Tag: Mainstream

Getting Medieval

I wouldn’t have expected to find femdom content in an exhibition of medieval art, but I’d have been wrong. The NY Met is running an exhibition called Spectrum of Desire: Love, Sex, and Gender in the Middle Ages which has a few pieces that seem blog worthy. One is a bronze water pitcher depicting the story of Phyllis and Aristotle (as covered here previously). Another is the bronze ‘spanky’ plate show below. Titled ‘Plate with Wife Beating Husband‘ it dates to the Netherlands circa 1480.

If you’re interested in more background the NYT has an article on it (gift link). It runs at the Met Cloister till 29th of March.

The Bad Wife

My last post was a one-off ‘fetish or fashion?’ special. Thanks to those who commented and I hope it was a fun one to guess at. The answer is: Fetish! Although I think it would be perfectly at home in a fashion magazine. The source is Natalie Noir who posted it here. Using photographs from Natalie in these kind of posts is a bit of a cheat code. Almost anything she posts is beautiful with great fashion and fetish vibes (as previously featured).

I thought it’d be good to complement the last ‘fetish but could be fashion’ image with a reverse example. This is the actress Julianna Margulies as featured in Harpers Magazine in 2011 under the title ‘The Bad Wife’. That’s obviously a play on her TV show ‘The Good Wife‘. I’m sure for a lot of readers we’d happily swap the good for the bad here.

Domme Song Dummy

Taking a break from the vacation posts to link to this Harper’s article entitled Domme Songs. It’s an essay by Michael Robbins reflecting on his masochism, experiences with a domme and how it links to the state of the world.

It’s a piece that I’ve seen posted to social media several times recently, often with positive comments from people I respect. I find that odd, because I hate it. I’m not the only blogger to feel that way. Miss Pearl has written a passionate and detailed criticism of it in a post here. She’s done a far better job there than I will do here, so go read that if you want more than my cursory thoughts.

My main beef with the piece is his attempt to link masochism with the destruction of the planet and our unfolding ecological disaster. Which is nonsensical. We’re not destroying the planet because we get a thrill from doing so. We’re doing so because we want stuff, we want it now and we don’t want to think about the consequences. A point he seems to acknowledge later, but then he does nothing with this apparently contradictory thought.

People’s kinks are complex and highly personal. Not political. Someone who has both masochistic and anxious tendencies may well use the former to address the latter. Nobodies kinks exist in a vacuum. But the theater of BDSM play has bugger all to do with the disappearance of snails in Hawaii. I’m all for thinking deeply about kink and what it means to you, but this article fails to do that. There’s no honesty, just pretension and wordplay.

No idea what the source of this picture is but it seemed appropriate. One sometimes needs a hint on when to keep quiet.

Pink and Black and Why?

After featuring some strikingly beautiful images in the last few posts, I thought we’d go in a different direction with this one. Although I guess it is still striking.

I’m always astonished by the fashion industries ability to take beautiful women, dress them in exciting fetish fashions and yet somehow produce weird unsexy images. Past examples include Monica Bellucci and Anne Hathaway. To that list we can now add Carmen Cass in this shoot for Vogue Czechoslovakia.

What is with that pink decor? And that oddly placed ugly vase? And the lights and lighting? So strange. It does make me think that if a domme ever wants to create a really scary dungeon space, she should forget the bondage furniture and black walls. It’d be a lot more disconcerting to do a scene in a room like this one – all pink, twee and 1980’s.

Inescapable

After the impressive bondage of the last post I thought I’d go in the other direction with this.

James Bond is notorious for escaping from many tight situations, but I don’t think he’ll be too taxed by this one. A good shrug would probably do it. Maybe the villainess has been looking at too much early bondage porn. That often featured a few randomly placed lengths of clothesline as a means of restraint. Of course if Karin Dor had tied me up, I probably wouldn’t be struggling too hard to get away either.

This is of course Sean Connery and Karin Dor in You Only Live Twice.

The All Knowing Algorithms

It can be spooky when the social media algorithms figure you out. Particularly if you’re trying to maintain separate worlds.

For example, I have a Reddit account, but I keep it clean. I use a totally different username and follow things related to my non-kinky interests – restaurants, cooking, programming, games, books, etc. I’m not even logged into it on machines I use for this blog and other kinky activities.

I was therefore a little surprised when my reddit feed featured an item from what looked like a martial arts shitposting forum. I’ve zero interest in either of those things. Yet this did catch my eye, as it featured a woman’s kickboxing champion throwing around a male UFC fighter. Maybe it was just a coincidence and a popular post? Then today, my feed featured another item from that same forum, with a woman repeatedly kicking a male ‘sparring partner’ in the nuts. I checked the rest of the forum and those are the only posts it selected to put on my feed. That can’t be a coincidence. I think it’s on to me.

These are images from the first item I mentioned. That’s Katarina Kavaleva (kick boxing world champion) having some fun with Merab Dvalishvili (UFC Bantamweight champion).

Dying for Sex

Getting a terminal cancer diagnosis doesn’t sound like the starting point for comedy and kinky fun. A new series called ‘Dying for Sex‘ is here to change that. It tells the story of Molly (played by Michelle Williams) who is diagnosed with terminal breast cancer and sets out to expand her sexual horizons. Those include dominating her neighbor and find other fun way to explore her domme side.

Michelle Williams pees on a man—on purpose, for kinky kicks—in Dying for Sex, and that’s merely one of the many funny ways in which her character copes with impending death.
Via a review in the Daily Beast.

It’s based on the true story of Molly Kochan, who passed away in 2019. She shared her stories with her friend Nikki Boyer, who turned them into a Podcast, which has now become the TV series. I’ve not seen it yet, but seems like it’d be worth checking out. Hopefully it manages to combine humor and drama with a positive take on kink and sex.

This image is by Celera Prime aka Cel. It’s nothing to do with the TV show, but the subject matter seemed fitting given the quote above.

Soft Core

If you’re looking for something to read this summer, then maybe check out Soft Core by Brittany Newell. It tells the story of a newbie dominatrix looking for her missing boyfriend, surrounded by a curious cast of characters in the stranger parts of San Francisco. You can read a review of it here.

I’ve not read it yet, but I mention it here as it’s written by a professional domme based in SF. This interview with her sparked my interest. Seems like someone worth watching.

Not sure where this image is from, but seems like a fun way to read a book for all concerned.

Met ’25

It was the Meta Gala bash last week. Normally the outfits there are incredible but not particularly aligned with this blogs typical content. However, the theme this year was “Tailored For You”.  That meant it leant into a lot more sleek tailoring that I think I can justify posting.

My absolute favorite was Zendaya’s Louis Vuitton outfit, shown below. There’s something special about a woman in a beautifully tailored suit. Anna Sawai had a strikingly similar Dior outfit and looked equally amazing. Kim Kardashian went for a leather corset and skirt combo that would have been at home in any kink event. She would need a retinue of slaves to carry the train around, but I’m sure she’d have had plenty of volunteers.

Oddly enough, the last time I featured the Meta Gala – back in 2018 – that also involved Zendaya. Her outfit that time was very different to this look, but equally impressive.