Valentine’s Day Aftermath post – Some thoughts on BDSM and yuri…
Posted on | February 15, 2009 | 6 Comments |
So it’s Valentine’s boxing day already…
So Love and I went somewhere new for our latest Valentine’s adventure… We were browsing the stalls at Erotica 2008 (In London Expo) before Christmas, and we came across the small stall of Ess and Emm, a couple who run a small fetish B&B in Warwickshire, not too far from where I live. Later on, we got an offer to stay there for a discount and Valentine’s day was (surprisingly) free so we took it up.
Needless to say it was awesome.
If you’re really curious about the insides of the place, you can look at the site link above, but the point of this post is that on the way back it got me thinking about the S&M community in real life and also about S&M in doujinshi and hentai.
Real life fetishism
Strewn around the bedroom of the house were various publications which served as a directory of sorts of the various mistresses (and a few masters) who proffered their services throughout the UK that you might want to contact if you were looking for a little discipline. Also, flicking through the visitor’s book, most of the couples staying were female/female or female(Dom)/male(sub). This got me thinking about the role reversal that seems to have occurred within the fetish community. It seems that within BDSM circles at least, the woman is king, so to speak. Powerful, confident women offer to dominate men and women alike for a (not laughable) price.
So where have all the powerful men gone?
It’s not that there aren’t any male masters – in fact we met one at the Birmingham Adult’s only show last year. It just that the vast majority of people offering domination services are female. There are several reasons why I think this is the case. First of all, women can dominate both men and women alike with no objections. Men would be unlikely to want to be dominated by another man (unless gay) and therefore male masters would get less business. Also, the dominant male is pretty reminiscent of everyday life – surely if a woman wanted to be dominated by a man, then she would just go out to a club and find one of your everyday meatheads with a passion for rope.
Which leads me to think that there probably are a fair number of male masters in the “home” setting, but not in a professional capacity. There is also the unsettling aspect that male domination as a theme is frowned upon by the media and general public due to a lot of bad press and its connection with general non-consensual relationships and rape. This might not decrease the male Domme activity, but mean that they shy away from advertising their services publicly…
BDSM in 2 dimensions
After fetish month, it’s pretty safe to say that all of you readers realise that BDSM is a pretty common theme in doujinshi and hentai. Especially because Japan has it’s own (perfectionist) brand of bondage – Shibari – Japanese bondage is a very popular topic in the pornography community around the world. I even read a yuri bondage doujinshi the other week – translated by the lovely people at desudesu (see link)
So I was wondering – since in real life, mistresses commonlay are called upon to dominate other women (though this might not be of a sexual nature), therefore there should be a lot of doujinshi and hentai material reflecting this, just like that translated manga I just linked to. However, much to the contrary, most bondage and domination in hentai occurs with the male domme dominating various girls in a harem or porn without plot context. There is female/female material, but by far, male(Dom)/femal(sub) is the norm. Now why could this be?
First thing that comes to mind is something we’ve already discussed in fetish month – The popularity of the rape fetish. I would guess that the majority of bondage and domination material are aimed at the burgeoning rape market for hentai – since I’ve said that it’s the most popular fetish. Since rape itself is already a form of domination, then bondage and submission merely adds to that perversity. And since it is 2D, there is not the unfavourable connection with real life slavery and rape. Supposedly. The second reason is that most hentai is going to be bought by the general anime and manga consuming otaku public, who on the whole probably have fairly vanilla tastes (going by general consensus). And I’m sure the philosophy is that these general public put themselves in the faceless protagonist’s shoes – dominating and raping and pillaging all and sundry. If the protagonist is female, then this empathy with the user is lost and the material becomes less popular (well, I wouldn’t mind seeing a few female protagonist hentai…)
And third and sadly last, there is very very little pure yuri hentai out there anyway. Therefore, even if it would be a more true-to-life situation, it is unlikely that a company would produce material contrary to what is available in the market for fear of investing too much time and effort in a product which fills a niche that doesn’t actually shift enough units. Indeed, why go for something new and exciting when banging out the same old banal fuckmovies will fill the quota for the quarter just as well.
So it comes to a disappointing conclusion. I’ve discovered that BDSM in real life has a great potential for yuri – and exciting yuri at that with whips, chains, pinwheels, nipple clamps and a whole host of exciting equipment. However, hentai, like most mainstream pornography has to stick to it’s pre-programmed lines in order to adhere to it’s perceived needs of the audience and so cannot make use of this awesome opportunity. Perhaps if we wait long enough, then something of this ilk might arise, but until then…
Bring on the yuri rape!
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6 Responses to “Valentine’s Day Aftermath post – Some thoughts on BDSM and yuri…”
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February 16th, 2009 @ 1:04 am
sorry unrelated, but if you havn’t played magical battle arena you might wanna take a look >.> you could reinact the very yuri nativity lol :P
description
http://fly-system.net/product/mba
download
http://otakpc.blogspot.com/2009/01/pcmagical-battle-arena-lyrical.html/movie.htm#lyrical
^^ cheers
February 16th, 2009 @ 2:41 am
I think it is basic fact that most porn is fairly vanilla, whatever it’s origins. Even most frape porn after you get past the set-up is the same old song and dance. And let’s not get started on Western porn, hand-cam blowjobs are just boring. The issue is that fetishes are just mostly used as garnish for the standard pork and poke. Which is why a good deal of “lesbian” scences end with a guy in the bed too.
And you hit on the head about male masters, men run the world. You don’t need to have any kink in you to find that. Also let’s face facts few men can pull off a corset.
February 16th, 2009 @ 7:38 am
I’d agree with Jaden, fetishes are just very rare in porn. Hentai too, if you think about it. Doujins are a pretty small portion of hentai sold, consumed by a small section of the market. It’s just not economical to fool around with yuri BDSM. :( So much wasted potential!
Interestingly, there seems to be a larger amount of futa BDSM. Maybe because the fetish is quite related to the Femdom side of things, especially the futa on male side.
February 16th, 2009 @ 10:34 am
Bondage, my favorite aspect of yuri. Yuri, my favorite aspect of bondage. Oh, how I wish there were more in the world. It really is the only thing that is surefire to get me going, all other porn I just have to add my imagination (add an extra girl here, a ball-gag there). Why can’t more mangaka make the connection: more girls are awesome + more domination is awesome + ??? = PROFIT.
February 18th, 2009 @ 12:44 am
Got a link to the full size of that Haruhi image?
February 21st, 2009 @ 1:07 am
HEY Can I Get My Link Of The List