Equality in Pleasure

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Fun Is About To Be Had

The expression that says "Fun is about to be had by all." Emma Heart from Kink shoot 7197. 

Anne Hathaway Naked Tied and Smiling

Ever wondered what Anne Hathaway would look like if she were grinning on the set of a nude bondage shoot? Probably something like this! Image source: Hogtied.com.
Actually, it's not Anne Hathaway, it's Anne Hathaway celebrity clone Iona Grace, I first covered their look-alikeness here. This pic adds nothing to that story, I'm running it because I like the relaxed smile Grace wears in this image. Nice!

50 Shades of Gray Update: 20 Million Sold Worldwide

Picture this, times 20 million, in the minds of women worldwide. Oh, the times they are a-changing. Image source: Hogtied.com.
To a certain extent, writing about anything other than 50 Shades of Gray feels almost futile, it's that big a phenomenon. New sales figures show the book has sold 20 million copies worldwide.

I think by now the explanation for its success is in part its success: it now has "plausible deniability" going for it. The fact that everyone else is reading it makes it OK to read. You can enjoy the dirty, dirty scenes in the book knowing that you are not an extraordinary freak, or even out of the ordinary, while doing so. Like Slave Leia, it's entered the popular culture. It's "OK" to enjoy it.

But here's the thing. It's being described as a new "tentpole" book by traditional publishers. Such publishers have pretty much neglected their midlist books ... once the staple of the publishing industry ... in hopes that sales of one or two bestsellers will compensate for the lack of the lower-profit books.

Here's the thing, though. 50 Shades of Gray owes NONE of its success to the big publishers. It was a runaway bestseller as an e-book, long before Vintage Books moved in and made E.L. James a multimillion dollar offer she would not refuse. All the Vintage Books people did was add traditional sales to the success of 50 Shades of Gray as an e-book.

So, there is no guarantee that publishers can generate such sales in the future. They did not create the book's success in the first place. All they can do is jump on the bandwagon and hope that fan writers or erotic romance writers sends a new tentpole their way. It's no way to run an industry. In fact, it's down right stupid. Then again, we've seen bankers and politicians behave like idiots for years. Why shouldn't traditional publishers do the same? Personally, I hope the lot of them go out of business, if they can't do better than they have done.

Getting the Joke

Sure, right ... this will be my ticket to Hollywood. I'm sure I'll be working underneath a lot of famous Hollywood directors ... tell me another one!"
Ya know, we stay so busy being sexy and bondage-y that sometimes we forget just how fricking funny sexual bondage is. Well, I don't, but to judge from a lot of websites, plenty of others do.

Then you see a model like this flashing a big delighted grin while she's naked and chained wrist to ankle in a hogtie, because OF COURSE bondage is funny, and fun, and downright silly at times, and OF COURSE it makes you laugh if you're in a non-threatening environment when you do it. And you can't help but smile in response. A very good thing.

Image source: first found on Anything Like This, a tumbler site that reblogs bondage images, and has a good feel for good color and composition and most of all, interesting expressoins on the model's faces. An image search reveals it's been on a lot of sites, many of them Russian, so I'm betting one of the Russian bondage sites, but I'm not sure which.