Monday, October 17, 2011

Cameryn Moore, the Phone Whore, in ABQ This Week!


The amazing performer Cameryn Moore is rolling into Albuquerque tonight! We have a great week lined up.

On Tuesday, October 18th, join us for Albuquerque's first ever Smut Slam! Details are:

Doors at 630pm, Slam starts at 7pm at Evolution Nightclub (formerly "Exhale"), 6132 4th St NW

$5/person, at the door

Check out full details here! Have a story to tell? Come out!

Cameryn will be performing her two incredible shows, Phone Whore and slut [r]evolution, Thursday Oct 20th thru Saturday, Oct 22nd.

You can purchase tickets here, or buy at the door. But note! If you buy early, you save $$!

Cameryn's one-woman shows have been described as "uplifting, brave, intelligent, and dark." Both plays have won awards at Fringe Fests across the country. We in Albuquerque are so fortunate to be part of Cameryn's 2011 tour! Don't miss the opportunity to see Cameryn Moore, Phone Whore, award-winning actress/writer, and sexual revolutionary!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Huge in-store Sale! Buy one, Get one 50% off All Sex Toys!

S A L E
 
Feel Good Fiesta!
 
 
Buy one, Get one 50% off
All Sex Toys!

 
Take advantage & stock up!  This sale only happens once a year!
Now through Monday, October 10
In stock items only, in store & phone orders only, excluding bdsm items

Friday, September 30, 2011

Leather Bear Tails: The eroticization of Breaking

So as my brain is fried, and I mean totally toast. So I am going to post an excerpt of my AEL presentation that I did last Monday. The part is called the eroticization of breaking, and it is about the concept of breaking the slaves will within the leather, BDSM, fetish, and kink community. Enjoy!!



Queue light and movie:


The Master (of whatever gender) is standing in the dungeon. At the Masters feet a crumpled mess of a slave (of whatever gender). The slave s heaves and trembles and gives. As the Master looks up across the dungeon the Master sees the one. The slave that the Master has been looking for. The Master steps over the sweaty lump on the floor and strides over to the slave in their eye sight. The Master grabs the slave roughly; the master beats, torments, fucks, and dominates the slave. While the slave takes it all giving every inch of themselves. And in the end the Maser knows that this one was the one worthy of the Master’s hands. The Master’s dominance, the Master’s collar. And so the slave is whisked away to become the Masters one and only. Having earned the Master’s love and eternal devotion though suffering.



End Movie.



In reality there are three parts to the process of breaking the will, and they are the intent, process, and outcome.



Masters generally tend to eroticize the intent and the process. They fantasize about the intent in terms of being able to punish and dominate without limitations. They carry out these fantasies in real time during the process and then are either unprepared or uninterested in the outcome.


For these Masters the broken slave holds no challenge or sexual excitement. So once the outcome is achieved they have a tendency to move on to their next challenge.



The slave tends to eroticize the outcome, the thought that if they allow their will to be broken; if they give up the most intimate parts of themselves then they have earned the reward of the Masters love and care. The slave may not see themselves as the one destroyed laying on the floor, and passed over, instead they see themselves as the one the Master sees across the dungeon.



When it comes to the breaking of the will, here are some real time questions to ask about the realities of this act.


1) What does being broken mean? Does it mean that the person will not be able to make even basic decisions? Like dressing, bathing, or eating? Does it mean that the Master feels powerful no matter what the slave actually thinks or feels?



2) Can someone who has no will technically consent? To be able to consent you have to be of sound mind, and free from duress and or coercion. So what if the Master has an intent that they purposefully do not tell the slave, is what happens in the end still consent? If it is the Master’s intent to break the will of the slave to get access to the slaves bank account and then leave. Is it still consent? If it is the Master’s intent to break the will of the slave to force them away from their other relationships, is it still consent? If the Master breaks the will of that particular slave to get access to their children, is it still consent?



3) What is the Masters responsibility to someone they have broken, if and or when they leave the relationship? Are they responsible to help reestablish the sense of self? Give back the funds? Pay for therapy?



4) And finally what happens when it all goes wrong? Since breaking someone is all about the Master’s interpretation as to whether or not the slave is broken, what if the Master goes too far? What is the slave has a significant mental or emotional breakdown from the experience? What if the slave wasn’t exactly honest about their emotional state to begin with and this experience pushed them over the edge? Or the slave was honest in what they thought that they wanted and what they thought they could handle and the breakdown happens anyway?



What if after the whole process the slave is legitimately not ok and the experience pushes them to the point where they retaliate or become a danger to the Master or themselves? It is not out of the realm for unstable people pushed to the edge self harm, stalk, or threaten others.



What is the Master thought that they could do this, and in the end the Master is not ok?




I guess by now you can all tell what my personal opinion of breaking is. I pose these questions, not because I have answers but because I don’t have answers and they need to be asked.



I am not saying that a certain amount of breaking doesn’t happen throughout the lifetime of the relationship. What I am saying is that when the intent is to break someone the Master has to be prepared for the outcome, even if the outcome isn’t pretty.






If you are interested in play parties, hands on workshops or power munches in the Albuquerque area please contact the 20 year organization of AEL at:

aelmailing@gmail.com

If you are interested in an active online community please find:

Fetlife.com

Group Name:

New Mexico Fetlifers

Friday, September 23, 2011

Hysteria and Technology in the Bedroom


You may laugh hysterically when you learn the history of the vibrator.  Rachel Maines was one of the first writers to bring the fascinating story of our favorite electrical device to the public with her book, The Technology of Orgasm.  We learned early electric vibrators were used in medical treatment for women with hysteria.  Women, of course, had vague, persistent symptoms of fatigue, depression or exhaustion.  Women were often diagnosed with hysteria, and physicians feared their wombs were lost and floating around their bodies.

What new-fangled device could help?  The Vibrator of course!

Doctors once had to relieve women of hysteria via "manual assistance," and the vibrator was a labor-saving device, indeed!  Women would experience paroxysms (now known as orgasms) after application of the machines, and voila- hysterical symptoms were relieved.

The Toronto Film Festival premiered the film Hysteria in early September, featuring Maggie Gyllanhaal.  This film is a realistic account of the doctor who invented the vibrator in the 1880s.

Maines' book, the film Hysteria and the documentary Passion and Power (a movie Self Serve hosted at the Guild in Albuquerque) all lead us to believe it was common for Victorian women to receive medical treatments for hysteria at the hands of midwives and doctors of the day. 

There is debate in the academic world (redundant sentence already?) about the accuracy of these accounts of vibrator use.  In a shame-filled, Victorian society, some historians argue vibrator treatments were not quite so common, and certainly not acceptable socially.

Of course we can speculate about cultural norms and attitudes during the early days of vibrator use, but the stories are entertaining nonetheless.  I love how such history proves how our attitudes about sexuality, sex toys and how orgasms work is all so relative to our time, place and context.  Our attitudes about technology have changed drastically, and in most areas of life technology is ubiquitous now.  But still in 2011, many intelligent adults still feel shame, embarrassment and confusion over their desire to use technology in the bedroom.

Many folks talk to us at Self Serve about how they shouldn't need lubricant or shouldn't need a vibrator.  There is so much guilt in our culture over using a motorized little gadget as a labor-saving device for getting off.  At the same time, do you mail your letters only via post to prove a point?  Are you not reading this here blog on a computer?

I hope as more stories of sex toy history emerge, and the discussion comes to light, that more adults will shed their guilt, pick up these modern labor-saving devices, and enjoy their benefits.  You won't regret it.

Read more about the film Hysteria...

Leather Bear Tails: Vacation brain and AEL Monday!!

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.