Mainstream – Page 53 – Femdom Resource

Half drag

This isn’t really a femdom related post. Instead it features an image from a series that I found fascinating, and thought a lot of my readers would also appreciate.

The photograph below is from a sequence entitled ‘Half Drag’ by the photographer Leland Bobbé. It features pictures of drag queens and, in the words of the photographer, is designed to “capture both the male and the alter-ego female side of these subjects in one image.” None of the shots in it are composite images. They’re a single photograph taken after the subject has been very carefully made-up on just one side of their face (in this particular case that of Pusse Couture’s). Both from a craftsmanship and artistic perspective I think they’re amazing shots. You can read more background and donate to the project on the artist’s blog.

As far as I’m aware (and I’m no expert) drag queens occupy a particular unique niche of their own. There may be complex intersections with gender roles, sexual orientation, fetish, performance, etc. but it’s not the same as any of them. However, just to jump back into the kink arena for a moment, the idea of an exaggerated female persona does seem to be a popular theme with male submissives. Some see it as a form of humiliation, which is not something I’m a fan of and therefore don’t typically feature here. For others it seems to be a very positive change, an aspiration to be an object of desire or a chance to explore a hidden side of themselves. It’s a shame that these two alternatives often seem to get conflated together.

Weirdly sexy

This is undoubtedly a sexy image. Gorgeous woman. Well proportioned guy with a cute bow-tie. Nice D/s vibe from the positions. Yet oddly, I find the fact her lingerie is mismatch the sexist element of all. I have no idea why, other than the fact I’m weird.

I found this on the Work is Never Over tumblr (whose author also commented on the mismatch). It’s taken from a fashion shoot and the photographer is Antonio Andrade.

Nurse Ratched Revisited

Medical role play is pretty common in BDSM and particularly in femdom. It’s a natural fit with the dominant female authority figure and all those invasive and potentially painful medical treatments. Everything from needles and catheters through to straightjackets and dental gags have been appropriated into the kinky domain.

Most femdom medical imagery is pretty fetishistic, with lots of shapely nurses brandishing random medical equipment and staring into the camera. For example, this kind of shot. Pretty but not all that scary. For really disturbing kinky medical themed images it turns out the fashion industry is the place to look. Specifically this shoot for Interview Magazine by photographer Steven Klein featuring Karolina Kurková and Crystal Renn.

Apparently it draws heavily on the institutional white trend of Spring 2012 and features such designers as Jennifer Fein, Stella McCartney and Dolce & Gabbana. It’s certainly one of the most fetishistic and BDSM heavy fashion shoots I’ve ever seen. I’m guessing they must have hired a professional bondage rigger for the ropework shot. I think if a photographer for somewhere like Kink.com had come back with these images they’d have sent him away with the instructions to come up with something a little less fucked up next time.

The beauty of the visual

Tumblr is a wonderful resource for writing blogs like this one. I try and create a new post every day, and without the vast number of femdom tumblrs out there to draw on, I don’t think I’d be able to achieve that. Most tumblrs, particularly the sexually explicit ones, focus on a single theme. However, I always enjoy stumbling across a site that casts its net a touch wider.

Blogs in general tend to be one dimensional. This one is a good case in point. If I was writing about the multidimensional paltego there would be a lot more posts on food, wine, cocktails, books, politics, history and science. Unfortunately consuming a written blog post takes time, and so writing broadly limits your audience to those who enjoy all (or at least most) of your topics. As it is you can be a teetotal fruitarian Republican who thinks that Romulus and Remus are Star Trek characters, and still enjoy this blog if you also happen to like femdom. Although if you do perfectly match that description then you have my sympathy. Let’s never be friends.

