Mainstream – Page 41 – Femdom Resource

The Institute of Sexology

My British readers may be interested to know there’s a major exhibition on sex due to launch in November from the Wellcome Collection. The exhibition title – The Institute of Sexology – is an excellent one. I’d love a laminated FBI style badge with that on it. There actually was an institute of sexology in Germany from 1919 to 1933. That end date should give you a pretty good hint which particular group of assholes put an end to it.

The postcard below is part of the new exhibition. It was originally sent from Paris to the Austrian psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing. He’s famous for his studies of sexual behavior, published in his book Psychopathia Sexualis. He didn’t coin the terms sadism and masochism, but it was his book which popularized them. Unfortunately he’s hardly a poster child for kink, as he considered any form of recreational sex to be a perversion. That’s kind of amusing to look back on, given that 99% of sex these days is recreational.

Presumably he didn’t approve of the behavior shown in the postcard. It’s hard to get pregnant while riding a man like a horse and beating him with a rod. At least I hope that’s the case, as I wasn’t wearing a condom the last time I tried it.

Mixing work and pleasure

I’ve featured unusual scientific research on pain in past posts. A recent article from io9 continues this theme with details of 1933 experiment that lovers of CBT may find familiar. I’m proud to say it featured a couple of British scientists, whose names have sadly not entered history alongside other greats like Newton, Faraday and Darwin.

They were researching referred pain, a strange phenomena where damage to one part of the body manifests as pain in an entirely different part. They needed an easy way of causing pain and, being men, immediately turned to the idea of squeezing testicles. Also being good scientists, rather than the evil crazy kind, they experimented on themselves, using weights to apply controlled pressure. Presumably the Nut Crusher had yet to be invented. Their conclusion was that testicular pain also manifested in the torso, on the same side as the squeezed testicle. Perhaps my male readers can confirm or deny the truth of this finding? Or maybe try a repeat run? It’s not kinky, it’s just good old fashioned research.

Apparently the originally published paper doesn’t list who inflicted the pain on who. Personally I wonder if they persuaded an attractive medical student to do the job. You know, for science.

This couple appear to be conducting an experiment of their own. I’m not sure if it’s under controlled conditions, but she’s certainly generating a statistically significant amount of pain. I found the image on the Innocence is Bliss tumblr. I believe it’s originally from the Female Dom site.

Manipulations and modifications

I’m continuing the Photoshop theme from yesterday’s post with this image. It’s another example of a well done modification that sort of works but also clearly looks a little off.

The original image, with it’s chained goat and serious looking Evangelia Randou has a disquieting erotic aspect all of its own. Somehow that high necked dress is sexier than a lot of the crazy fetish wear I regularly see. I don’t think dropping in the hooded guy really improves the shot, but the original is so strange, it almost survives the change. I wonder if the man in the mask is also the manipulator of the image?

Going green (or possibly yellow)

Slate has an article on water recycling and desalination provocatively titled ‘Why Californians will soon be drinking their own pee‘. Water shortages are rapidly becoming a fact of life in many parts of the world, and apparently recycling waste water is far more cost efficient than building huge desalination plants along the coastline.

Of course this means that some kinksters have been ahead of the game for a long time. Not only are they recycling fluids, they’re even cutting out the middleman. It’s way ahead of driving a hybrid and keeping a composting bin. Don’t go green, go yellow.

In this case it looks like the Russians have stolen a march on the Americans. This is from the Russian Mistress site.

Venus in Fur

I’ve made passing references to David Ives play Venus in Fur in past posts, but I’ve sadly never made it to the theatre to see it. Fortunately for myself and others who have missed out, it has now been turned into a film. Directed by Roman Polanski, it stars his wife Emmanuelle Seigner, and has been getting good reviews from both mainstream and kinky sources.

This isn’t the first movie from Polanski to explore D/s and sexual power games. His 1992 movie Bitter Moon was packed with kink and twisted sexuality. Even his very early movies, such as Rosemary’s Baby and Repulsion, touched on aspects of sex, power and control. Given his history, particularly the infamous sexual abuse case, that can make for some uncomfortable viewing, both from a moral and artistic perspective. I’d certainly understand someone not wanting to give him a cut of their movie ticket price. Personally I plan to see it. His classic Chinatown is one of my favorite films and I’m looking forward to seeing what Mr and Mrs Polanski have put together here.

This shows Mathieu Amalric (male lead) on the left, Emmanuelle Seigner centre and Roman Polanski on the right.

