Gents! 5 Tips to Being Sexually Dominant

Has your partner asked for more domination in the bedroom? What better holiday gift than one of dominance? Now, if you're not sure whether this is exactly what your partner wants, do ask them – keep a constant and open communication.

With that, we've heard from ladies who want a dominant partner. We've heard from gents who want to be dominant, but they're afraid to hurt their partner. We get that. How lovely and nice of you. You should be proud that you're such a nice guy. No, seriously. But for now – if you've heard your partner ask you to dominate them, Portia Blush, our queen of dominance, has some ideas on how you can do just that.

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Being sexually dominated in the bedroom, although not a new fantasy by any means, is becoming less closeted. It's a more openly encouraged, erotic fantasy among women (think: Fifty Shades). More women are feeling safer about speaking out about their desire to dominated in the bedroom.

Maybe it's the popularity of books like Fifty Shades of Grey that are finally helping us feel comfortable and accepting of our own desires. Or maybe it's the readily accessible nature of sex-positive information on the internet. Whatever it is, we're asking for what we want. And what do we want? Well, it seems a lot of us want our partner to take sexual control of us!

Whether your girlfriend or wife just got finished reading Fifty Shades, or if it's been a long-time fantasy of hers, perhaps she has asked you to take the lead and be dominant in the bedroom. Now what?

Bringing this fantasy into fruition can be somewhat daunting, especially if you have no idea where to start. Here are 5 tips for learning how to be that dominant man your partner is lusting for!

#1 Talk, talk, and more talk

I know, you're probably thinking that talking things out will ruin the fantasy for her, but that is so not the case. You have to find out just what makes the fantasy so erotic for her for it to be effective. Communication is key to lubrication, I like to say! Is it just rougher, more animalistic sexual aggression she wants from you? Does she want to be tied up? Spanked over your knee? To be ordered about like a sex slave? Ask her what she finds erotic about being dominated by you, and you'll have the frame work you need to enjoy a whole new sexual adventure together!

#2 Feeling nervous? Try role play


It can be hard at first to try something new, or doesn't come naturally. You may have some reservations, or some inhibitions of your own, and find it difficult to trust your own instincts.

One of the best ways to help yourself through this is role-playing! Pretending to be someone else can help free you from the tape in your head that says, "I must be this way," and can allow you to let go and try something new. Be the Christian Grey she wants and she can be Anastasia. Be the teacher and she's the student, or maybe the cop, and she's the naughty law breaker! As En Vogue sang, "Free your mind, and the rest will follow."

#3 It's a two-way street

You have fantasies and desires too, as well as needs to be met just as your lovely lady wishing to submit does. Maybe there's something you want her to do for you. Perhaps you have wanted her to give you head in a specific way, or maybe you've thought about what it would be like to bend her over the dining room table and have your way with her from behind. Blending your desires with your lover's, in a harmonious way, will bring a symphony of erotic pleasure and fulfillment for the both of you. Power exchange is a dynamic in which we exchange power by giving our will to another, and that  can be a very sexy experience.

#4 Use your imagination

It’s very easy to get caught in the trappings of toys like ropes, paddles, and riding crops, and forget about the mental and emotional aspects of dominance and submission. Flex your mental muscles and use your imagination. Create an aura of dominance using just the way you move, speak (or don’t speak), and act. Look to characters from books and movies that you see as "dominant", or ask your partner who she thinks makes an incredibly sexy dominant male character! Find what inspires those feelings naturally in you, and make the role your own.

#5 Everyone loves toys

OK, so your partner really wants you to spank or paddle her – don't worry about spending a fortune on expensive toys right from the get-go. You don't need high-priced toys to have a good time. For spankings, everyone likes a god ole' fashioned, over-the-knee, bare-hand spanking. If you want to play around with different sensations, try the back side of a hairbrush, or a spatula! For more on spanking, check out Spanking 101.

No need to buy fancy restraints if you want to play with bondage! You can buy basic rope at your local hardware store or home improvement store, or try using silky scarves, too! You an also buy "bondage tape" for low-cost, which is a PVC tape that adheres to itself. It's cheap, easy to remove, and disposable too! Look around the home for potential tools – neck ties, scarves, and belts. Really, your imagination is the best toy you have, so play around and experiment! Most of all, have fun!

