived as the same increase in intensity when moving from 8 to 9 dols. I think most people would think of a pain scale like the Richter scale for measuring earthquakes. That’s a log scale, and so going from a magnitude 4 to 5 earthquake is basically nothing, where going from a magnitude 7 to 8 is huge. Similarly, you might expect that a 1 to 2 change in pain isn’t much, where going from 8 to 9 is very scary, but it’s actually perceived as the same change in intensity. This also means that the standard 0 to 10 scale doctors often use, where 0 is no pain and 10 is worst pain you can imagine, actually makes sense. There is an upper bound to pain and the scale between zero and that maximum value is a simple linear one.

The io9 article has a sense of ‘Wow, look what these crazy scientists used to be able to get away with.’ To me it didn’t seem that bad. As a masochist I may have a distorted view on this, but it’s only temporary pain. I suspect if they’d hired an attractive female doctor with an authoritative attitude to perform the tests, as in this artwork by Waldo, then they’d have been inundated with volunteers. Although that might have thrown their experimental results off. They claimed mood didn’t make a difference, but I doubt they also considered or induced sexual arousal.

The association game

I often think my posts here are a little like a visual game of word association. The original game is where you say a series of words, letting your subconscious guide the connections, and try to not always end up saying ‘penis’. Although it is possible that this final rule is only a personal (and necessary) addition to the game.

In this blog’s case the image in one post often leads me to another, although the connection might not be at all obvious to my readers. For this image the connection is the expression of the woman on the left, Mistress Sade. The woman on the right, Goddess Brianna, has the look of someone dragged reluctantly into a group photograph at a family gathering (if you’ll excuse the horribly clashing imagery). It’s the “OK. I’m smiling. Hurry up an take the photo. I have stuff to do” look. On the other hand,Mistress Sade looks very relaxed and comfortable to be in the shot. She reminds of the maid from yesterday’s post. There’s a nice blend of amusement and sadistic satisfaction in her expression.

I originally found a version of this image (minus the watermark) on the Rue Montorgueil tumblr. Google’s reverse image search took me to this gallery, which has the original image and the information that it came from the Club Dom site.

Inappropriate reactions

I was told tonight that my penis was having ‘an inappropriate reaction to pain.’ That’s not a statement you hear every day of the week, no matter how kinky you are. It was a tongue in cheek comment from Lydia after a lot of tiny but sharp wooden clips affixed to the said appendage had increased my arousal. It was a vicious circle. Quite literally vicious in this case. The more they hurt, the more aroused I got, and the more aroused I got, the more the skin was stretched and the more it hurt. Masochism can be very strange.

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your tolerance for scrawny naked English masochists) we didn’t get any photographs. So I was forced to hunt through my image collection and the tumblverse for something appropriate. You’d think that a combination of aroused male and pain inflicting dominant female would be an easy shot to find. After all, that sounds like a pretty fundamental part of femdom porn. It turns out to be far rarer than I’d expected. Lots of aroused guys in gay BDSM porn or solo male shots. A few aroused guys in more soft focus, blindfolds and fuzzy handcuffs type BDSM. Lots of pain and torture shots with a bunch of floppy dicks. But very little combining the two. I realize that as problems go this isn’t one likely to keep people awake at night, but it certainly surprised and temporarily stymied me.

In the end I decided to go with some art from Vernice61. You can always rely on him for a combination of dominant women, aroused males and painful torments. Of course that’s the beauty of artwork. It can always be exactly what the artist wants it to be.

A cock torture palooza

After yesterday’s slightly off-topic post, I thought we should return to some serious femdom action. And who better to do that with than the talented Mistress Sidonia von Bork from The English Mansion?

Here’s a collection of fun looking CBT shots, along with one of Mistress Sidonia herself (click the images to enlarge them). You might think there’s a whole lot of cock in the shot on the left, but it actually only accounts for 18% of the total in the original blog post. The source photograph is an impressive 5×10 snapshots of heavy CBT torture. Definitely worth checking out if you’re looking for new ways to do horrible things to delicate and sensitive appendages.

Incidentally, does anyone know the name of that wire mesh column device in the shot on the right? I’ve never played with one, but it looks like it might be interesting to try.

Fun and hijinks in San Francisco

Today’s post marks the return of one of the less heralded stars of the femdom porn scene. Someone who, despite a fine portfolio of work, has yet to attract the big money bookings. Or any kind of bookings. Yes, it’s that prime specimen of rippling submissive man flesh (stop giggling at the back), your host paltego.

