Treats for the Strange

Welcome to Treats for the Strange. I update erratically, whenever I feel the need to share something in my very pansexual collection.

Treats for the Strange is for anyone with a love of sexuality, art and kink.

Welcome.

Chest and neck corset piercing

An interesting place to have the corset piercings. I'd never seen a picture of them done on the neck before.

Tender

This artist put some loving detail into the tender dominance between these two. Beautiful work by Phoenix Rising.

Tentative first step

I don't think I need to describe this picture.

Longing to submit

Again, one of my blog's permanent pictures. It's a good photo and an interesting pose. Makes me think of all the lonely bottoms who are longing for a top. She looks as if she wants to lose herself to submission... but it's very difficult to submit to yourself.

Almost there

Many things I like about this. The shirt bondage, the genital bondage, their expressions and how very hard the bottom is stretching. I think I found this on male submission art.

RACK vs SSC

I've found lots of wonderful essays at Within Reality, lots of things that many of us have noticed and ranted about quietly. I will post one of these essays (maybe more in the future) but I highly recommend you read through more than what I post.

More specifically, I recommend you read Online vs Real life D/sRespect and Protocol and Collars in BDSM.

This is the best explanation and argument of RACK vs SSC that I have ever read.





Rack vs. SSC



RACK = Risk Aware Consensual Kink
SSC = Safe Sane Consensual


SSC has been the BDSM slogan for many years. It is the catch phrase that a lot of people use in the community. RACK has surfaced in the last several years. I would like you to consider the intent or spirit in the differences in the terms SSC and RACK


Here is how Webster’s defines….Safe, Sane, and Consensual. 


Safe
1 : free from harm or risk : UNHURT 


Sane
1 : proceeding from a sound mind : RATIONAL
2 : mentally sound; especially : able to anticipate and appraise the effect of one's actions 
3 : healthy in body 


Consensual
1 a : existing or made by mutual consent without an act of writing (a consensual contract)
b : involving or based on mutual consent (consensual acts) 


===================================


Risk
1 : possibility of loss or injury : PERIL 
2 : someone or something that creates or suggests a hazard 


Aware
1 : archaic : WATCHFUL, WARY 
2 : having or showing realization, perception, or knowledge - aware·ness noun


Consensual
1 a : existing or made by mutual consent without an act of writing (a consensual contract)
b : involving or based on mutual consent (consensual acts)


Kink
1 : a short tight twist or curl caused by a doubling or winding of something upon itself 
2 a : a mental or physical peculiarity : ECCENTRICITY, QUIRK b : WHIM 
3 : a clever unusual way of doing something 
4 : a cramp in some part of the body 
5 : an imperfection likely to cause difficulties in the operation of something 


SSC… safe sane consensual...when you say it out loud it seems pretty clear. So you are either safe or not, sane or not, consensual or not, right? But how does each of us define and set the standard for SSC is unclear. 


RACK…the intent of RACK is education and awareness. You should try to know as much as you can about what you are doing...be aware of the risk. Do you consent or have cosent - and also know the different forms it takes. If you are aware of your risk and you consent to it - go forward. That is the "spirit" of RACK. There is no, "this is safe and this is not." There is only safer and less safe.


The difference between the two terms is even more clear when the spirit of them is applied in the public scene.


When watching a scene that may involve some heavy risk you might hear the person next to you whisper to their partner "they shouldn't do that...its unsafe…that is a dangerous Dominant" - that is the spirit of SSC.


If you hear whispered "I wonder if he knows the risk involved in doing that....I wonder if he does "this" it could be made safer....I think I will tell him about it later after his scene" - that is the "spirit" of RACK. 


Just as we might look at a shade of blue and someone calls it midnight blue and I might call it navy blue. We all see things differently. We all react to things differently - so how can I say that something is unsafe for someone when we are different and handle/deal with life differently. 


Another example: blood play may be a hard limit for someone and they may feel that it is NOT safe or sane plus they would never consent to it. Someone else may enjoy blood play and feel that it is safe and sane, and they frequently consent to it. With SSC, one of those people has to be right and the other person has to be wrong. It can't be both ways.


The spirit of SSC has become one of you either are or you are not safe, sane and consensual. And that is completely relative. The intent of RACK is not what others think you should or shouldn't risk, but that of increasing awareness and making informed decisions on what you choose to risk. 


© within Reality: danae 2003 - all rights reserved 

Coy

I just love the coy expression and pose the bottom has, and the way the top is holding his hair. Wonderful.

Art by DarkBullet and LaCalaca.

Double coin knot kinbaku

Another gem from vishstudio. Beautiful use of the double coin knot.

Reaching suspension


Some beautiful suspension. I especially love the reaching hands and the feeling of trust and peace.

Quiet submission


Submission can be so quiet.

I found it on malesubmissionart.com.

Kiss on the neck


Kissing on the neck is one of the most controlling, powerful, sexy ways to kiss.

Serving as a table

Objectification. Nude, flexible boy as a table for your wine and your fruit. I believe this is meant to be Dionysus or Ganymede, however I can't seem to find the artist. The wine, the snake tattoo, the nude young man, the grapes, all seem to point towards Dionysus.

Symbols

Just thought I'd share some BDSM symbols today.

Leather pride flag. Possibly the latex pride flag as well, never was too clear on that.

 Symbol for a male bottom.
Symbol for a male top.