This is all a very basic starting point to begin your journey with. The best resource you have to discover your erotic map in playing with dominance and submission is each other. Find out what you both like, and what you'd like to try, and have fun discovering together. The possibilities are endless!

For questions on sexual dominance or submission, feel free to contact Portia via her blog! Also, e-mail reply@getlusty.com.

Seeking to shatter the myth that "nice girls don't talk about sex", and somehow trying to survive her mid-30's in suburbia without large doses of vodka, Portia Blush is a saucy Sapiosexual who shares with an infectious wit and a candid vulnerability about her explorations of sex, love, intimacy, kink, the occasional obsession, and everything in between; one true story at a time.

She has over 10 years experience playing Switchy in the BD/SM scene, and has explored a myriad of relationship configurations from monogamous to poly. She holds a BFA from some hoity-toity NYC art school, and still ponders the meaning of life on a regular basis. Follow her on Twitter @erogenousblog and Facebook and of course, ErogenoUS her blog.

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6 Ways to Be a Powerful & Loving Dominant

You've just read Fifty Shades of Grey, or maybe your partner has, and now your curiosity about BDSM play has seriously piqued. Taking the fantasy inspired by books, and bringing it into fruition in the bedroom may seem a little daunting at first. Especially to a beginning dom/me. Here at GetLusty, we believe that some fiction can become a reality, Portia Blush at ErogenoUS gives us five key ingredients that every dom/me should remember when beginning their new adventure into the world of BDSM play.

Definition: A domme is a female dominant also known as a dominatrix. A Dom is a male dominant, though these spellings are occasionally interchanged. These are also interchanged with top and bottom.

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#1 Communication

Communication is lubrication, I always say! What better way to get the erotic juices flowing than to talk about your fantasies with each other! Communication is an extremely important part of any relationship, but even more important in the realm of BDSM play.

Whether you and your partner have been together for awhile, or are new to one another, ask your partner what their fantasies are, what new experiences they would like to try and explore, as well as what things they are not into, and do not wish to do. This will give an erotic map of sorts, and makes a fantastic starting point for exploring this new journey into kink together.

You can also fill out what is known in the community as the "play partner checklist". If you're just starting out this list can seem a bit overwhelming and scary, but it too will provide both you and your partner with a starting point for more advanced exploration, as well as a list of negotiable and hard limits. Knowledge is power!

#2 Mutual satisfaction

Domination is not simply about ordering your submissive around, and having your own desires met. It's about mutual satisfaction and fulfillment. A lot of people new to D/s exploration assume that, as the Dominant in the relationship, it's all about meeting their own fantasies and desires, when that is simply not the case.

Your submissive has fantasies and desires too, as well as needs to be met just as you have. Finding out what those are, and blending them with your own in a harmonious way, will bring a symphony of erotic pleasure and fulfillment for the both of you. D/s is a dynamic in which we exchange power, and that power flows from the bottom, up to the Top. Remember, your submissive is giving you a gift in their submission to you. Respect it, and use it wisely.

#3 An exceptional imagination

Leather pants and a flogger does not, a dominant, make! It's very easy as a new dom/me to get caught in the trappings of toys like floggers and riding crops, and forget about the mental and emotional aspects of dominance and submission. Flex your mental muscles and use your imagination. Create an aura of dominance using just the way you move, speak (or don't speak), and act.

Look to characters in books and movies to inspire you. What is it about them that makes them a good example of dominance in your eyes? For me, it was always a cross between Linda Carter as Wonder Woman and Diana, the leader of the alien invasion in the mini-series "V". Find what inspires those feelings in you, and make it your own.

#4 Ingenuity

Again, it's easy to get caught up in all of the new gear that the world of BDSM play has to offer. While nothing beats the smell of a new suede flogger, having one from the start is not a necessity. You don't need to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on toys to start having a good time playing!

A little ingenuity goes a long way! That handy silicone spatula from your kitchen makes a great spanking tool, as does the flat back of a hairbrush! The aisles at your local pet store will be most useful as you choose which pretty colored nylon collar and leash to use with your new submissive. Or have fun repurposing that cat toy, the plastic wand with a feather on the end, as a caning/sensation toy on your new submissive!

One of my favorite toys is a battery operated electric fly swatter; a paddle with the added bonus of an electric “zap”! You would be surprised just what kind of toys you can come up with with just a little stretch of the imagination, and little stretch on the budget. Have fun with it!