These shots were all taken on my recent trip to San Francisco to see Mistress Yuki and Mistress Ai-Li. I mentioned it in a post written while I was there, and you can read my description of a prior visit in this post.

The two shots on the left were taken in my first session with just Mistress Yuki. You can see her reflection in the mirror in the top shot (click to enlarge should you so desire). I always enjoy these custom built bondage chairs, as they’re not particularly uncomfortable to sit in for long periods, but they do make me incredibly vulnerable. Everything is exposed and available for torment. They might not look like much but those plastic clips adorning my chest and genitals were vicious little buggers. Particularly painful when Mistress Yuki chose to grind her knee into them as the bottom left shot shows.

The top right shot was from the double domme session. That’s Mistress Yuki with the camera and Mistress Ai-Li tormenting me in the cage. There was one moment when they were enthusiastically encouraging me to step backwards out the cage, with the only minor drawback being the cords pulling my cock and balls out the front. You can see this from another angle in this image. For a moment or two I was tempted to try the stick plaster approach, and just give it a really good yank to break free. In hindsight I was glad I didn’t, as I might have pulled off a little more than I intended.

The bottom right shot shows me dangling in a harness attached to a powered winch. Like the chair it creates a very exposed position, with both sides of the body as viable targets. It’s particularly ‘interesting’ with two dommes, as they can work you over from front and back simultaneously. Not being able to anticipate where the next blow is coming from creates a very intense and disorientating experience.

We finished off both sessions with some piercing. This shot shows a line of needles created to run down my chest. In the second session the mistresses worked together to create two parallel lines of needles. I always find piercing can be a pleasantly objectifying process, particularly when the decorative aspects of it are emphasized. Having two people talking and working together in a coordinated fashion on my body really helped emphasize that objectifying aspect.

Shifting focus

I found this image interesting for how it plays with the focus of interest for the three participants – him, her and me.

She’s holding the weighted handcuff, the key part of the image that creates the tension of the moment, but not looking at it. Instead she’s looking up at him, biding her time, watching for his reaction when she lets go. He’s staring out at the viewer, but I think his gaze is really turned inwards. He’s concentrating on his own physical sensations, that internal submissive focus that often builds as pain becomes imminent. I’m looking back at him, but my gaze is actually drawn down to her hand and those dangling weights. My enjoyment of the image is anticipating what she’s about to do and how she’ll take pleasure in that moment.

So I’m looking at her, she’s looking at him and he’s looking inwards. It’s an interesting shift of focus, while still keeping a sense of connection in the image.

The dominant is Nyomi Banxxx, the submissive Lance Hart and the shot is obviously one from the Divine Bitches site.

Relaxing on a bed

In yesterday’s post I talked a little about how much I enjoy playing on a bed. I like being able to relax into a scene, not having to worry about cramping from strange positions or numbness from extreme bondage. Being bound spread-eagled and have the domme lie alongside me – twisting, tweaking and pinching as she wants – is a great way to play. It creates a sense of intimacy, which I find particularly attractive when mixed with heavy sadism.

Thinking about this type of play sent me scurrying into my picture archives for illustrative shots. Here’s one I particularly like, even though I’m not sure it really shows the kind of intimate and sensual domination I originally had in mind. Maybe it’s the nipple clamps, maybe it’s the tight cock bondage, or maybe it’s the flogger being applied to his balls, but something tells me he’s not all that relaxed, despite the bed. On the other hand it does definitely check the heavy sadism box, so it’s at least partially what I was looking for.

I found this on The Heart’s Dark Desire tumblr (aka women with whips).

Prickly

Here’s an interesting implement of torture. Looks like a wartenberg wheel on steroids. I’d guess it’s some sort of kitchen or craft utensil that has been cunningly repurposed. I like the use of the humbler to keep him in place, along with her hand resting gently on his back.

I found this on the Willie2Serve tumblr site. It’s originally from the Russian Mistress site.

Kink, sex and money

There’s a post title with three simple and uncontroversial topics in it. I should have no problem dusting them all off in the space of this one blog entry.

More seriously, I’ve been idly musing over the intersection of these three areas for sometime, but this particular post was prompted by this blog entry by January Seraph. You can go read it for yourself, but the short version is that having been invited to participate in a pro-domme calendar project she was then uninvited for combing sexual acts with BDSM in the videos she’d shot. In the words of the unidentified calendar creator:

On a professional level this concerns me greatly. I require that all of the Pro Dommes in my production are not filming any sexual acts to protect my name, and themselves as well.

