Sometimes I bump into vintage BDSM pictures and I have finally realised that I have a bit of fetish for pictures from the 50′s or older Victorian style pictures. Another interesting aspect with some of these pictures is that they put the female in the center – Usually portrayed as a Dominant. Most of them are quite naive and innocent, but that’s what I find charming.
The aura of innocence is making the flirt with danger more obvious; A dangerous and controlling woman showing her powers by dominating this otherwise so strong man – But she is doing it with a smile on her lips, with an ease and in a way that makes it seem like it was natural to her. This is usually the general theme in these pictures that were on the covers of more shady literature.
As the years progressed the pictures became more obvious as the media got more daring. The innocent feelings were gradually fading as the covers from late 70′s aren’t playing with the insinuation of a feeling, a state of mind, any more. The play with symbols and iconic behaviour isn’t there, the women are depicted as more aggressive and evil – The glimpse in their eyes is totally gone.
I might be doing an overinterpretation, but it seems like a good part of the fun is gone and nothing is left for the imagination – And maybe that is why I feel like I do when I look at the picture from the late 70′s. BDSM is, to a great extent, about involving the brain in the play. When you do mindplay you mess with the submissive’s perception of reality, you play with the imagination of what is going to happen.
Maybe we should have more pictures in the daily flood of BDSM representations that washes over us, where we have to use our imagination?
After all, we are the kind of people that like to involve our brain when we play.
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