I think the hardest part for me when I was getting started was actually accepting the label of submissive, it seems to have a bad connotation with it in every day society, and was connected with being passive too much, or a push over. I’m not necessarily submissive in every day environments, especially not to everyone, although I do have my submissive tendencies. Just because someone tells me to do something doesn’t mean that I am going to go and do it. I do like making people comfortable and making sure people are alright, but there is an extent. Also I had to argue with the fact that I love to debate with people and have discussions where I don’t easily back down. I also had to deal with the fact that I had spent most of my years from elementary school to recent to prove that I could do anything a guy could do. I felt like proclaiming that I was submissive took away from that and discredited any attempts or successes of the past sense I had ideas of submitting to a man. I somehow felt that would make me less of a person.
I eventually had to come to understand that the fact that I am submissive doesn’t change me as a person, it’s not like all the sudden I wake up, decide I’m submissive and never have an argument again, and never try to prove I can do things just as well as the next person, that just wasn’t it. I also had to learn that being submissive doesn’t mean I am submissive to every person out there, and defiantly not even every person that calls themselves a Dom. I had to learn that I didn’t mind being submissive to one person. It doesn’t make me any less of a person, and it doesn’t make me weak. This issue has come up with me at least twice so far, once when I first entered the BDSM world which was the hardest and another time while I was in my relationship, which wasn’t as big of an issue it was just a matter of reminding myself.
I had to understand that I am only submissive to my Master, and that doesn’t make me weak, and it doesn’t mean I am a doormat. I think it becomes quite the opposite; it makes me a stronger person. Not only am I able to trust him and his decisions, weather I fully understand them or not, I can trust him to make the correct decisions which I have learned over this past year. I trust myself more now in knowing I made the right decision in choosing to be his submissive which gives me a sense of empowerment strangely enough. It also shows you how to fess up to your actions and take responsibility, regardless if it was there before or not it’s a whole different concept. It gives you a whole new sense of accountability and honesty. For example for him to make the best decision he needs to know of all the aspects of the situation which requires me to tell them to him no matter what they may be. Which is different because I am used to taking responsibility for my actions, the difference is its not in the terms of then explaining them to someone else, and not just acknowledging that I made the ones I did. If I do have an issue with something I know I should bring it up. It’s not wrong to ask questions, or raise concerns, or have an opinion if you don’t then how will they ever know you have them?
I also had to realize that its not that I’m incapable of making a decision, it’s that if I want to live under him I do so by his standards, and by allowing him to make the decisions he feels are necessary, and going in the direction he feels is best for me and us. It’s more of being able to trust that he weighed all the pros and cons and made the best choice for you. It has also built my confidence in many ways, I know that when I do as he says I will always have someone to back me up and be there for me, and stand behind me. Someone who will not let me fail, and will encourage me to try again, and if I am stuck or need help, that there is always some there for me.
I don’t think this would apply to any relationship though, I don’t think these words would hold true had I ended up choosing any other Dom. I had met quite a few before I met my Dom, and I could never see myself trusting them the same as I trust my Master now. I couldn’t see myself allowing myself to submit to them at least not to the same extent I am working on with my Master. Just with the way they acted, carried themselves, the way they expected there to be a certain amount of ooh’s and aah’s because they called themselves a Dom, the way they acted, and the fact that I felt I could out smart them with a majority of things. At that point I somewhat dismissed my taking on the submissive label in a sense. I knew I was submissive still ,that didn’t change, but I didn’t know, where to place that at the time, if it was something I then just wanted in the bedroom, or something that I wanted full time. I had basically changed my mind and decided that my idea was my fantasy. I didn’t see it in the cards that I would find someone I could trust someone to the extent of handing over my decisions to be made for me, and allowing myself to submit to someone, and give them any type of control within my day to day life. Especially after meeting some of the Dom’s I met I thought it was just going to be all for entertainment after that, something to somewhat sit and laugh at later. I didn’t really think there was going to be anyone that I would meet that I would click with, or anyone half way sane, but it also made me laugh. I guess half of me was holding out hope and figured it couldn’t hurt if I met up with people in my spare time. Basically what I learned from this is there are many different types of Dom’s out there, there are going to be a lot that are not for you and maybe a handful that are your type. Don’t build yourself up every time going “this is it this has to be the one! We’re meeting up and then were going to be together forever” look at things rationally. Also don’t let the idiots block you from your happiness, enjoy the entertainment while your searching and have fun with it. But please be safe about it, and don’t settle for someone who isn’t a match for you, they arn’t going to change for you, just like they shouldn’t expect you to change for them.