I can't find the equivalent female symbols, but I imagine they would be a cross in the same shapes.

This is the 'owned' flag. See someone wearing this? They're owned. Don't touch.

 Pansexual symbol.
Polyamorous symbol.
BDSM symbol. The three parts are meant to be 'bondage and discipline', 'sadism and masochism' and 'dominance and submission'. Though it could also be 'top', 'bottom' and 'switch', or safe, sane and consensual if you use SSC instead of RACK.


Power

Old fashioned black and white photos are wonderful. Especially kinky ones. The power and strength the top is feeling is clear. A dominant gets his or her power from their submissive and it feels clear in this photo that this dominant is getting plenty from his submissive.

male kinbaku

This is from vishstudio. The photographer does a lot of interesting photography work with rope bondage. There are so few photos of men in this kind of rope bondage and so many of women. It's nice to see kinbaku on men as well as ladies.

Two girls suspended

More beautiful work from ropetopia.com. I've always loved photos that cut off parts of the models faces. And I love that the girls have normal girl shapes that come equipped with chub.

Tranarchism

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Clothespins

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Corset piercing art

As you can probably guess from the side of my blog, I love this photo. I don't feel it needs a description.

Here's an interesting link on corset piercings.

Rope corset

A rope corset. People don't usually understand how much care and time is put into fine rope work until they actually try it. It's worth the effort for a photo such as this.

The texture of the rope against her skin combined with some really beautiful rope work makes this a great photo.

Formal fetish wear

Beautiful fetish wear. I'm very fond the artist's work and other posts. He's quite interesting. He posts a great deal of trans, BDSM, gender and BDSM-safety related art and literature. Definitely worth a read and a look.

Also, I'm in love with the fetish-wear he creates for his characters.

Bowing

A woman bows with her head against the floor, a chain wrapped around her waist.

I love the atmosphere of this picture, but the chain actually feels a bit distracting, as does the angle of her head and the position of her hands. I would much prefer she be facing the floor, palms flat, with the chain either gone or wrapped tightly enough around her waist to be useful.

Still, the sensation of a cold chain being drawn over naked skin is quite unique.

Relaxed and bound

A man lies on bedsprings, bound naked with his hands behind his back. He looks relaxed, despite the fact that bedsprings are probably very uncomfortable.

Suspended

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Practical Skills Training


Practical skills training is perhaps the area with the largest variety in training that a new submissive might be exposed. For the purposes of this discussion I will divide practical skills training into three main areas; domestic skills, social skills and artistic expression.



Domestic Skills

Domestic skills training is primarily concerned with real-life, D/s relationships where part of a submissive’s duties relate to maintaining a dominant’s household. As an example, a submissive either male or female, might become responsible for meal preparation and if he or she lacks the food preparation skills to prepare the kind of fare preferred by the dominant, the dominant might choose to have the submissive enroll in culinary courses to become a more accomplished cook.

In addition to cooking, there are a host of others domestic related skills that I have known of a submissive being required to acquire, either from outside sources or from in-house training provided by the dominant. One former Domme assigned me to perform general housecleaning chores at her home and while for the most part I was quite competent with regard to cleaning, she had some particular results in mind and so spent a considerable amount of time educating me to her particular standards of cleanliness and methods for obtaining them. This included both demonstrations and a good deal of personal supervision until she was satisfied that I could provide the results she was looking for.

I have also known other subs who were required to learn to do things like sew and assemble specific outfits for use in scenes with their dominants and to learn skills like spinning, weaving and furniture refinishing. It is not at all uncommon for male subs who live with their dominant to be required to acquire the necessary skills to accomplish minor household repairs and vehicle maintenance tasks if they lack those skills at the outset.

If one belonged to a dominant who enjoyed outdoor activities such as camping, it could easily be expected that the dominant would instruct a submissive in skills like building a campfire, setting up a tent and outdoor cookery.

Social Skills

Social skills training that might be expected to be received by a submissive whose dominant enjoys entertaining and hosting home parties might include learning formal serving practices, place settings and presentation skills. Acquiring or brushing up on social etiquette skills is another possibility for those charged with preparing, sending out and responding to social invitations.

In some relationships, the submissive becomes in a very real sense, a personal assistant to the dominant and may be called upon to answer personal correspondence, return telephone calls and the like. Thus, a submissive without good letter writing skills might receive personal instruction from the dominant, some other qualified person or simply be provided with appropriate written resources to help them develop letter writing skills.

Artistic Expression

The obvious skills related to artistic expression that a submissive might be expected to acquire include learning to dance, sing, play a musical instrument, paint or write stories or poetry. I once knew a submissive who had very poor writing skills when she met her first Dom because she had always disliked writing. He insisted that she improve those skills by taking creative writing courses and in time she became a rather accomplished erotic fiction writer.

Craft making is another area related to artistic expression and a submissive might be called on to learn skills associated with making BDSM specific jewelry or BDSM toys and equipment like restraints, floggers, etc. I was once required to design and make a “humbler” CBT device because a former Mistress desired to employ one in our scenes and wished to save me the expense of purchasing a commercial model.

The kinds of practical skills training that a submissive might expect to receive are really limited only by the interests, desires and creativity of his or her dominant. The primary purpose of practical skills training is to enable the submissive to provide more competent and pleasing service and to help them become a more well-rounded person overall.


From BDSM library.