Bondage Makes The Slavegirl
In the course of reviewing a Gorean tumblr site, Pat Powers got sidetracked into a delightful rant about the necessary elements of female slave imagery:
Whoever created the images shares my view of what slavegirls should look like: hot, naked, sexy, beautifully made up and so forth, and wearing lots of barbaric jewelry and ornamentation. What many of them DON’T seem to get is that they should also be wearing bondage gear: collars, cuffs and shackles.
Now I’m sure many of these image creators and their fans might argue: slavegirls don’t go around all the time in shackles and collars (nipple rings and pussy rings work too!). True enough, but the problem with no bondage gear is that you’ve got nothing to distinguish between a free woman having sexy time and a slavegirl having sexy time. The point of a slavegirl is that she is in bondage, she can be tied up or chained up at any moment by her owner. That’s what gives her that very sexy dom/sub edge. And since your image of the slavegirl is the only reference the audience has for the slavegirl, MAKE HER LOOK LIKE A FRICKING SLAVEGIRL WHY DONCHA? If she’s not actually tied or chained to something or someone, have her AT LEAST wearing the fricking gear that will make it possible to SEE that they’re SLAVEGIRLS! The collars, cuffs and shackles can be made of precious metals that are encrusted with jewels or wrought with intricate designs, but dammit, make them thick and heavy enough and with at least one inset ring that can be used to bind them securely, so they’ll look like slavegirls.
I cannot find it in my heart to disagree with so much as a single word.
Elsewhere on Bondage Blog:
Well, thanks for the kind words. You’d think I wouldn’t have to EXPLAIN stuff like that to people who work in visual media, but it gets missed so often by people DOING slavegirly photography and video that it’s kind of hard for me to get mad at mainstream people who make the same mistake … but somehow, I manage to!
Back in the day, I felt that this was a sort of deliberate dodge to avoid censorship and censoriousness; draw the girl kneeling with her arms behind her head, but it’s up the viewer to decide for himself if her wrists are tied.
These days? There’s just no excuse.