Recently I began interacting with a new submissive. it’s enthusiasm and desire to serve was charming. it’s organic want to please divine. while I had great hopes for it and the dynamic we were building, I knew it was time to say good bye. Bittersweet yet severely necessary. After much analysis and contemplation I felt it was in it’s best interest to terminate the mere thought of it’s servitude- as it’s life situation was not conducive to what a honest D/s relationship would require. It is hard to say good bye and release someone when you know that the gift of servitude is a pure pleasure in their heart. Yet it IS a Dominates responsibility to recognize when one’s emotional state is fragile and life needs time to heal. While part of me mourns the beautiful submission it offered, it was indeed in ‘it’s’ best interest to be released. For many being released is the highest dishonor, yet at times, depending on situation- it comes for a warm and loving place. I warmly wish you my friend lots of healing light. Saying good bye to our D/s relationship is not saying good bye to friendship. It’s our friendship that has led me to this most caring decision. While I am a Dominate, I am human first. Safe, sane and consensual…always.
Sure it has to do with the fun of role-playing, but much of the time it’s really about something way deeper than that: it’s about the power of healing, something that is so often so hard to get in touch with, especially where we need it most.
Role-playing, if you take it seriously enough, becomes REAL. Your mind forgets that you have constructed a situation, and “goes on autopilot,” and you just go with things as they are. Kink/BDSM (bondage/discipline/dominance/submission/sado-masochism) allows us to do this where we are often most vulnerable: in the primal/sexual arena of life.
Some of our most extreme feelings happen in the realm of sex and intimacy. Feelings of unbridled passion, beautiful sensations, sensual flights to distant spiritual lands… and then, unfortunately, there is the flip side when it stops or goes badly. Feelings of inadequacy, of worthlessness, of disappointment and shame. These intense feelings rip control from our grasp, knocking us around and often leaving a traumatic feeling of having been violated.
A friend of mine who is studying child psychology notes that a significant amount people in the fetish scene went through certain traumas as children–experiences that left them feeling abandoned, violated, or markedly disoriented. This is not the case for everybody, but it does illustrate how powerful BDSM is for people who have intimate questions about the nature of their very existence–questions that cannot be answered with a 5-minute conversation, or even a 5-hour one.
As “dangerous” as BDSM sometimes sounds, it is actually so powerful and therapeutic because it must involve safety and trust, otherwise it won’t work! But you see, once you do assume complete trust and attention to safety, you become free to do and experience things you could not normally–such as putting yourself in pain. Thing is that, where there is pain in a safe context, no matter how sharp it is in a moment, there will soon be healing–and healing feels so good and soothing.
The actual physical aspect of BDSM is only one aspect of the experience, and often not the principal one. It is the psychology of possibility that really drives things… the feeling that, for example, when you have someone tied up, you could do anything to them–or, if you’re the one tied up, that the other person could do anything to you. It is healing precisely because it is extreme–or rather, because the possibilities are extreme.
