Deep breath in

I like the contrast between these two shots. The first is sweet and good-natured. There’s some light bondage, a gentle kiss on the cheek and a sweet smile. The second is dynamic, explosive. Her controlling hand on the back of his head contrasting with his shocked expression as he sucks in fresh air. Breathplay and bondage. It’s a winning combination.

Xana Star and Danny Wylde in hot-tub breathplay scene
Xana Star and Danny Wylde in hot-tub breathplay sceneI found this on the Work Is Never Over tumblr. If you’re a fan of shots of submissive guys, it’s definitely a tumblr worth browsing. Originally these images are from a Men in Pain shoot feauring Xana Star, Mika Tan and Danny Wylde.

Squaring the circle

I was sorry to see that Ms K has decided to retire from professional domination. I’ve never met her – it has been many years since I returned to the UK – but from her blog posts it was clear she was a thoughtful and conscientious pro-domme, and it’s always a shame to lose someone like that from the profession.  I found her follow-up post listing some of her reasons for stopping a thought provoking one.

I was finding it hard to reconcile being the Dominant woman I am with feeling a sense of having to oblige those subs who were paying for my time, with things they enjoyed even if I was beginning to find those things less interesting  …[snip]… I gave up as I only wanted to play with subs prepared to do it my way.
Ms K

All jobs require compromise at some level. It doesn’t matter if you’re the founder of a start-up or a cog in a big corporate machine, there are always trade-offs to make and boring tasks to complete. Yet most jobs don’t have the idea of dominance and control at the heart of them. As a software developer, I might not like every feature I deliver, but there’s no conflict with my inherent software developeriness. The same can’t be said for a dominant doing something she doesn’t enjoy. What does a domme do when the demands of the business contradict her reasons for doing it?

Professional domination is frequently described in a derogatory fashion as service topping, and that’s something that annoys me twice over. Firstly, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with service topping. Making someone happy and delivering a great experience is a wonderful thing. I don’t think anything less of a chef just because she decides to cook professionally. Secondly, I think both service topping and ‘true domination’ (whatever that means) can occur in both professional and non-professional relationships. Money is only one aspect of many in a relationship, professional or otherwise. But I have to agree that it can be a particularly gnarly aspect to deal with.

It’s also a problem that cuts both ways. As a submissive I don’t want someone simply running through a list of activities with me. I want a dominant who is enjoying what she’s doing and expressing her natural creativity as we play. Specifying a ‘to do’ list runs counter to the D/s dynamic, but several dommes I’ve played with in the past wanted exactly that. I’d guess that was partly to make their lives easier, and mostly because too many clients in the past started with “Oh you can do anything you want to me Mistress!” and finished up with “Well I don’t like that, and we didn’t do this, and why this? That wasn’t what I wanted.”

It’s my personal suspicion that the most financially successful pro-dommes are those who can get personal satisfaction both from one-off service top type sessions and from building longer-term relationships involving more D/s elements. I’ve also anecdotally observed that a lot of pro-dommes start with a lot of the former and evolve towards the latter as their careers and interests progress. It strikes me as a pity that both dommes and clients aren’t more open about the distinction between the two approaches. Everything gets lumped under domination, when in fact that’s simply a catch-all for anything under the BDSM and fetish umbrella.

I’m afraid I don’t have any images of Ms K to use (her website has been taken down), so I’ll instead go with another retired pro-domme, the legendary Isabella Sinclaire. It was originally shot for bootlovers.com.

Isabella Sinclaire

The decade that taste forgot

When it comes to fashion disasters, the 1970’s have a lot to answer for. It’s easy to laugh at strange fashions from other decades, but I don’t think any managed to date quite so quickly and look so ugly as those from the 70’s. Judging by this first photograph, BDSM and fetish fashion was no exception. That is some seriously ugly leather gear.

On the plus side, when they lost the weird clothes, the 70’s era porn did at least boast some very natural looking naked people. The second shot is of the great Sharon Mitchell. She’s a true porn star, meaning someone who stands out and illuminates, rather than simply a paid performer. I’ve no idea whose face she’s sitting on, but I think it’s a pretty good bet that he’s a hairy gentlemen, probably sporting a beard.

Vintage leather fetish outfits

Sharon Mitchell cunnilingus shotTo be honest, I actually don’t know for sure the date of these photographs, but that wallpaper and those hairstyles look awfully 70’s to me. The first came courtesy of the At Her Feet tumblr. The second I found via the Femdom Empire tumblr.

Happiness is the moment before impact

I have a bone to pick with you guys and girls. I just discovered that on my Femdom Images page the link to the Geek Domme tumblr was incorrectly pointing at the Following Blindly Again tumblr. Now technically speaking I realize that this was entirely my mistake. And the following blindly tumblr is a jolly fine one in it’s own right. But come on people. Thousands of you are looking at that page everyday (I know because my server logs tell me so) and nobody spotted that mistake? We’re collaborating here, don’t leave it all to this idiot.

I’ll make my apologies by featuring an image I found and enjoyed on the Geek Domme tumblr. There’s a lot to like here. The simplicity of her outfit. The marks already on his body. The expression on his face. The minimalism of the shot, and the tension of the impending impact. It’s a great image, courtesy of Smutty Productions.

