sexuality Archive

Are ray gun vibrators steampunk? (PICS)

Are ray gun vibrators steampunk?

by Amelia G : September 12th, 2010

Are ray gun vibrators steampunk? This is the sort of question I lie awake at night contemplating.

Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction/fantasy/speculative fiction, which builds on the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne. Now H. G. Wells and Jules Verne were both geniuses and can be forgiven for imagining future technology as based on 19th century inventions and future values as growing out of a Victorian sensibility. They both came of age in the 1800’s, so they’d have a reason for this.

Personally I love the steampunk aesthetic. It’s, ya know, really really pretty. When I see all that broken or antique clockwork and gears, though, I admit I think Salvador Dali or William Faulkner. I think of the poetry of broken or past time, the ephemeral nature of humanity’s existence. I don’t think that I wish I were born in a time when American women could not vote and men were supposed to sexually overload at the sight of a table leg without a skirt on it.

Blue Blood steampunk nicotine lady clankington amelia g forrest black raygun vibrator

Blue Blood readers will be familiar with the lovely Nicotine, who portrays Lady Clankington, as part of the tongue-in-cheek history of the little death ray sex toy rayguns line designed by “mad Dr. Visbaun”. Lady Clankington always wears steampunk couture garments from Brute Force Studios. The mad scientist behind . . .

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Alt- vs. Fetish

Kumi posted a blog entry where she talks about not viewing fetish and alt-modeling as related at all. I both agree and don’t. I guess in theory, I disagree, but, in practice, what she observes is often dead-on how this currently goes in the real world. I wanted to share a quick thought of mine on the topic and also direct folks to what she wrote: Alt- vs. Fetish

I discussed this with Michelle Olley years ago, when she was at Skin Two, and we were both trying to promote having models with unusual haircuts and tattoos and dramatic makeup and such in fetish areas. And meeting with resistance. Looking punk or goth-industrial or whatever and showing up to the BDSM party was not always the way to elicit the friendliest welcome in those days. The handcuffs on my leather jacket at the time were fully functional and one of the reasons I founded Blue Blood was precisely to celebrate an aesthetic which resonated with me sexually. 17 years later, I am less impressed by a daring hairstyle than I once was, partly because it takes less courage to rock one in a post-internet world, but I’m still enough of a fetishist there that I will look at two people with the same basic level of appeal and think the one with the mohawk is way hotter.

Something which troubles me deeply is that a lot of people have reinterpreted alt to be where girls (not women) who do not make the grade can put on wigs and LARP like they are modeling. These are generally girls who do not want to have to develop their minds or even their cooking skills, but they do not want to hit the gym either. So they call themselves altmodels and you are supposed to like them for their looks alone, without requiring them to look good.

Certain corporate players in the marketplace have aggressively attempted to de-sexualize alt. But a few more loathsome humans in the overall society doesn’t make liking music and subculture-influenced looks not a fetish.

Vampire Con Panel and Photography

Vampire Con Panel and Photography

by Amelia G : August 12th, 2009

vampire con hollywoodIt is no secret that I love the vampire genre. I received Honors at Wesleyan University for my thesis on vampire legends as a paradigm for aggressive human sexuality. And I would like the record to show that I will be speaking on exactly that topic this weekend at Vampire Con in Hollywood. I’ll be taking part in the panel programming Sunday afternoon, after the movie nights, and before Vampirella’s Ball (more on this in a moment.) I’m excited that Wendi Mirabella and Lotti Pharriss Knowles have put Vampire-Con together.

The panel I am on is called Hot-Blooded: Vampires & Sexuality and is at 1pm at the Henry Fonda Theater on Hollywood Blvd. It will be moderated by David J. Skal, Author of Hollywood Gothic and V Is For Vampire: The A-Z Guide Of Everything Undead. I’m especially excited that Pam Keesey, who I’m looking forward to catching up with will be on the panel. She is the editor of multiple anthologies of lesbian vampire tales, Women Who Run with the Werewolves: Tales of Blood, Lust, and Metamorphosis, and Vamps: An Illustrated History of the Femme Fatale. Pam Keesey has a very engaging personality, has published yours truly, and once gave me a tour of Forrest Ackerman’s memorabilia collection. Other panelists are Hal Bodner, author of Bite Club: A West Hollywood Vampire Tale, filmmaker Fred . . .

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