This goes just as much for the dominant, power-wielding person as it does for the submissive. A person taking on the dominant role may feel inadequate at times, fear being disrespected, or simply want to be admired. By exercising power over the submissive, the dominant person is able to transcend fears of not being adequate or not being respected. And thus as a matter of course, proper behavior in the dominant role involves being intimately in touch with the person you are dominating, always listening and making sure they are enjoying the experience too. Through this kind of interaction, you build confidence in your abilities and learn to trust yourself, as other people learn to trust you, and that quickly spreads to other areas of life.
The key throughout all this is that, because these activities are safe and consensual to start with, you get to own your own experience. So, for example, if you were sexually assaulted and/or have a fear of being forced, you can actually use “rape play” as a way to face that experience in an atmosphere of safety and trust. It’s like a fantasy, except it is real–but you can hit the stop button anytime. And facing down and owning a fear, especially an intimate one that isn’t easy to talk about, is one of the most healing things you can do for your soul.
The best control isn’t about restraints, collars or fancy equipment. It isn’t confined to submission or a specific session. The best control is the kind that you can’t help, that you remember consenting to and now there isn’t an easy path back. Mind play is one of a number of things that Mummy introduced babykat to herself, and in that way it will always be special to us, something that babykat associates with Mummy, where she will always be the one with that hold on her.
Mummy’s voice really is perfect. It’s like that kind of candy you can’t get enough of, that you find yourself stealing a few minutes for yourself to get back to. Whether it’s on the phone, or an mp3, Mummy’s voice has a huge effect on babykat. Maybe it’s her accent that’s so attractive, or maybe that it’s filled with emotion and a completely sweet sounding voice. It is like candy, babykat’s favourite candy. Maybe it’s the way that she’s just so nice! There’s a deeper love than just the connection babykat feels hearing Mummy, though. Something that’s most likely incomprehensible to many of those beyond the mind play scene. The hypnosis element of our relationship means that babykat has a desire for Mummy’s voice in her ear. It’s her weakness. It’s the voice that could tell her to puncture her skin with needles, and she would. There really is a switch, buried deep inside babykat’s mind, that flicks over as Mummy speaks up.. babykat focuses, shuts off distractions and mundane thoughts, feels that for those moments, Mummy is all that matters in her world.
It’s a delicious feeling, it really is. The moment when you close your eyes and feel like you’re falling, except it’s into something better than sleep. To have no other care, to know that Mummy is looking after her babykat and it’s their time together. The flood of emotions that hypnosis brings on is something equally addictive, as much as Mummy’s voice itself. In that, there’s the huge element of connection, love, trust, the feeling that babykat is special to Mummy and wants to do this for her, and how she knows exactly what’s best. (Because, despite everything Mummy does for her babykat, it’s still hard to believe babykat’s so special to her.. not because she doubts it, but purely that she can’t believe she’s so lucky when she doesn’t deserve all this..) It’s not only relaxing, but reassuring. Whether babykat is angry or upset or overexcited, hypnosis and her change in mood afterwards just lets her settle down. The feelings don’t disappear, but she’s calmed enough to let them out. She’s even found herself crying once or twice because it’s just such a relief to be taken any from any troubles and to forget about why she felt down. Mummy’s hypnosis has become desirable as an escape from day-to-day stresses, as well as the need to feel a deeper connection with Mummy.
When Mummy sent babykat her first hypnosis mp3, she never thought she’d really get into it. Babykat had done some research about erotic hypnosis and had become interested but not really fully convinced. The thought stuck in her mind, ‘it would never work on me, I’ll try but it won’t work’, as clips from the internet seemed impersonal and ineffective. Batlings was different. The main difference being that she made it for babykat. Yes, she’s sent babykat a couple of others that she’s done for public sale rather than for babykat privately, and now that babykat has fallen deeper under her spell those have almost as much of an effect. Inside, though, she’ll always reach for the unique ones.. the ones where Mummy was thinking of babykat as she spoke. For babykat’s first few times, this was particularly important. It made her less scared. It reminded her why she wanted to begin this journey and how both Mummy and herself were both glad she had. Although babykat didn’t know what was coming, she knew that whatever train of thought Mummy had decided was best for her, it was for her only. It was reassuring because Mummy would be particularly careful and slow with her, and even from the first few words, being given time to get used to the sound of Mummy’s voice, meant that babykat felt more at ease. She had taken this step and was anxious that it became a part of her relationship with Mummy, because she knows how much it means to her, having someone share her passion. Babykat never thought it would be her own passion, however, she thought it would become a duty, just another task.