#5 Safety - Physical and Emotional

Safety is an important part of good play. Remember, one of your most important roles as a Dominant is caretaker of your submissive. Make sure you know what you're doing, and be prepared in case of an emergency.

 A pair of EMT sheers is great, and I think a must, to have in your play bag. They will cut through rope, leather, or clothing in a hurry, without risking cutting your submissive in the process. It's better to lose that expensive leather than it is to lose, or endanger, the life of your submissive. If you get a new toy and are unsure how it may feel, the best way to find out is to test it on yourself first. This way you not only know how it feels, but what the effect would be with varied application, or on various areas of the body.

Also, remember that beyond the physical aspect, you are also in care of your submissive’s emotional well-being, too. Designate a safe word; a word that when spoken, will mean that all play must cease immediately. A safe word should not be words like "no" or "stop", as these are sometimes fun to say in scene play. Instead, it should be something that is totally unrelated and wouldn't be something that you would unconsciously utter in the course of play, like "banana" or "trumpet".

#6 Remember aftercare

Lastly remember that it takes a lot of vulnerability, emotionally as well as physically, to submit to another, so respect that your submissive will need some "after care" beyond the scene itself.

The adrenaline and endorphins heightened during a scene often cause drastic changes in mood afterwards. This is sometimes refereed to as "Sub Drop". Be aware of this, and make sure to check in with your partner even a day or so after the scene has ended to make sure they are feeling emotionally secure.

With these tips in mind, you are well on your way to some exciting and delicious D/s play. Remember, in this age of readily available instant information research is your friend. Learn as much as you can, to be the best that you can. Have fun, and play safe!

Seeking to shatter the myth that "nice girls don't talk about sex", and somehow trying to survive her mid-30's in suburbia without large doses of vodka, Portia Blush is a saucy Sapiosexual who shares with an infectious wit and a candid vulnerability about her explorations of sex, love, intimacy, kink, the occasional obsession, and everything in between; one true story at a time.

She has over 10 years experience playing Switchy in the BD/SM scene, and has explored a myriad of relationship configurations from monogamous to poly. She holds a BFA from some hoity-toity NYC art school, and still ponders the meaning of life on a regular basis. Follow her on twitter @erogenousblog and Facebook and of course, ErogenoUS her blog.

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The Psychology of BDSM

What's BDSM all about? Where does it come from? Maybe you are confused as to why people engage in such activities or don't get why people do it. Sure, Fifty Shades of Grey put a face to the acronym. But BDSM been existed way before Christian Grey was flogging Anastasia Steele. Even though the book "normalizes" what used to be an unconventional sexual practice, many are still confused as to why people do it, or if they are even normal — whatever that means.

Clarisse Thorn, a pro-BDSM, sex positive writer is here to dive into the historical and psychological aspect of BDSM. It is about time we educated ourselves on BDSM and see why it's really just a fabulous sexual outlet for couples, vanilla or kinky.

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BDSM is a 6-for-4 deal of an acronym: Bondage, Discipline, Dominance, Submission, Sadism and Masochism. It's sometimes referred to as S&M, B&D, leather, or fetish. As an S&M writer and educator, I get lots of questions about the psychology of S&M. People ask whether it's a disorder, how psychologists would describe it, etc. I'm an advocate, not a psychologist, but I've read up on the history and done my best to keep tabs on current research.

First things first: S&M is not a pathology, and all people who practice S&M are not "damaged" in some way. There aren't many S&M studies, but in 2008, this conclusion was supported by a large and well-designed survey that reached 20,000 people. The survey was done by public health researchers at the University of New South Wales in Australia, and it found that S&Mers "were no more likely [than non-S&Mers] to have been coerced into sexual activity and were not significantly more likely to be unhappy or anxious." Another recent study found that consensual S&M usually increases intimacy for a couple.

I'd like to note briefly that people have told me about using consensual, intimate, trusting S&M activities in order to work through previous non-consensual, abusive experiences that they'd had. There's nothing wrong with that. Indeed, the psychologist Peggy Kleinplatz once published a scholarly article called "Learning From Extraordinary Lovers: Lessons From The Edge," which discusses how therapists can help their clients by studying alternative sexualities. Kleinplatz included a case study of a couple whose S&M experiences helped them process and deal with past abuse.

