Tag: Mainstream

Choking

The NY Times has an opinion piece (free link) on the widespread trend of choking in otherwise non-kinky sexual relationships. As you might expect, it’s not a healthy trend, with both short and long term risks. It highlights that a lot of experienced BDSM players think choking is too dangerous, so it’s weird to find it spreading among the vanilla folk.

One part that initially caught my eye was this:

Sexual strangulation, nearly always of women in heterosexual pornography, has long been a staple on free sites…

My initial reaction was annoyance at the usual femdom erasure. We F/m types can do stupid dangerous stuff as well! But on second thoughts, it actually isn’t common in Femdom material at all. You see breathplay pretty often, often smothering with bums on faces, but rarely dommes putting hands around necks. Yay for sensible kinky folk!

I’m not entirely sure where this is from, but I’d guess it’s a mainstream fashion shoot rather than kinky porn.

Anne Hathaway

Ms. Hathaway was the cover story for a recent edition of Vanity Fair. There was even a kinky slant, with some very fetishistic outfits. While I’m a fan of her work and have featured her in past posts, but I’m not entirely sure about this photoshoot. I know I risk Servitor never speaking to me again,  but it does seem to waste her talents with odd shots like this one. How do you combine someone as iconic as Anne Hathaway with latex fashion and not produce an amazing photoshoot?

In better news, she’s also the face of new Versace Icons campaign. I think this shot and the other’s from that campaign are a lot more complementary and capture the fashion fetish aesthetic better.

Potent Female

One final post on the theme of British museums and collections. This time it’s from the Tate Modern that’s running an exhibition entitled Women in Revolt! It covers Art and Activism from 1970 to 1990 and based on the reviews, seems well worth a visit.

Unfortunately, the part most relevant for this blog has already been and gone. Earlier this month they ran a panel titled ‘Let’s talk about the Erotic Self‘, covering topics like ‘power dynamics, authorship, and the commodification of pleasure.’

The image was the cover image for the panel. It’s by Jill Westwood and titled ‘Potent Female.’ According to this Guardian article it was based on the famous painting by Whistler of his mother.

Westwood had first started making wearable latex sculptures as an art student and later explored the transgressive power of “dom” personas and London’s rubber fetish scene. This photo mimics the pose of James McNeill Whistler’s painting Whistler’s Mother, and was staged at home, which was “a shared short-life housing co-op with other artists”, she explains.

Home of Heroes

If you live in Massachusetts and have a thing for female superheroes then I’ve got just the house for you. As featured in this Zillow Gone Wild thread, it features over 3,000 square foot of space, 4 beds, 4 baths and a quite astonishing number of life size superhero figures. There’s a couple of Catwoman, a Batwoman, a Wonder Woman, a Super Woman, a striking (if not exactly heroic) Maleficent and many more.

Oddly the rest of the house seems strangely conventional, without any pop culture or comic themes. Either the owner had a very specific kink or it’s a successful attempt to get some viral clicks for the original  listing. Personally I hope it’s the former, as it’s the kind of single minded kinky strangeness that I really appreciate.

Here’s a sample shot from the listing, with Wonder Woman and Catwoman standing guard over the hallway sideboard.

Courtly Love

I’m continuing the medieval theme with a post on the topic of Courtly Love. This doesn’t refer to the lead singer of Hole, but the literary concept that became big in the 12th century, particularly in the castles and courts of France. It referred to love that was passionate, secret and adulterous. The relevance for this blog is that it often put the woman in a position of power over her admirer. As Britannica puts it…

The courtly lover existed to serve his lady. His love was invariably adulterous, marriage at that time being usually the result of business interest or the seal of a power alliance. Ultimately, the lover saw himself as serving the all-powerful god of love and worshipping his lady-saint. Faithlessness was the mortal sin.

It’s perhaps unsurprising that some of the most important literary patrons of the time were wealthy women like Marie of France. With marriages treated as business arrangements and a woman’s primary role seen as the production of healthy male heir, the idea of a worshipful and faithful lover must have been an enticing one. Tease, denial, worship and cuckolding all rolled into one.

The most famous example of courtly love is Sir Lancelot and Guinevere, the wife of King Arthur. The original Arthur, if there is ever was one, was a 5th century British warrior and chief. In the 12th century the French poet Chrétien de Troyes came his stories a refresh and added the brave Sir Lancelot and his forbidden love for his master’s wife.

This is the great Helen Mirren in a publicity shot from the film Excalibur. It’s a highly entertaining version of the legend of Arthur, with Dame Helen in the role of Morgana. Absolutely zero historical accuracy but well worth watching.

Attacking for the 3rd Time

I don’t have a giantess kink, but I figure I might have a few readers with a love for enormous ladies. If so, they’re in luck, as there’s a remake of the sci-fi classic ‘Attack of the 50 Woman’ on the way. This’ll actually be the third version, after the 1958 original and 1993 remake. The new one will be directed by Tim Burton. I’ve not loved a lot of his recent movies, but I thought his Wednesday series was fun, so hopefully this’ll continue that trend.

Shock the Cock

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between hardcore kinky shenanigans and new age health treatments. Cross over examples in the past have been vaginal steaming, coffee enemas and drinking pee.  The latest crazy therapy is shockwave treatment for the penis. According to this Guardian article, tech CEO Bryan Johnson ‘invented’ the approach.

“You have a wand and you sit in a chair and then the technician uses the wand and basically shocks your penis,” Johnson explained. He went on to say that the treatment does the same thing exercise does to the rest of the body, where you are creating micro-injuries so that the tissue rebuilds itself stronger than before. He rated the pain of the shocks as seven out of 10, and nine out of 10 at the tip.

I hadn’t realized that all my years of CBT play were actually strengthening my penis. Given the number of shocks I’ve received from leather clad ‘technicians’ by now I should have the ability to crack concrete with a well placed thrust. Admittedly, my shocks were mostly of the electrical kind, where I think Bryan’s technicians are using sound to generate shockwaves, but a micro-injury is a micro-injury however it’s created. Who knew all those kinky sessions were creating the penile equivalent of an Olympic athlete in my pants?

Given the crazy state of US healthcare, I’m guessing the cost of this ‘treatment’ is astronomical. Bryan should try looking up some of his local pro-dommes. I’m sure they’d be happy to inflict any kind of injury based strengthening routine he’d like to try. He could probably get his nipples and butt strengthened as well for no extra change.

This is the NYC based Mistress Sade treating one of her patients. No doubt he’ll emerge fitter and healthier at the end of it. This was sourced via this tweet on Mistress Sade’s Twitter feed.

Yushi Li

I’ve featured the work of Chinese photographer Yushi Li in a prior post. However, it’s so good I feel it deserves revisiting.

The images below are from a series she called ‘Your Reservation is Confirmed‘. They’re funny but also play with the power dynamic in unusual ways. In a porn context these would be CFNM images, but as shot here they have quite a different feel. Typical CFNM shots are still focused on the male gaze, a play acted humiliation for the benefit of the viewer. These flip that around, with Li’s composed presence  and direct stare challenging the viewer.

You can read more about her work in articles here and here. You can find more of her images on her primary web site.