But Mummy’s created an addiction.
Mummy’s mp3 is having a particular effect on her at the moment, she listens three times during the day usually. Since the first few days getting used to Mummy’s voice, it’s not something babykat has to prepare herself for anymore. She used to feel the need to get in the right mindset, to relax and have a little think about Batling before she began to listen. But now it’s just become a part of her everyday routine, she has the file on her iPod and looks forward to those times when she can take time out and fall under Mummy’s control. It’s gradually becoming a more and more desirable five minutes to listen to, some days babykat ends up finding excuses to turn it on and more recently, has taken to listening to it while she masturbates. It’s such a turn on to have Batling’s voice in her ear as she reaches climax, or before she falls asleep. It’s funny, the way babykat’s mind has worked. The initial doubt in this aspect of their relationship has developed into a craving for the mp3s, a feeling of frustration and not being complete without them. Her mind has opened so readily to Batling’s voice, and it’s her that heart skips a beat when she receives a new file. After one listen, the topic of the session is firmly set in her mind. After a fortnight of regular listening, it’s become fact, a rule, a restriction. Mummy’s voice is stronger than any chastity belt she could lock to babykat.
Opening that first mp3 took a lot from babykat. To want hypnosis to be a significant element in your relationship takes a lot of dedication, and shouldn’t be taken lightly. Being eager for it initially didn’t lessen the length of time babykat spend thinking about a life with hypnosis before she took the first step, because as a beginner it’s a very daunting, if not scary prospect. To have somebody be able to tap into your mind, to give them that core part of you requires so much trust, so much understanding. It’s not as easy as a scene is to stop. While safe words are effective with physical play, with mind play the logistics are different. To an onlooker, pressing ’stop’ on an iPod or giving a safe word over the phone may seem the obvious option, but under trance it’s different. Having been listening to Mummy’s mp3s for a couple of months now means that babykat feels she can give a valid description of the way it feels to be, almost out of control.
To begin with, it was difficult to relax and lose herself in Mummy’s voice, but now she feels that she falls deeper than ever with each step Mummy has her take into trance. It’s not how she thought it would be. Babykat is never completely unaware of her actions, her surroundings. She knows where she is and that she’s listening to Mummy (something that’s beginning to sound as if Mummy’s really there), and she still feels herself.. well, that’s the thing. She was about to say ’she still feels herself lifting her arms to rub each letter one by one from the chalkboard, falling deeper into trance’. But of course, babykat doesn’t actually move her arms, and that’s what makes hypnosis so powerful. It’s the inability to distinguish between reality and the description within the audio. The way an image within the audio described is so vivid that it’s beyond being told, and it’s as if it’s being inscribed into babykat’s mind. The connection made is that which makes hypnosis so exciting. You never know what’s coming. There’s no preparation needed, or anxst beforehand because you can see what’s about to restrain you. It’s all in your own mind, but in a way in which you have no control over. It’s amazing and terrifying at the same time. Babykat is sure that there are people out there who could pull themselves out of a trance, most likely hypnotists themselves, but she certainly isn’t one of them. It’s like packing all your schoolwork away into a box and focusing on your favourite book. Like taking a plane without knowing its destination, and telling no-one where you are. Part of the attraction is that hypnosis is so intimate. It’s just Mummy and babykat, holding a connection that’s uninterruptable for those special minutes.
