Female gaze, spankee gaze
Well, the Dreams of Spanking concept has now been released into the wild, and the pre-launch page is open to the public. I've been thrilled by the positive response so far. Thanks so much to all who have signed up to our mailing list, followed us on twitter, left positive comments on photos and written emails. It's been great to see others sharing my excitement about this project. Thanks also to those who have sent constructive criticism and feedback which has enabled us to improve aspects of the site, especially our introductory text on the homepage.
If you haven't signed up to the mailing list yet, please consider doing so - I'll be sending out chatty, fortnightly updates on site progress, and the newsletter will be the first place I'll post the link to free preview galleries as I make them. There's a sign up form on the homepage and at the bottom of most other site pages.
I've wanted to post these vintage photo montages since I first saw them on Chross' blog, but they fit the Dreams of Spanking idea so perfectly I've been holding off until the URL was made public. Check these out:
Aren't they wonderful? I love the facial expressions of the daydreamer, and the contrast between her lustful body language on the bench, and her submissive postures in the daydream. I'm seriously tempted to recreate this series as a full photoset for the site :)
But the most exciting thing about these images, to me, is that they represent an early example of female gaze spanking erotica. Not only female gaze, in fact - but spankee gaze.
Feminism is only a small part of my politics. Yes, I think porn in general would be improved if it represented more women's fantasies, and included more things women tend to like (such as intense psychological situations, or intimacy, or male bodies for women who like men). But in the specific case of kink and spanking, I think there is just as much a need for the spankee's gaze (or submissive gaze, or bottom gaze, or whatever language you prefer), both male and female.
So many kinky porn sites have been made by tops, and for tops, that tops' fantasies see the most representation. As a bottom, I much prefer to watch porn made by bottoms, because I find it more accurately reflects my own desires. That's not a gender thing - I am just as interested in watching F/M and M/M spanking scenarios written by male bottoms as I am in watching material written by female bottoms.
Of course, this is personal as well as political: I'm a woman and a bottom, and there's nothing I can do about that, so it's inevitable that in making films and images of my own fantasies I will be representing female and spankee desires. But it's also a conscious choice - in response to what I see as a cultural imbalance - to accurately represent my own desires, my own fantasies, even if I'm told that's a poor business decision.
Well, the internet is full of people making porn catering to what they think men want, and porn catering to what they think tops want. I've always felt that the best porn was that which accurately reflected the desires of the pornographer. You write what you know, and it's easier to get it right if you share the fantasy you're creating. I think that lots of people - women, bottoms, men, tops - would enjoy watching things from a different perspective, and I'm not the first or only person to think that.
Here's to all the women, to bottoms, to spankees and submissives making kinky porn that reflects a complementary side of The Thing We Do. I'm really excited to be part of this movement towards greater diversity in porn, and I hope that some people share my ideas about what makes spanking scenes worth watching.
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Wonderful :-)
Have signed up to the newsletter, and await developments with great interest. :-)
Motley Wanderer
Thankyou!
The name took a while to reach, but it's become completely embedded. I like that it works as a noun and a verb. I like that it's a step away from the usual pr0ntastic vocabulary. It's a little long, but it's memorable and spellable, so that's okay. And as soon as the possibilities inherent in "[Name] dreams of spanking..." occurred to me, there was no going back :)
Have you read Indy's recent post about how M/M scenes appeal to females in much the same way as F/F scenes appeal to males. Female gaze indeed.
From what we see of it so far, your new "Dreams of Spanking" site looks attractive and artistic. Good name too!
Female gaze
Thanks for the compliments - I'm glad you like the site. I'm building the full paysite behind the scenes at the moment and I can assure you, that is going to be so much more shiny ;)
M/M
The site is beautiful :-) Well done, and we eagerly anticipate lots more!
Pretend enjoying
The proper actual site is going to be much prettier, but it's nice to get at least the feel of the brand out there - and lovely to finally be able to talk about the project openly!
Thank you for doing the hard work of realizing so many of our dreams!
<3!
Dream
There is nothing in the world like day dreaming....Keep your dreams alive, Lady..
Best of,
Bryan
Re: Dream
Lovely!
Re: Lovely!
Thanks for the luck - I have huge amounts of work still to do, so I'm going to need it!
Spankee Gaze Curiosity
As a top, I hadn't thought much about how a bottom's "gaze" might be different, other than to be opposite mine. But now thinking about it, I realize that's as ignorant as thinking a [het] woman's gaze is simply the reverse of a [het] man. And I've been in enough relationships to know that's not the case!
Thank you for bringing this enlightenment into my world. I'm really looking forward to seeing things more from your perspective.
Best Regards,
Quai
Re: Spankee gaze curiosity
The whole "gaze" thing is tricky to talk about, because of course I can't speak for all women/all bottoms, only for myself. And I'm not even sure I could tell you what a bottomy gaze *is* in a general sense.
There are some physical emphases that can be made though. Like, finding the top attractive and presenting the top as sexy even if they're male rather than female. Perhaps focussing on the top's hands/forearms/voice/eyes. Or having some POV camera angles looking up at them (although I think a pure bottom's POV spanking film would be rather dull - lots of carpet and not much else!)
I also get a bit frustrated by how much overlap there is between the feminist/female gaze porn movement, and the queer/indie porn movement, which results in a load of queer female gaze site but very little heterosexual/bisexual porn made by women for women. So I'm going to be doing some of that, too. :)
Ta!
So thankyou for the affirmation that my values are not as off-putting as the established porn industry would have you believe. Here's to a new way forward!
Dreamgaze
'Looking forward to the premier even more now. My guess is it'll quickly become the standard by which all other attempts at moving "towards a greater diversity in porn" will be measured.
Break a leg!
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