Photograph – Page 210 – Femdom Resource

Relaxing together on the couch

I love the bondage arrangement they’ve set up here. On an aesthetic level there’s a great symmetry to it, with her dark clad frame resting comfortably in the center, his pale naked body spread before her and then the heavy horizontal white bar of the couch. It also works on a very practical level. She can use him simply as a foot rest, or do a little torture with her heels, or lean forward and turn it into a full blown CBT session. I like the idea that she could be watching TV or reading, and then at odd moments, when she’s a little bored, she could reach out and do something particularly vicious to him.

I believe the domme here is Maitresse Madeline and it’s obviously from a Divine Bitches shoot. I found it on the Herrin Domino and Petrushka (aka BiHappy) tumblr.

What to think…

The first image below is floating around on a number of femdom tumblr’s, having started life (AFAIK) on maymay’s Submissive Secrets. I can’t argue with the surface level sentiment *. The left image is far more aesthetically and erotically pleasing, and I’d definitely prefer it as a representation of femdom than the one on the right. However, contrarian that I am, I can’t help feeling the urge to dig a little below the surface and maybe quibble with some of the subtext.

In picking that particular right hand image I feel the creator ‘cheated’ somewhat. I’m sure Lady Joanne is a wonderful woman (you can see her site here) but that photograph certainly doesn’t do her any favors. That costume is a horrible cliche, her makeup extreme and the activity depicted lacks any chemistry. However, I’m sure the creators goal wasn’t simply to highlight a single bad photograph. After all, there is an endless supply of bad porn photographs of all types. The contrast being made here is something more that qualitative. The left shot very obviously lacks any traditional fetishwear or kinky props. There’s no clearly defined activity, just a sexy shot of woman pushing the man back in a forceful way. So surely you could change the right shot for a ‘better’ kink heavy photograph, without changing the basic message?

Lets say, for example, we changed the right photograph for one of those I’ve included below (click to enlarge). I picked these fairly randomly from a large collection of similar ‘men in pain‘ shots. They all show various fetish outfits, traditional BDSM props and more extreme activities. They’re certainly not my favorite femdom shots, but there’s at least a few elements in all of them I find appealing. I like the intensity, the drama and the physical manifestation of the control.

So if one of these images had been used on the right, what difference would it make? It really shouldn’t change the basic message, right? Yet somehow, I think it does. With one of these on the right I don’t think I’d care which of the images came to mind of our generic Miss X. On one hand it’s sexy fun D/s and on the other it’s intense sensation D/s. I’d definitely prefer she didn’t freak out and treat me like a weirdo, but anyone who did that probably was never going to end up on my Christmas card list anyway. I’m proud of some of the crazy stuff I’ve done. It’s not always necessary, but it is enjoyable.

All the commonly depicted BDSM accoutrements – ropes, whips, cuffs, pegs, needles, boots, corsets, buckets of soapy frogs – are just tools. Ways to mediate and amplify power exchange. They often incorrectly get put to center stage in porn. Yet this misuse doesn’t mean they’re not still useful (and fun) tools. They weren’t specially selected by a secret committee in an effort to make kinky people look silly. So lets not throw the baby out with the bathwater. I’d like people to think of femdom and think of a women taking control and having hot forceful sex exactly the way she wants it. I’d also like people to think of it and picture a woman skillfully suspending a guy with many feet of rope and then whipping him (and her) happy with a single tail.

* Although I’m not sure what is with the ‘being young sucks’ part of it. I think I was 13 or 14 years old the last time I thought that, and at that age outing myself as submissive to women was way down my list of priorities. Back then I’d have said I was a dominant Gorean rope master with an interest in furries if it would have landed me a date.

A delightfully devious device

This looks like a particularly exciting device for nipple torture. I think it’s called a nipple tree. There’s a name which conjures up a fairly weird mental image. I’ve seen them used before, but this is by far the prettiest, with its chrome and perspex design. I imagine it must ideal for very carefully inflicting just the perfect amount of pain via the clover clamps.

As for the mistress in these shots, I could swear I know who it is, but I just can’t connect the face to a name. It’s driving me slightly nuts, and reverse image searching hasn’t helped. So if you can help me attribute correctly then please leave me a comment with the lady’s name.

Updated: Thanks to a comment by Downlow I’ve finally identified the mistress as the talented Dante Posh. She’s a NYC/NJ based pro-domme, although she also travels extensively. I believe this is from a scene she shot for the English Mansion.

I found these two images on the appropriately named Tortured Nipples Tumblr.

Discovered Femdom

My post from a few days ago, featuring an image that wasn’t actually femdom in the original context, got me thinking about similar images. I mentally categorize this type of material as ‘discovered’ femdom, in the sense that it’s discovered by the viewer rather than (necessarily) intended by the original artist. I’ve posted these kind of images in the past, for example here, here and here. They’re images that will appeal in different ways to different people. Not all submissives may get the same dominant vibe from them that I do. And non-submissives may like them for entirely different reasons.

While it’s hard to put into words exactly what makes one image work and another not, I have noticed two common components. One is very direct eye contact. Another is a composition that places the camera at a slightly lower vantage point than normal. That these two components work so well shouldn’t be surprising to me. I also find it very appealing when a mistress leans over and makes eye contact while torturing me. That pushes me very quickly into a submissive space. Clearly there’s something pretty fundamental about those components, so fundamental in fact that they even work when present in non-obvious femdom contexts.