The beauty of a tumblr is how easily it can be consumed. A viewer can spend 10 minutes or 10 seconds on an image and still have an appreciation for it. This makes it much easier to create a wide ranging blog that had broad appeal. For example, the shot below is originally from the photographer Simon Pais-Thomas, but I found it via the Avalanche tumblr. It’s obviously curated by someone who likes elegant and forceful women. He or she also has a penchant for feet. But along with the femdom related shots, there are bookshops, graveyards, pop culture, architecture and humor. It’s a visually appealing glimpse into someone’s brain.

Incidentally, if you’re interested in the background to tumblr and its design philosophy, the New York Times recently carried an interesting article on it.

When no news is good news

The extended trailer for the movie Cloud Atlas was recently released. It’s a movie I’m really looking forward to, and it marks the return of the Wachowskis, who shot to fame with the original Matrix movie. They also released a short introductory video which is notable for featuring the first official public appearance by Lana Wachowski. She was formerly known as Larry until going through gender reassignment. As this Salon articles discusses, the real big story here seems to be what a non-event this was. There was no big media kerfuffle, just a lot of general positive articles that covered the facts in a non-judgmental way. What a pleasant surprise.

As far as femdom links go, there is a connection, as Lana was (and presumably still is) reported to be a fairly kinky person. She attended BDSM clubs and had a well publicized relationship with Ilsa Strix, a highly regarded pro-domme from LA, as described in an infamous Rolling Stone article. It’s an unwritten law of human nature that people tend to believe what they read, unless they happen to know something about the subject in question. In those cases the writing is invariably found to be horribly wrong and misinformed. Oddly enough, this doesn’t cause people to stop believing everything else they read. I have zero personal knowledge of any of the people in the Rolling Stone article, but it does seem like a lot of sensationalized gossip cooked up by people only peripherally involved. The BDSM comments and discussion of pro-domme behavior are also fairly ludicrous. My favorite was this one, describing how Ilsa Strix played…

If her submissive said, ‘I don’t really think I’m interested in needles,’ she might just come up and, boom, put a couple of needles under their fingernails

Any pro-domme who thinks that a good way to introduce piercing to a submissive is needles under fingernails is going to go broke in short order. By all accounts Ilsa was a smart and excellent domme, and so it’s quotes like that which make me doubt the veracity of the article beyond the very basic facts.

I’ll leave you with a couple of shots of Trinity, from the first Matrix movie. It’s one of my favorite movies, and the appeal of watching Carrie Anne Moss kick ass in slow motion never really fades.

Lessons in control

In the last few months there have been countless mainstream articles using the 50 Shades of Grey phenomena as a jumping off point to write about BDSM. I’ve commented on some of the poorer examples in the past. Today I’m happy to bring you one of the better ones. It’s by Vanessa Pinto and describes her experiences in a class on female domination run by Midori.

It’s a 3 day course and features lectures, a field trip and a lab session with a trainer bottom to practice on.

Something very primal came over me, and as I circled him like a bird of prey, I could see that he wasn’t as complacent as he once was. When I wound up to slap him in the face and saw the reaction that I yearned to see, one of peace mixed with excitement. I knew that he was mine to do with as I pleased.

It struck me that I’d absolutely love to be one of those trainer bottoms. And that’s not because I particularly like the idea of the play itself. I’m sure that an hour or two with a strange and novice domme is not going to compare to the regular sessions I enjoy with experts who have done it for years. I also don’t kink on semi-public play or exhibitionism. What makes the role so appealing is the chance to watch someone else discover the joy of BDSM. There’s a lot of discussion on femdom blogs about how the culture of kink puts potentially dominant women off. Just for once it’d be nice to see the other side, where a talented educator can help some women explore a repressed and potentially important part of their sexuality and personality. I think it’d be immensely fulfilling to be part of that process.

The image below features Midori and Mayan and is most definitely not taken from her introduction to female domination class. I’m fairly certain suspension scenes would be in the advanced school. This is from the movie Silken Sleeves by Maria Beatty.

Sapphic sisters saddle up

I’m not sure I can strictly count this as femdom, but it was such an amusing book cover and title that I just had to feature it. In my defense, the lady on the left with the boots, riding crop and oh so tight top, is definitely looking with dominant and predatory intent towards the demure lady on the right.

