Tag: Photograph

Home of Heroes

If you live in Massachusetts and have a thing for female superheroes then I’ve got just the house for you. As featured in this Zillow Gone Wild thread, it features over 3,000 square foot of space, 4 beds, 4 baths and a quite astonishing number of life size superhero figures. There’s a couple of Catwoman, a Batwoman, a Wonder Woman, a Super Woman, a striking (if not exactly heroic) Maleficent and many more.

Oddly the rest of the house seems strangely conventional, without any pop culture or comic themes. Either the owner had a very specific kink or it’s a successful attempt to get some viral clicks for the original  listing. Personally I hope it’s the former, as it’s the kind of single minded kinky strangeness that I really appreciate.

Here’s a sample shot from the listing, with Wonder Woman and Catwoman standing guard over the hallway sideboard.

Epididymal Hypertension

You might not recognize the post title but, if you’re a male sub, you’ve probably suffered from it at some time. The colloquial name for the condition is ‘blue balls‘. I’d always assumed it was more of a mental state than a physical one, but amazingly there are actual medical articles on it. For example, here and here. Intriguingly the latter of those references an equivalent ‘blue vulva’  or ‘blue bean’ condition for women.

Happily it’s a condition that can’t cause you any harm. No matter how frustrated you might be. The recommended treatment is masturbation or, if circumstances preclude that, then cold showers and good clean thoughts. How very Victorian. If all that fails and you’re still feeling a little tense, then maybe a stern mature lady to beat the impure thoughts out of you?

I’m afraid I don’t have an attribution for this image. If you can help with that, then please leave a comment.

Updated: Thanks to the ever resourceful Bacchus over at Eros Blog I can now attribute this to the Perfect Villainess site and their model Marlene.

Album Covers

I’ve been enjoying a recent Twitter thread on pictures that could be album covers. A number of dommes have responded with some excellent suggestions. For example, this from Thea X, this from Mx Tomie and this from Violeta Felix.

I’ve picked out two of my personal favorites to feature here. The first is from Lily Kasai, a NYC based pro-domme. The second is from Muse Naadia, an LA based pro-domme. Eat your heart out Roxy Music. These are much cooler and sexier than even your best efforts.

Courtly Love

I’m continuing the medieval theme with a post on the topic of Courtly Love. This doesn’t refer to the lead singer of Hole, but the literary concept that became big in the 12th century, particularly in the castles and courts of France. It referred to love that was passionate, secret and adulterous. The relevance for this blog is that it often put the woman in a position of power over her admirer. As Britannica puts it…

The courtly lover existed to serve his lady. His love was invariably adulterous, marriage at that time being usually the result of business interest or the seal of a power alliance. Ultimately, the lover saw himself as serving the all-powerful god of love and worshipping his lady-saint. Faithlessness was the mortal sin.

It’s perhaps unsurprising that some of the most important literary patrons of the time were wealthy women like Marie of France. With marriages treated as business arrangements and a woman’s primary role seen as the production of healthy male heir, the idea of a worshipful and faithful lover must have been an enticing one. Tease, denial, worship and cuckolding all rolled into one.

The most famous example of courtly love is Sir Lancelot and Guinevere, the wife of King Arthur. The original Arthur, if there is ever was one, was a 5th century British warrior and chief. In the 12th century the French poet Chrétien de Troyes came his stories a refresh and added the brave Sir Lancelot and his forbidden love for his master’s wife.

This is the great Helen Mirren in a publicity shot from the film Excalibur. It’s a highly entertaining version of the legend of Arthur, with Dame Helen in the role of Morgana. Absolutely zero historical accuracy but well worth watching.

Dom Speak

I mentioned the disappearance of Max Fisch a few weeks ago. It’s still AWOL, so I guess we can finally say it’s gone for good.

Lady Cheyenne has established a new forum site, with a very similar look and feel to Max – Dom Speak. If you’re a fan of femdom and classic web forum then check it out. I just created an account there and it took just a few seconds. Not a huge number of posts there right now but that’s inevitable in something this new. Given the fiasco that is Twitter, it’s good to have other options out there.

I’ll leave you with a shot of the control center from Dom Speak. Moderators and site admins all hard at work under the right kind of leadership.

This is actually by Helmut Newton from American Vogue back in 2002.

Chamber Pot

Here’s an unusual image for its time. Whipping and other forms of corporal punishment is pretty common in vintage shots. Bondage occasionally pops up, as do feet and boot fetishes. But I can’t remember seeing a watersport or toilet play vintage shot before. It must have been a particularly shocking image for its time. It still packs a punch even now.

I’m guessing it was taken in Europe in the early 1930’s, but I don’t have a specific attribution. I sourced it via Madam Is All.

More Manipulation

After a fun weekend in Vegas I’m heading for home. I once again visited the city of sin and didn’t do any sinning. Must be getting old. I did go and see the U2 show at the Sphere which was pretty amazing. I think it’s a space that’s going to set a new standard for concert venues.

For the image in today’s post I’m continuing  the theme of photoshop and image manipulation. I’m not sure of the original image source (it shows up in a bunch of equestrian themed pinterests) but I think the man has been added after the fact. I sourced this version via the Brutal Women tumblr.

 

Tweaking the Image

Before AI there was photoshop. A favorite tool for kinsters who wanted to modify an image to align with their preferences. I’m always amused when scrolling through tumblrs and I stumble across a photograph modified this way. In an internet awash in explicit BDSM imagery, dedicated kink fans still want to create new ones that speak to their passions.

Here’s an example I spotted on the Assertive Ladies tumblr. Originally it was from a photoshoot for a failed ABC show called Mind Games shown back in 2014. The actor is Jamie Ray Newman. I’m not sure who gave her the paddle. They did a decent job of the tweak, although there’s clearly something a little off about the pose.

Alexandra Aderhold

After last post’s old school domination theme, we’re moving onto new school kink and fetish. This image is by German photographer Alexandra Aderhold. It’s a stunning shot, pulling off the trick of being both aesthetically and erotically charged. I want to be in it and yet also have it hanging on my wall.

You can see more from Alexandra, including a book of photographs she’s published, on her professional site. There’s also an interview with her available here. I originally stumbled across the image via labstrakts.

Bye Bye Max?

Max Fisch appears to have dropped off the net. It’s been flaky for years, but one has to wonder if this is the final goodbye.

For those that don’t know what I’m talking about- Max Fisch is (was?) one of the longest running Femdom forum sites and Domina directories. It first showed up back in the 1990’s and for years was  one of the primary sites for pro-domme information and discussion. Sadly, like a lot of these sites, social media sucked away a lot of the potential users and the admins and moderators lost interest in maintaining it.

The loss of internet forum culture to a few huge social media companies is a great shame in my view. It’s not that the quality of the debate was particularly great on the forums – online people are the same all over. But the forum’s were more focused, the conversations longer and the posts were both durable and searchable. You could post a review of a session and another user would be able to find it years later. Good luck doing that on Twitter. You also didn’t have to deal with all the algorithmically driven rage-bait garbage the social media sites throw out you.

Of course there’s nothing technically stopping someone running a femdom forum today. The problem is getting to critical mass when so many of the casual users gravitate to social media.  It’s hard for simple web base forums to compete with thousand of social engineers doing whatever they can to drive more swipes on a media feed.

If you’re like me and find the history of femdom and internet culture fascinating, using the wayback machine to browse old domme site can be a great way to kill a lot of time. For example, looking at the very first capture of Max’s domme listing from 1999, I spotted a link to the famous Ilsa Strix. That in turn led me to her archived site and old interviews with her. You can even still find her original contact protocol.