Clueless

Normally when a famous person is mentioned in connection with the word dominatrix it’s because they wore a vaguely fetishistic outfit (a phenomena I’ve commented on in the past). This short article on Courtney Love is a little different. Apparently she considered being a dominatrix because “it’s just learning how to tie knots” but then quit when “the first client picked me as a submissive and wanted to spank me.” I’m not sure which statement is more clueless, but it certainly indicates she was wise to stick to her music career.

Of course while tying knots is one of the least important parts of being a domme, that doesn’t mean you can’t do fun things with knots. Rigging is an art form all of it’s own, and here’s a particularly nice example from Men in Pain.

Suspended over the bed

A curious coincidence and a cute couple

My life of odd coincidences continues. I sessioned with Lydia tonight. Fun with needles was on the agenda, and I’ve now got a plethora of sore spots to prove it.  Before I left for the session I had 10 minutes to kill, and spent it browsing my blogroll, where I stumbled across this latest post from Bondage Blog. It features a still from a movie called ‘The Pet’, and something about the red headed naked lady looked vaguely familiar. Sure enough, when I looked the movie up at imdb, there was Lydia in the cast list.

From the blog post you might assume she played the eponymous ‘Pet’, but apparently that wasn’t the case. Hers was a pretty minor part, although it did involve rigging her own bondage suspension set-up in a tree for one scene. From the reviews it looks to be a pretty cheezy B movie of curio value only. I doubt I’ll be seeking it out, but I did find it very weird to randomly stumble on that post and 10 minutes later be chatting to the actress in an entirely different context.

For the purposes of this blog, I need a different kind of pet to feature. Here’s an attractive one with an equally fetching owner. They make for a lovely couple.

OwnerAndPet

I found this on The Answer Is Always More Art tumblr.

Coming out or getting caught

I’m always nervous that this blog will be discovered by a friend, relative or co-worker. There’s certainly enough information on it to make that identification possible by a regular reader who also happened to know me in daily life. It’s not that I’m ashamed out it. I’m actually very proud of what I’ve put together here. But in that curious inversion that’s unique to sex blogging, what I’m happy to share with internet strangers would definitely be TMI to share with friends.

Adult star Jesse Jackman recently wrote about his experience with the scariest version of this scenario – his mother stumbling across his blog. Fortunately it turns out to be a heart warming story of acceptance and understanding. In a world where the line ‘How would you feel if your son/daughter did it?’ is often stated as if it’s the definitive case against sex work, it’s nice to see a family showing love and understanding when dealing with the issue. Although I can’t say that it has inspired me to the extent that I’m going to email my mother a link to this blog.

Ideally I’d have a great shot of Jesse Jackman to finish this post with, but as far as I can tell he’s exclusive a gay performer, which doesn’t align with this blogs theme. Instead I’ll use a great example of image I love and I’m happy to post, yet would hate to explain to me friends and family exactly why.

Nipple TormentThis is from the CBT and Ballbusting site.

Getting that perfect pegging position

There are many helpful guides to pegging lurking around on the web. For example, there’s this one from Tickleberry and this one from Lazy Domme. However, I’ve never seen any of them suggesting that many feet of rope should be used to bind the boy and then bend him like a pretzel for the perfect angle of penetration. It probably should at least get mentioned as an option. It’s not all that practical unless you have lots of open space with handy tie points to fasten him to, but it does look awfully fun.

Perfect pegging positionThis is Clair Adams, looking very sexy with her red hair and a nicely color coordinated strap-on. I believe it’s from a Men in Pain shoot. I found it on the Beg for some pegging tumblr.

The danger of labels

In yesterday’s post I wrote how much I disliked the alpha v’s beta personality categories. Apparently I’m not the only one, as this post by Stabbity is a fine rant on submissive guys who also describe themselves as alpha males. She makes some good points, and I agree with most of it. However, contrarian that I am, I feel I should offer a defensive of submissives that use that terminology. Or if not a defense, perhaps what I think is an explanation for some cases.

One frequent complaint from dominant women is the number of men who approach them whilst proclaiming their worthlessness. Typically these are men who have spent far too long watching bad femdom porn. “Mistress,” they’ll say. “I’ll do anything you want. I exist to serve you. I’m just a doormat. Something beneath your beautiful feet that I’m not worthy to lick  – although it’d actually be really great if I could do that.”

Women in kinky spaces are understandably annoyed by this and respond that they want a strong confident submissive. Someone who can think for himself, show initiative and make a positive contribution to a relationship. I believe some submissive guys see that kind of description and think “Aha! That description looks a lot like the stereotypical alpha male. That’s an ideal label to quickly differentiate myself from those worthless worm idiots.”

I don’t disagree with Stabbity that it’s a vague term, possibly insulting and probably a sign of insecurity. As I wrote yesterday, I hate the alpha and beta labels. But I can understand the underlying dynamic that provokes some submissive men to use the term. Essentially both sides are reacting to a negative portrayal of submission. Unfortunately in trying to differentiate themselves with the word alpha, submissive men drag in a bunch of additional baggage they (possibly) don’t intend.

Smart submissiveI’ve not seen a ball gag with formal wear before, but it makes for a nice combination. Glad to see they color coordinated it as well. This image is from Men in Pain.

Quirky and kinky

I was done with posts on public play, temporarily at least. Then a commenter left me a pointer to an intriguing video that I just had to follow-up.