He floats through the air, with the greatest of ease

I debated if I should post this image. It’s not really femdom in the usual sense of the word. However, I figured that 90% of my readers would enjoy it on an artistic level, and 10% would get off on the idea of a petite lady who could throw a man immense distances. Although keep in mind that 73% of all statistics are made up by bloggers trying to justify their posts.

It’s by the Chinese artist Li Wei. Amazingly, as this article describes, it’s not done purely with photoshop. There is post-processing of the images to remove ropes and harnesses, but the locations and the bodies are real. This particular image is titled ‘Love at the high place 1’. You can see two other images from the sequence here and here.

Magnificent Maleficent

The latest Disney fairytale, Maleficent, has been getting some pretty mixed reviews. Fortunately, while everyone might not like the movie, there has been consistent praise for Angelina Jolie’s take on the character of the evil Queen from Snow White. Watching great actors ham it up as bad guys is always a guilty pleasure. Think of Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber, Antony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter or Heath Ledger as the Joker. I’m sure Maleficent will not be troubling the Oscar committee, but watching Miss Jolie tear it up as an twisted sadistic fairy in a leather catsuit promises to be particularly rewarding.

The image below is older one, taken (judging by the background) at a Comic Con. She’s one celebrity who can really rock the leather look. Kinky sites always seem to feature the scene from Mr and Mrs Smith, but I always thought she looked better attending the premier to that same movie.

Giving thanks

Miss Margo’s latest post – My Night with the Sailor – isn’t femdom at all, but one part of it made me smile and put me in mind of when I play. As the post title suggests, it features a sexual encounter with a naval man, and this was the part that caught my eye…

He thanked me for the sex…well, he didn’t say “Thanks for the sex,” he just said “thank you” after he came. It always makes me feel weird when guys thank me for sex. I don’t know why.

I have two consistent reactions after kinky play or even vanilla sex. One is laughter and the other is to say thank you. Neither are directed at a specific thing. I’m not laughing at what just happened or saying thank you for hitting me with stuff (although I’m always grateful for anyone doing that). The laughter is a joyous thing. It can be a release of tension after a particularly intense scene, it can be a sense of ‘Wow, I can’t believe we pulled that crazy thing off”, but mostly it’s just an expression of happiness and well-being. Similarly, the thank you isn’t about being polite or acknowledging a debt. It’s far more general. It’s a thank you for being alive, for being into kink, for being open to a shared experience, for being there in that moment with me. Whether I’m getting sweaty in the sheets or being beaten and tormented, the end result makes me very happy, and laughter and thanks are my natural way to acknowledge that.

I found this image on the Girls Rule, Subs Drool tumblr. I picked for the combination of sex and what looks like happy laughter. It seemed appropriate to the topic but also vaguely familiar. It wasn’t till I came to post it that I figured out where it was from. Before looking at the attribution below it, can you name the actors and the movie?

This is actually Ewan McGregor & Kelly Macdonald from the movie Trainspotting. In the context of a femdom tumblr, with comments on tickling, I interpreted it quite differently to how it looked when I came to view it in isolation.

Mind the gap

After yesterday’s flat and lifeless celebrity shots, I thought I’d put up an example of a mainstream photographer getting it right. This is by the fashion and beauty photographer Serge Krouglikoff, and shows a much better understanding of a kinky dynamic.

There’s no elaborate leather or latex gear. Their white tops and dark bottoms are perhaps a little cliched, but it’s a classic look for a reason. There’s no whips, chains or dungeon paraphernalia. Their respective hand positions convey the power dynamic, but it’s that tantalizing tiny gap between them that I really like. It’s an invasion of personal space, threatening yet also intimate. Close enough to catch the scent of the other. Close enough to breath a kiss or deliver a slap. Teasing and yet also withholding. It gives me a frisson down my spine, and makes me think of those occasional moments of perfect balance that occur in a scene.

Fetish fail

I could start a blog based purely on showing terrible representations of kink and fetish in celebrity culture. The commonest scenario is describing any celebrity dress with a hint of straps, leather or latex as a dominatrix outfit (for example this recent article). That’s just journalists being lazy and cliched, but now and again you get cases where the celebrities and artists have been the ones to make a hash of things. The recent photoshoot for V magazine, featuring Katy Perry and Madonna, is a great example of this.

They’re obviously going for a retro-fetish look, probably inspired by Bettie Page, but they don’t have a fraction of the presence she brought to her shots. Somebody should explain to them that fetish and kink are all about powerful desires and sexual attraction. And, as with all powerful feelings, they can risk invoking aspects of darkness, danger, yearning and compulsion. There’s none of that in these shots. Just two women wearing silly outfits and exhibiting no chemistry together. Although is narcissism a fetish? If it is, then they could at least have one fetishistic element covered.