Veiled Suggestions

There's something about veils....

As many of you know, in Western culture, brides traditionally wore veils to show they were under someone's authority: first their fathers' (thus their fathers walking them down the aisle), then their husbands'. Looked at another way, the brides weren't meant for everyone to see; they were meant to be enjoyed by their "owners" alone. The Bible also says women should weir veils over their heads as a symbol of authority - not a symbol of their own authority, but of God's authority over them. Of course, no such command is given to men. ;-/

But enough of the pedantry. When a model wears a veil a certain way, I can imagine that she's not really an individual anymore, not under her own control. Just as her face is obscured, her voice is obscured. Her mind is obscured. She has become less than a person, more of a possession. A body half-seen, half hidden, with just enough mind left to obey her owner's commands.

The photographer Mastertouch seems to get this, posing a lot of models under veils in ways that make them look like slaves, MC'ed or otherwise. The picture above is by him, and here are six more - one with bonus gas mask. The last of the six is his favorite model Meluxine; the others are women you probably don't know by name...which is, of course, entirely in keeping with my subject. ;-)

Now here are three models you do know by name. From left to right, we have Ulorin Vex photographed by Lorraine Gilligan, Angela Ryan photographed by Laura Dark, and Apnea photographed by Lithium Picnic. Interestingly enough, on Deviant Art, Ulorin Vex titled the photograph of her "Broken Bride." I can look at her hollow eyes and imagine this is the final step in a long, long process of brainwashing that resulted in her permanent, formal binding to her Mistress.

Now here's a collection of random photos I've collected from Model Mayhem over the last few years. You might or might not have heard of these people, but I believe in proper attribution of images, and anyway you might want to look them up and find more of their work.

First up is Aria Lee, photographed by sideshowsito, whose work I've featured before on this blog. Next is Sindel Chaos by Chad Michael Ward, and then we have someone or other photographed by artographic.

Lastly, here are Miss Mourning, someone or other photographed by Uberdog, and Felice Fawn.

I hope you've enjoyed this tour through the twisted passages of my mind, and that you'll come back for more.

Busy, busy

It's another extra-heavy work week for me, so I don't have a lot of time to post this morning. But here's a little teaser for what I plan to write about this weekend. The model is Sio, and the photographer is Mastertouch.

Now...where might I be going with this? ;-P

Vibrating nipple pads. 'Nuff said.

Here's another "not what I intended to post" post. I just found the following video via a link from Fark and laughed my ass off.

Sweet robot lovin'

I was going to write about my superheroine-gets-MC'ed dream from last night, but then I ran across this entry on io9. It's even better. Cyriaque Lamar has taken the time to catalog 15 robot-love videos of varying awesomeness, and the commenters below the post have added several more.

Right at the top of the page is that gorgeous Bjork video I blogged about once before, so I won't repost it here. There's also a video of Dana Scully (a.k.a. Gillian Anderson, and don't bother telling me it's really the other way around ;-P) chanting about dirty deeds with an automaton. But this is the one I liked the best, aside from Bjork's. It would not surprise me a bit to find out Janelle Monáe has read A Tenpack of Trixies.

Enjoy!

The lesbians' Judy Garland and other celebrities

You might or might not have noticed, but I've been on a huge Muse kick lately. I'd heard a few of the band's songs before and liked them (sometimes without knowing it was them), but I didn't realize just how phenomenal they were until I downloaded a few of their albums and saw a few of their videos on YouTube. I didn't realize how phenomenal Matt freaking Bellamy was. So now I've got my beloved totally hooked, and I've found out through conversations that Lady K and another real-life lesbian friend are also fans. And even though my slash-loving friend likes show tunes rather than rock, she at least appreciates Bellamy's talent.

All this has led to some interesting conversations. For instance, I told Slash-Friend about Beloved's joke that we should have Matt come dance around our bed, and I added that it probably wouldn't take Matt long to jump on the pile. So Slash-Friend asked if that would make us jump out, and I said only Beloved would leave. I'd stay; I'd just be careful about what I let Matt put where. ;-P It was at this point that Slash-Friend suggested Matt Bellamy might be the lesbians' Judy Garland.

On a (barely) related note, Lady K and I have also been discussing the pro's and con's of not-quite-out celebrities staying not-quite-out rather than making a formal announcement of their orientation. We talked about newsman Anderson Cooper in particular, but the same would naturally apply to Jodie Foster. They never pretend to date people of the opposite sex, and Cooper is frequently photographed with his partner. So why don't they just come on out and admit it? It would do so much good for the LGBT community, especially for young people who need healthy role models.