I found that extraordinary, particularly given that January had also offered to donate a full day of her studio’s time to shoot for the calendar, and it got me thinking more about sex and kink in the professional domain. I should add that what follows are my general thoughts, entirely unrelated to how January conducts herself in the different facets of her professional life. Her original post was just an interesting catalyst.

Anyone who has browsed pro-domme websites or scheduled a session will know that sexual activity between the domme and the client is very much verboten. Almost universally they’ll state that even suggesting it will get you hung-up on or booted out of the dungeon. Of course, there does tend to be some variance on where the line actually gets drawn. Some pro-dommes will do penetration with a strap-on, some will not. Some will limit body worship to below the knees, where others will do face sitting provided they remain fully clothed. But in general nothing happens that would typically be classified as ‘sex’.

I’ve also noticed a tendency for pro-dommes to ‘circle the wagons’ when it comes to defining what should and should not be allowed. I think this comes from an understandable desire to try and have a reasonably consistent boundary line across all pro-dommes, and not have clients confused about what they can expect. For example, masturbating a submissive (aka a handjob) is a fairly controversial area. That can clearly be a sexual service outside of a D/s interaction, and that can also be a very integral part of intense D/s play. Yet I’ve had lengthy on-line arguments with a few pro-dommes who tied themselves in logical knots trying to prove that it was impossible for a handjob to be a dominant act. It seemed that they felt a need to extend the entirely unarguable “I don’t do this” into the unreasonable “…and no other domme should.” I suspect that’s partly where the calendar project owner was coming from. She wants a consistent view of what a pro-domme does, and more specifically she wants it to be her view. Anyone outside of that is not just making a personal decision about boundaries, but in her mind is also bring her chosen profession into disrepute.

I think a lot of the lines drawn around professional domination have arisen from the current laws around sex work. For the most part it’s possible to operate as a pro-domme entirely legally. Some activities are legally risky (anal penetration, force-bi), but with care a pro-domme can be successful without breaking a single US law. I think this legal boundary line has helped create a more universal definition of what a pro-domme actually does. That’s not to say that if all the laws were repealed tomorrow that all pro-dommes would then suddenly expand their range of activities to cover more sexual acts. But I do think the laws have helped shape the well defined form the industry currently takes.

In this context, it’s interesting to observe the evolution in BDSM pornography in recent years. Ten or more years ago it was very much segregated from traditional pornography. Movies either showed penetrative sex or they showed traditional BDSM activities (bondage, fetish gear, mild pain, etc.), but never both together. There was a general assumption that to combine these two things together would land the producer in court under an obscenity charge (mostly thanks to assholes like this guy). The Cambria list provides a pretty good representation of what was then thought to be unacceptable. But a combination of the internet, a big reduction in prosecutions and producers willing to push the envelope changed the perception of the legal risks. Now there are sites like Sex and Submission dedicated to showing explicit sex combined with heavy BDSM. I actually know of pro-dommes who will not shoot for kink.com anymore, as sexual acts have rapidly become an expected part of a scene. So while individuals have kept their own personal boundaries intact, from an industry perspective the legal change (or perceived one) has acted to dissolve the strict BDSM/non-BDSM pornography divide. Now the material distributes itself across the entire possible continuum of activities.

At this point I’ll stop writing further. Clearly my original goal of nailing all the issues around kink, sex and money in a single post was a little ambitious. It turns out I’m going to need two posts for that, so check-back tomorrow for my continued thoughts on where escorts and kink fit in. Until then it seems appropriate to finish with a shot of Mistress Seraph, given that she was the original prompt for my post. Here she is doing a little CBT for the Divine Bitches site.

The joy of cooking

Here’s a continuation of yesterday’s cookery theme, although with a slightly different slant. I believe that’s Mistress January Seraph carelessly misplacing her cookbook on top of her slaves meat and two veg. He better start hoping the recipe she has in mind doesn’t call for a cleaver or a tenderizer.

I really like their expressions, particularly in the first shot. He’s got a pleading look of “Please don’t drop it. (But I know you’re going to).” While she’s a little more quizzical, with a “Really? Don’t? (But you know I”m going to)” expression.

I believe it’s originally from a sequence on the CBT and Ballbusting site.

Updated: It is definitely Mistress January Seraph and taken from the above site. I just find another great shot from the same scene on January Seraph’s tumblr.