Mistress about to strike contented slave

Bareback riding

Apologies for the lack of a post yesterday, and for the lack of response to comments. I’m traveling again, and currently working off an unfamiliar laptop in a San Francisco hotel room. On the plus side, I’m looking forward to being beaten up by Domina Ai-Li tomorrow, so that’s definite bonus.

I’ll leave you with a fascinating vintage domination shot. I love the fact she has reins that reach so far, allowing her to stand on his back. I also love the circus like nature of the shot. It’s all very well to carry a domme on your back when riding pony style, but imagine having to do so when she’s standing on it with boots. I’m guessing if he spills her, then that flogger in the other hand will come into use. If she was really evil there’d be some small jumps and hoops for him to navigate as well.

Vintage domination shot featuring domme riding on back of slaveThe original tumblr post has it tagged as something from the 1920’s Weimar republic.

Reflecting on the situation

I like the subtlety of this image. There’s actually quite a lot going on, but it’s very understated. There’s the element of control, his chastity and her distorting grip on his face. There’s the concentration, his abstract focus on sensation and her look downwards to the eventual point of penetration. Finally, there’s the strap-on itself, the hidden focus of the image. I like to imagine she’s about to bend him forward very carefully, keeping a firm controlling grip on his face as she lines up to sink into him.

Reflected image of strap-on playIt’s an image originally from Strap-On dreamer, a site I’ve commented on favorably in the past. I found this image via the At Her Feet tumblr.

In a happy place

Just a brief post tonight. I had an incredibly enjoyable session with Lydia earlier tonight, featuring ropes, clamps, hot wax, a vicious little whippy cane and plastic wrap stretched over my face. By the end I wasn’t sure if I wanted to melt into the bed or simply float away. In the end I had to settle for 10 minutes in the shower picking beeswax out of various hairy bits.

While I retreat to my couch with a glass of wine to recuperate and admire my wounds, I’ll leave you with a shot of a man in an equally happy place. Not sure if he’s being bitten or kissed, but either way it seems to be working out pretty well for him.

Man in ropesI found this on the reginmund blog. It’s a Japanese blog, so even with translation tools I can’t understand a lot of it, but the owner has put together a nice collection of images.

Masochistic posting

This is probably the most pointless post I’ll ever write. That’s a great sales pitch to open with I know, but at least I’m honest. I’m also a masochist, so I’ll persevere with it.

It’s actually a piece of advice that I want to impart. Specifically, that if you’re writing about anything complex and controversial, you need to decide what your goal is. Do you want to simply receive affirmation from people who already believe what you believe (aka intellectual masturbation, fun but ultimately unproductive)? Or do you want to reach out to others (typically the majority) and make them actually think about the issue you care so passionately about? If it’s the latter then it’s important to create all the credibility you can, and comes across as a thoughtful intellectual honest person. No matter how good your core argument is, if the rest of the text makes me think you’re an irrational idiot with an axe to grind, then you’ve already lost.

The post that promoted this chain of thought was this one on the feminist current site. It’s all about a Canadian police officer called Jim Brown who was recently outed as kinky via photographs on his fetlife account. The photographs seem pretty tame in my view (this post has a few of them), but no doubt the descriptions sound extreme to the average non-kinky person.

I’m obviously not a fan of people being scapegoated for their BDSM interests. I think it’s ridiculous that teachers, policing and politicians get regularly attacked for any kind of public sexual life. But I will agree it’s a complex issue. I can certainly think of scenarios where that public/private boundary becomes an issue. For example, a rape crisis councilor who had a fetish for rape roleplay. That’s not illegal, but it’s clearly a pretty fucked up situation.

However, what’s pretty much guaranteed to obscure the genuine complexity of the situation, is to throw in a bunch of stupid assumptions and assertions about BDSM, as the feminist current article does. For example, a male dominant clearly enjoyed degrading women. It’s abuse. It’s misogynistic. Consensual is put in quotes, because obviously it couldn’t really be consensual. The fact that all genders and sexualities enjoy BDSM is conveniently ignored. I particularly liked this quote – “Is his fantasy of abuse and domination erased the minute he shuts off his laptop or leaves the brothel?” – implying that it must be porn or paid for. No ‘normal’ women would freely participate.

The original story raises some interesting issues. But sadly they’re all lost beneath the faulty logic and unproven assertions. No doubt the regular readers to the site cheer something they already believe, but I’m just going to flip the idiot bit and move on.

I’ll leave you with a shot of a little knife play, given that was apparently one of the horrible scary thing the police officer photographed.

Knife shot

Pardon me

This shot made me smile. I typically don’t like images where the dominant is staring a the camera rather than engaged with her submissive. It makes me aware of the camera’s presence, and forces me into the role of voyeur rather than an invisible fly on the wall. However, this image makes me think that I just inadvertently stumbled into the scene. It feels like something from a comedy of manners set in an English country house.

Me: Oh! Excuse me. I am terribly sorry.
Lady Chelmsford: What? Ah, well, you see…
Me: No, no, my mistake. I can see you and Sir Reginald are a little busy.
Sir Reginald: (muffled voice) What the hell’s going on back there?
Me: Sorry, sorry, Sir Reginald. Door was open. You, carry on. I’ll be…somewhere else.
Exit our hero red faced, stage left. Grunts and moans resume as the door closes behind him.

Woman with straponI found this on the fempower tumblr, where you can see the original full sized version. I sadly couldn’t track down an original attribution for it.