Still, as the 2008 Australia survey shows us, most people don't practice S&M because they've been abused or because they're unhappy. People who practice S&M have the same record of unhappiness and abusive history as non-S&M people. Yet S&M was first described as a disorder in 1886, when a doctor named Richard Krafft-Ebing published the manual Psychopathia Sexualis. This landmark tome hauled many sexual practices into the light, then attempted to categorize them. Of course, the doctor's ideas hewed close to contemporary mainstream ideas of what was acceptable, and so he thought that basically everything was a disorder -- including, for example, homosexuality.

It's interesting to imagine what our mental health paradigm might be if Psychopathia Sexualis had never existed. It had a huge influence on psychiatry. Later, the psychiatric establishment began publishing a text called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM. The DSM doesn't specialize in sexuality, but it includes quite a lot of it. The first edition of the DSM came out in 1952; it's currently undergoing its fifth revision, and the proposed new language can be found at the DSM-5 website.

Like Psychopathia Sexualis, the original DSM called homosexuality a disorder. This changed in 1973, partly in response to gay activists. But subsequent versions of the DSM are still criticized for many reasons. Our cultural diagnoses of mental illness are shaped by lots of people with very different motives, and truth is hard to find. A 2010 New Yorker article by Louis Menand outlined many critiques of the DSM, such as the allegation that today's psychiatry "is creating ever more expansive criteria for mental illness that end up labelling as sick people who are just different." Naturally, the medical establishment has an incentive to do this, since it makes money selling treatments for illness, and more illness means more treatment.

S&M is currently in the DSM (heh, you see what I did there?). My understanding, however, is that S&M occupies a strange space within the much-edited manual. S&M is no longer listed as all-disorder-all-the-time, though it once was. But if a person has an urge towards S&M, and that person feels unhappy about it, then it is classified as a disorder. In other words, an S&Mer is labeled "healthy" if she's happy about S&M, and "unhealthy" if she's unhappy about it.

Actually, this is basically the spot that homosexuality occupied for a while. And the reason homosexuality was taken out is the same reason S&M should be taken out: because a person who wants a completely consensual type of sexuality, and who is unhappy about it, is probably better off working to change the unhappiness rather than the sexuality. Like homosexuality, S&M is stigmatized and misunderstood. A person who is stigmatized and misunderstood is likely to be unhappy, but that doesn't mean there's something wrong with her.

Within the S&M community, we have ways of working around this problem. Some people are campaigning to change the DSM directly. Others are more indirect. Years ago, the activist Race Bannon made a handwritten list of doctors and lawyers who were S&M-friendly, and began passing it around to his friends. Names were quickly added to Bannon's list, and when the Internet became popular, the list migrated online. Now, the Kink Aware Professionals list is enormous and includes profession categories from accounting to web design -- not just doctors. When I was going through my own complicated and difficult S&M coming-out process, I was lucky enough to find the list. My S&M-friendly therapist talked me through my anxiety and socially-created disgust, rather than diagnosing me with a spurious "disorder."

There's a great organization called the Community-Academic Consortium of Research on Alternative Sexualities; one of their projects is an annual conference to sensitize psychologists and therapists to the needs of alternative sexuality communities. In my home city of Chicago, there's a project based at DePaul University that seeks to change the representation of S&M in human sexuality textbooks. The Kink Representation Outreach Project involves talking to different S&Mers about their actual experience (what an idea!) and getting their recommendations about how these texts might better represent S&M. And finally, if you want some idea of the sparse and scattershot research that's been done on S&M, the blog Kink Research Overviews is a good place to start.

Within the S&M community, there's some talk of S&M as its own "sexual orientation." I have mixed feelings about this, and I've written about those mixed feelings. I think it can sometimes be helpful, but I'd rather move to a paradigm where we encourage people to see any consensual sexual act as awesome, rather than talking like "orientation" is what legitimizes sexuality. Nothing legitimizes sex except consent.

Originally posted at Clarisse Thorn's blog found here.



 Clarisse Thorn is a feminist S&M writer who has lectured from Berlin to San Francisco, and written from The Guardian to Jezebel. She wrote a book about men, dating, and sex called Confessions of a Pickup Artist Chaser; she's also got a best-of collection called The S&M Feminist. She's always writing something new, so check out her list of books.

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