I wonder if it’s something to do with childhood. That was a time when I literally looked up to every female authority figure. And adults always tends to engage very directly and stare straight at children when talking to them, something that doesn’t typically happen between two adults. I had a very normal and relatively liberal childhood. It seems pretty disgusting and discomforting to think back to the relationship between my mother (or my aunt or my nursery teacher or whoever) and the infant paltego and connect that to my kinky sexuality now. I’ve certainly no desire to do age related role-play. But the deep seated appeal of the stare from above has to come from somewhere and that seems to be as good a place as any.

Just as a random aside, I wonder if the growth in gay marriage and same sex households with adopted kids will make research in this area easier? Looking at the differences in the percentages of men attracted to female dominance from m+m, f+m and f+f parents would be interesting. Of course controlling for others factors is highly non-trivial.

This image is a particularly clever example of one making effective use of both components. Using the mirror it manages to create eye contact, a upwards POV type shot and a great view of her beautiful behind. Not sure what it does for anyone else out there, but it sure works for me.

Vintage Beating

I’ve no idea when this was actually shot or what was the original publication context. I just like the semi-authentic nature of it. Clearly it’s posed for a photographer, but there’s a smack of verisimilitude that you don’t find in a lot of old shots. Or in a lot of modern shots for that matter.

I found it on the Slaves of the Goddess tumblr site.

A picture never lies

I’m annoyingly still sick, but decided to put a hold on the medical theme for the moment. As an alternative here’s an interesting shot.

When I first saw it (on the New Bootblack’s Oubliette) I assumed it was a ruined orgasm shot. It looks like she’s capping his penis just at the critical moment. I liked the fact he was unrestrained and relaxed, accepting what she did to him. I also liked the lack of fetish gear. I imagined a slow tease and denial session, with a ruined orgasm to finish. That was a pleasant little mental movie.

However, when I did a reverse image search, I found it was from hegre-art.com. That is by no means a femdom site. There’s actually a short free video clip from the scene, and it’s pretty clear it’s just a massage and handjob, no ruined orgasm at all. Perfectly fine porn from within that genre, but not exactly how I’d pictured it when seeing the image in the original femdom tumblr context. Essentially a lot of the aspects that I liked about it were projections of my own imagination given the context the image was presented to me in.

Inspecting the goods

I’m still suffering from some random flu bug, so I’m going to use that as an excuse to continue the nurse/medical theme.

This shot is a little more serious than the dominatrixy over-the-top latex uniforms often seen for medical play. She looks like a woman with a plan. If he’s lucky a sperm sample is somewhere in his future. Although if she follows that by reaching for a felt pen and marking dotted cut lines then his luck will have taken a decided turn for the worse.

I found this on the Felm Cyber tumblr.

Puppy chow

After the last couple of posts I thought I was done with the dog theme. Then I came across this Max Fisch posting that I felt I had to share.

My partner had a puppy play session and we were buying the proper food. She didn’t want to use real puppy chow due to health concerns while I’ve never had a huge issue with it as the sub’s love it. I have used jerky as a substitute for dog treats, but the dog food itself I never had an issue with. Maybe I have just watched Showgirls too many times and the puppy chow line has become stuck in my head so it seems normal for humans to eat dog food.
….
We ended up compromising on Cocoa Puffs. They did the job, although that seems like quite the condemnation of Cocoa Puffs!
Queen Titania

I’ve always felt that following a busy pro-domme would make a great reality television show. They always have such unusual and yet interesting problems to solve. How do you work out what’s a good food for puppy play? Where do you research the health risks of dog food for humans? Of course I’m sure any TV show would screw it up horribly. They’d turn into a laugh at the freaks special, rather than an empathetic look at interesting people doing unusual things.

I have to admit, whenever I think of eating dog food, I think of Red Dwarf and Lister stuck on a particularly icy moon. Anyone not in tune with early 90’s British comedy has probably got no idea what I’m talking about, so here’s a little taste (with the relevant moment about 2 minutes in).

I’m afraid I couldn’t find a shot of a submissive eating puppy chow, or cocoa puffs for that matter. However, I did have this shot of Mistress Madeline and her doggy slave. It’s not a conventional place to attach a leash, but I’m sure it’s an effective one.

Obedience training

Continuing the theme from yesterday’s post, here’s a nice tableau of owner and pet. He seems to be keeping quite obediently to heel, while she stands proudly and possessively over him. I always thought it was the dog that was supposed to be aggressive and protective, but he looks like an old softy in contrast to her fierce expression.

Dogs often have a habit of licking themselves in embarrassing ways at inopportune moments, normally when guests are staying. It seems from the second photograph that she’s managed to redirect that impulse into a slightly more useful cleaning function. He’s really putting his tongue to good use there. Lets hope he doesn’t start trying it when her parents next come over.

These are taken from an old series of images that circulated on usenet. I think they were all scanned from Japanese femdom magazines, so I don’t have an online attribution to give.

Cheap Travel

It’s always expensive traveling around the holiday season. Air fares are high and planes are crowded. So here’s an interesting alternative for anyone with a crate trained pet. With the money she’ll save she can probably afford to upgrade her ticket to business class.

This is from the Team Rinryu site. Warning: That site contains some particularly graphic images featuring all types of toilet scenes. Browse carefully or not at all if that’s likely to disgust you.