So now you can see why a safeword is worthless? The direct connection that babykat’s mind makes, turning the description under trance into a belief of reality means that the thought that a safeword exists isn’t even there. Mummy’s talking to her and she shouldn’t need to interrupt. It’s a lesson, imposing advice or help or even strong boundaries. You wouldn’t just ask a lesson to end. It is this lack of desire which forms the initial resistance. Beyond that there are two ‘feelings’ that are just about describable. Firstly, the attention side of it. There’s no part of babykat that is focused on the idea of a safe word, or any word or action beyond the audio. It’s not about willpower, because she’s totally under Mummy’s control when she’s in trance, and that’s the only feed into her mind. Mummy can alter her desires and shift her attention. Really. Secondly, the actual inability to move. It isn’t numbness or a feeling that your limbs aren’t there. Babykat knows they are, in fact she’s even more aware of every sensation in her body a lot of the time. Instead, the feeling is such that from your eyes downwards your whole body is heavy, muscles are so relaxed that the limbs are simply immobilized. No about of willpower can change that either. Babykat couldn’t move her fingers if she wanted to and besides, she never wants to. There won’t be a safe word. It’s as simple as that.
The lack of a safeword during a session has such a powerful effect on babykat’s mind. She knows she can’t pull herself out, that it’s Mummy in control. But it also means that the vital communication element of BDSM is altered. It has to be before the session, all of it. Without this communication, hypnosis poses risks. You wouldn’t start a scene without a safe word, after all. As much love and trust as you can have for someone, and however much the idea of hypnosis arouses you (it does for babykat, at least!) you need to know what’s planned. It’s your mind they’ll be playing with, and that’s not something to be taken lightly. Communication is a fundemental part of babykat’s relationship with Batling, and without it, it wouldn’t be as strong as it is. Babykat trusts her, but still asks to know the aim of the audio. Batling plays with babykat, but babykat isn’t her plaything. She’s a real person with real feelings and a mind that’s just as fragile as Mummy’s own.
It makes her love Mummy even more because she is able to to put her whole trust in her, hand over little pieces of her mind for Mummy to explore. Hypnosis is perfect for her relationship with Batling. She was scared to try at first, but she’s so glad she did. And babykat adores the pleasure Mummy gets from hypnosis with her, because beyond everything else, babykat wants Mummy happy. Babykat is slowly developing and knows that Batling will be with her every step. Babykat knows she doesn’t have to hold back.
Marco Bolognesi does awesome photography along the lines of something you’d see in Sci-fi or Fantasy. He combines images we’re used to seeing in more typical fashion photography, with surreal, and even fetishist themes that makes his work stand apart from typical BDSM or fashion photography.
From his website:
Marco Bolognesi is a multimedia artist with experience encompassing drawing, painting, cinema, photography and video. His influences include religious iconography, science fiction, street art, avant-garde manifestos and pop icons.
Bolognesi’s artistic identity is a multi-faceted one. After spending his childhood in an artistic environment and attending DAMS, the school of drama, arts and music in Italy, where he thrived upon a diverse means of expression, he chose for his final thesis to analyse works by the artist and filmmaker Peter Greenaway. In 1994 still in Italy, Bolognesi went on to illustrate a selection of works by the poet Roberto Roversi and the following year he collaborated with the graphic artist Guido Crepax on a comic strip. In 1994 also he shot his first short film, ‘Giustizia e Verità ’, on the victims of terrorism, which was subsequently screened at the Venice Biennale. In this experimental documentary, images and music are deeply interwoven, as they are in his second short film on the same theme ‘Il Partito del Silenzio’, which was made in 1996. His overall editing method was so particular and his style so original, that both films were presented in Rome by the Academy Award winning composer Ennio Morricone, and then toured internationally around the Italian Cultural Institutes. Cinema subsequently became Bolognesi’s focus and he soon started working as a director’s assistant for some well known directors, including the controversial Nanni Moretti. Although during this period his fascination with the moving image remained, he decided to explore the potential of still images and the photographic medium.