I found it via this article on some of the worst book covers of all time. Obviously in this particular case when they said ‘worst’, they actually meant ‘most awesome’. It’s available from amazon, should pulp fiction featuring sisters of sapphos and glossy coated fillies be your thing.

I was also tempted to feature this book cover, which might have appealed to all the castration fantasists out there. Unfortunately, I think it’s a photoshopped version of this book, so doesn’t really count.

Do you buy that by the pound or the inch?

Here’s a rather well muscled chap being measured in all the relevant areas. The careful shopper should always assess the goods carefully before making a purchasing decision.

Personally I find this kind of objectification of the male form rather offensive. The poor guy is being treated like a piece of meat. Not to mention making me feel insecure about my own slightly less studly physique. But don’t worry, our normal service of hot babes in skin tight leather will be resuming shortly.

It’s originally from a photo-shoot entitled ‘Only the handsome will survive‘ in the Russian edition of GQ style. The photographer is Alex Bego and I found it via the Vrouwelijke Dominantie tumblr.

Site Updates

I’ve been doing a little housekeeping. However, before I get into the changes, I’ve a request for information. Otto’s spanking art blog got killed recently by those good folks over at Google. Does anyone know if he’s set up home elsewhere? I’d like to link again if he has. Also Augustine seems to have closed his account at imagefap where he posted all his work. Does anyone know of a new site for him? I really enjoy his drawings and it’d be a great shame if he’s vanished from the internet.

That said, let me get to the changes…

I’ve done some cleanup to the Femdom Fiction page. I removed a number of dead links and added new ones to the BoundStories site and to Bella’s list of femdom stories.

On the BDSM Equipment page I added links to Cupid’s Bedroom and Chastity Heaven.

There are three new blogs lurking over on the blogroll to the right and on my main Blog links page. These are:

Unspeakable Axe written by Axe, a NYC based submissive, who is also responsible for the most excellent Masocast.
Pieces of Margo written by Miss Margo, who (among other things) works as a professional switch in NYC.
Post Modern Sleaze written by Electronic Doll, a female BDSM practitioner based in London.

And on the Femdom Image page I’ve added a number of tumblr links.

Finally, let me say one thing to those people who have sent (or plan to send) me links to their tumblrs or blogs. I love to get these. I always try and look. However, if they’ve only got a handful of posts (or a handful of pages in the tumblr case) then I typically just bookmark them and come back to look in a few weeks time. So many sites gets started and, after an initial burst of activity, quickly die. So either wait for a month or two before submitting the link to me, or expect that I’ll keep an eye on it but not post the link immediately.

I’ll leave you with an image I found on the newly added Dominant Ladies tumblr. I believe it’s of Maggie Q and taken from her new show Nikita. I’ve another shot of her in a more fetish outfit and brandishing a gun here. I haven’t seen the new series yet. The original film by Luc Besson was excellent. The American remake and subsequent TV series less so. Whatever the qualities of this latest series, as a beautiful but deadly assassin, Maggie Q certainly looks the part.

Celebrity Facesitting

The shot below feature Lenny Kravitz and Adriana Lima in a shoot for Vibe magazine. I assume it’s a pretty old image, given that the two of them dated back in early 2000. You can see other photographs from the shoot here.

I’d be interested to know how the shoot unfolded and who had the idea for this image. I suspect it wasn’t Lenny. In the other images there’s clearly a “I’m a cool rock star” thing going on. Only in this one, with his face hidden, does the dynamic change. I also find it odd that this image isn’t exactly the one featured in the published photoshoot. The original image is this one, which has her hair across her face and her hands in a different position. I guess this alternative version was rejected by an editor and then leaked by someone else.

I’m glad this version made it out into the world. I like to think she’s using her left hand to pinch his nose, and really get him to focus on the job at hand.