On the other hand, it took Johnny Weir ages to make his formal announcement, but was there ever even a shred of doubt about him? I don't think there's much doubt about the other two, either. So maybe, just maybe, they feel as if they don't need to make a formal announcement. Maybe they're making a different kind of statement by not making a statement. Suppose they're saying, "My orientation doesn't define me; it's just a part of who I am. I want to be respected as a person, not a spokesperson." In an ideal world, we all would be respected as people, regardless of orientation - or race, or gender, or any of a thousand other unimportant characteristics. That might be what Cooper and Foster are aiming for. Or I could be totally off the mark. *shrug*

Do we really need every single famous GLBT to make a formal announcement? I'm not sure. Part of me says yes, that we have to make our presence known in order to get the rights we deserve. But another part of me says there's more than one way to make our presence known. I think about the Civil Rights movement of the '60's, when Martin Luther King, Jr., promoted peaceful reform and Malcolm X called for change at any cost. Then there were all the other famous and not-so-famous figures of that time who worked for reform in their own ways. Some marched, some donated, some took or refused particular bus seats, and so on. Is there really only one way to bring about change? Does everyone have to do exactly the same thing?

I have to believe there are as many different ways to promote GLBT rights are there are ways to be GLBT. I do see Anderson Cooper and Jodie Foster as role models, just as I see Ellen Degeneres and Neil Patrick Harris as role models. Furthermore, I pity the celebrities who don't come out because they're not famous enough to get away with it, and I applaud the celebrities who almost come out even though they're not famous enough to get away with it (Queen Latifah and Zachary Quinto, I'm talking to you).

I still wrestle with the issue, but in the end, the only famous GLBT's I condemn are those who preach hate against their own. I could name several prominent politicians and religious figures at this point, but I don't want to make this a "gripe" post. It's more of a "musing" post, with a bit of fun thrown into the mix. Not that I have any real knowledge of Matt's Bellamy's feelings on GLBT rights, but I hope you enjoy the image of him dancing around my bed. I certainly do!

And yes, I'd totally give Matt a blow job.

These are a few of my favorite things: eggs and pods

What is it about women being stored in and/or hatching from eggs and pods? They're pretty much a staple of mind control erotica, and the doubly-talented William Lee provides one excellent example at left here. But plenty of (as far as I know) non-EMC-fetishists take up the subject themselves. I don't see what they get out of it, unless it's just the alienness. *shrug* Whatever it is, I don't mind a bit. Let me show you a few of my favorites.

First, a bit of artwork. Here's a stuntkid piece flanked by two Boris Vallejo paintings.

And now, just to prove it can be done (well, sort of), here are two photos of Kumi Monster taken by Chris Young (left) and Fetish Live (right), an Angela Ryan shot by Stephen McClure, and below them a couple of pics from the Hart-Worx website.

Yes, I featured the Hart-Worx images once before, but you don't really mind seeing them again, do you? ;-P

Sparklewren

I really love corsets - and not just the latex ones, either. The girly side of me appreciates the silk and the rich colors and the intricate patterns of - what would you call them? Arthouse corsets? I don't know, but I know what I like.

I discovered Sparklewren through Ivory Flame's blog. They have some incredibly beautiful pieces - and some fetishy ones, too, for those of you who don't like anything too "pretty." ;-) I almost used the picture at right in my recent steampunk post, but I'm not sure this outfit entirely qualifies as steampunk; and anyway, I wanted to do a post about Ivory Flame and Sparklewren all by themselves.

I'm not going to post as many pictures as I usually do because I know corsets like these aren't necessarily to fetishists' tastes. But perhaps you can imagine an MC element in the pictures below. Ivory Flame says on her blog that wearing this outfit made her feel like a "spoilt madam," but IMO, she doesn't have the forcefulness of personality to be a real madam. She's just too soft, too essentially passive. So, looking at these pictures, I like to imagine that she thinks she's the madam, but she's really just a mind-controlled puppet, expanding her Mistress's harem. Then the harem girls seduce more of New Orleans' leading citizens (This has to be New Orleans, right?), who seduce more and more themselves, and eventually the entire city falls under the control of Ivory's hidden Mistress.

All pictures by Sean Elliott.