Regular readers may remember the story of the lady in London leading her man by a leash. It generated an unusual amount of media speculation and, as I covered in a follow-up post, turned out to be an art project. In that follow-up post I featured this image and jokingly commented that “I wonder what artistic statement they’re making?” I’d assumed it was a conventional kinky image, or possibly a provocative shot from a photographers portfolio. As it turns out, thanks to my very helpful commenter, I now know it actually was a more extended artistic work.

It’s taken from a 2 minute film entitled The woman and her Man, featuring a lady, her helpful submissive and a street preacher. It’s a quirky piece, kinky but not freaky, gently amusing and kind of cute. No Oscars will be awarded, but it’s unconventional and I liked it. The creator has a couple of different YouTube channels – ImaginePark and GirlFairytales. The movies and acting are a pretty mixed bag, but if you liked that first movie a couple of similar ones include The Women on the Bench and Famine Relief.

For an accompanying image I thought I’d step it up from my previous subtle fare. In some of the earlier comments we were debating where exactly the line on public play should be drawn. Here’s a good example of something that everyone can hopefully agree on. It’s hot, but probably isn’t acceptable outside the Folsom Street Fair.

Public bondageI’ve actually failed to trace the original source of this image. I believe that’s Mistress Madeline and that Folsom is the only place that would allow this kind of public scene. But if anyone has any better information, feel free to let me know.

PDP

I’ve written fairly often on what I term PDS – Public Displays of D/S. Generally I come down on the side of letting shared public spaces be truly shared, rather than giving the majority veto power on their use. Kinky people are tax paying members of the public after all (or as Louis C.K. might put it).

However, this New Zealand man seems to have drifted into PDP – Public Display of Perversity. He was in his home standing at a window, when…

Burley placed a balaclava over his head before committing an indecent act using a sex toy, clothes pegs and a leather whip.

“The victim and her two friends look out the kitchen window several times as they could not believe what they were seeing,” it said.

I don’t want to make light of it, as clearly this was an asshole thing to do. But that bit about having to look several times (along with her friends) did make me smile. Apparently he was excited at the idea of getting caught. Given he’s now looking at jail time, I imagine that excitement might have diminished slightly.

His choice of implements no doubt added some extra weirdness to the story for most people, but I’ve had a lot of (consensual) fun over the years with those toys. Clothe pegs as zippers can be particularly interesting, as Aiden Starr shows below. I particularly like the red marks running down his legs from where they have just been ripped away.

Aiden Starr pulling a zipperThis image is from this shoot for Divine Bitches. You can see another image of her putting the zipper in place here.

Missed opportunity

Advice columns have become far more entertaining thanks to the spread of the internet and the more open sexual culture that has gone along with it. Instead of questions on gift etiquette or workplace squabbles, we now get questions about what to do when your friend’s new girlfriend turns out to be your dominatrix.

I don’t think the basic advice given – ‘stop seeing her’ – is necessarily wrong, but the logic and framing of the response is horrible. It would seem like a good opportunity to reduce the stigma of sex work and focus on the work aspect of it. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about a lawyer, a doctor, an accountant or a pro-domme. If you’re overlapping a professional relationship with a social one then there are a few obvious questions to answer. For example: What happens if I need to end just the professional relationship? What information am I comfortable sharing with someone in both circles? Is this likely to lead to a conflict of interest? What are the odds of problems in one form of the relationship spilling over into the other?

It might be that the answers to these questions indicate that there’s not a problem to resolve. I can conceive of some relationships and social groups where mixing in pay for play wouldn’t be an issue, although this particular case doesn’t sound like one. But there’s no reason to make this specifically about sex and and sex work. It’s really about making smart decisions that minimize risk for everyone involved.

Having missed one opportunity the columnist then really screws the pooch by making the blanket statement that ‘sex workers are not notorious for their long, stable relationships.’ So rather than reduce stigma she manages to increase it with a gratuitously offensive stereotype. She might have got the basic answer right, but the rest of the column is a huge fail.

Artwork by Camille MM

The artwork is by the artist Camille MM. Given the original letter writers description of his sessions, it seems like an appropriate one.

Enjoying the sights

My solution to easy blogging while on vacation is to shamelessly steal promote other great blogs. In this case it’s the work of photographer Natasha Gornik.

This setting should be recognizable to anyone who has visited Central Park in NYC. The horse drawn carriages are the more famous means of viewing the park (and have drawn the ire of the new mayor), but this looks like one of the pedicabs. Typically they carry tourists, but in this case it’s Mistress Alex and Keith who are enjoying the sights.

I love the contrast between the formal and the fetish in the shot. You can read Natasha’s take on shooting it, along with other images from the scene, in her original post.

Mistress Alex and Keith in Central Park

Just another day at the office

This rather playful image is from Mistress Jadis. It’s not the typical pro-domme shot (despite the latex) and I like it particularly for that reason.

Mistress Jadis actually has a couple of different galleries. Her archive images are far more traditional domme shots – lots of her looking wonderful in latex and corsets. Her more recent gallery is themed in this very 40’s and 50’s style. Purely on a simple button pushing capacity, the traditional shots do more for me. I like the aesthetics of the retro-shots, but it’s not a look that features in many fantasies. However, if I was in the Sydney region and looking for a pro-domme, it’d be the retro-shots that would catch my eye. The reason being that every pro-domme has a gallery of her looking great in fetishwear. Featuring something different, something lighthearted and playful, that’s intriguing. It makes me wonder what kind of fun and interesting sessions we could do together.

Mistress JadisThe photographer for this was Bexterity. If you’re in the Sydney region and intrigued by Mistress Jadis then her list of interests is available here.