Wednesday, June 15, 2011

O My

A bit more on The Story of O, now that I've finished it:

It certainly reads like a French novel, especially with the large amounts of indirect dialogue. ("He asked her if she'd been to see him, and she said she had." etc.) Considering it was first published in 1954, it wasn't nearly as misogynist as I feared it would be. There was still cringe-worthy material, to be sure, such as the descriptions of O's attraction to men vs. women, but the importance of consent featured fairly prominently in the story, and overall I found it a reasonably accurate portrayal of why a sub decides to submit (with some leeway given for the realm of fantasy that the story lives in).

I could also see a lot of similarities between the traditions and lifestyle depicted in the book and traditions practiced today in the kink community: the love of corsets and plush, anachronistic surroundings; the use of masks; even the way the slaves are trained to sit. I wonder, however, if the present-day kink community was influenced by the book, or if the book was describing traditions that already existed. It's something I'd like to look more in to.

It also gave me some ideas of things I'd like to try. For one, I'd like to try bondage with things other than rope. I know leather straps are a bit cliche, but there is definitely an aesthetic appeal there. Getting flogged/cropped on my thighs is also intriguing. Master and I have discussed the idea of whoring me out to other people, but that's not something we'll probably be doing anytime soon.

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