Category Archives: British Fetish Film Festival

The cold, dead hand of the censor

New regulations have just come in which may kill fetish production in the UK. Excuse me while I have a bit of a rant. Please forgive me if this is less carefully considered than my usual posts.

http://obscenitylawyer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/the-following-content-is-not-acceptable.html

The new regulations pertain to “TV-like” video on demand services where editorial control rests in the UK. The UK has chosen to define that much more broadly than other EU countries, and have now decided to censor much more heavily than other countries as well.

It has just become illegal to provide material which does not fall within the “R18” guidelines- a patchwork of outdated, arbitrary, misogynistic and paternalistic crap whose attitudes are held over from the Victorian era.

Let’s just be clear about how ludicrous the very concept is before we get on to the grossly offensive nature of the restrictions they impose. We’re talking about acts which are entirely legal to do – like doing a BDSM scene with someone where someone is bound and gagged. Or spanking. Or female ejaculation. Or face-sitting. So it’s legal to do it. It’s legal to own pictures and video of it. It’s legal to make pictures and video of it. It’s legal to download it from a site outside the UK, even if the customer is in the UK.

But as of 1st December, it is no longer legal for a UK production team to show it to you.

If you downloaded exactly the same material from a non-UK based site it would be legal for them to sell it to you and legal for you to buy it, watch it and keep it.

What the actual fuck?

Nice Girls Don’t

Apparently, the censor father figure has decided that women don’t ejaculate, so you’re not allowed to show that in case it is urine. Because of reasons. And that you can’t eat it, because presumably the male censors are a bit threatened by that. But swallowing semen is just fine (presumably because that’s the right way around- women should be taking it?) You can’t show a woman sitting on a man’s face because you poor innocents might not realise that he could suffocate, try it at home, and die. But of course it is OK to show a girl having her air cut off during a blowjob, because of … well… ummm… reasons.

The absurdities go on and on.

Apparently, bondage is OK and gags are OK but bondage plus gags are not because it might not be clear to the viewer that the person tied up can still withdraw their consent. So how did this scene get passed as 18 (not even R18):

I can’t see any way for Bruce Willis or Ving Rhames to withdraw their consent, do you? But the censor didn’t worry about that scene because of… well… reasons.

They didn’t worry about it because Pulp Fiction was shot on a film set, with professional actors, presumably. Just like all our films are shot professionally, on a film set, with professional actors. So why are we presumed to all be dangerous maniacs?

By any rational measure, if you are concerned about the safety of people in bondage and gags, you would come to the BDSM community and ASK THE EXPERTS what a good system of work is to ensure it.

We’ve shot over 2500 photosets and videos with gags and bondage over the last 14 years with exactly zero trips to the hospital. That’s a pretty good safety record. We have evolved a professional way of working to ensure that tied up people are not only still consenting, they are still comfortable, and they are still OK for the scene to continue.

So I’d actually be more concerned about the health and safety of mainstream actors like Bruce and Ving in this sort of scene. I really hope they had some BDSM players advising them on health and safety on set.

Ariel, by contrast, has been gagged and bound in a professional work setting literally thousands of times. But of course, she’s only a girl so she can’t be any sort of judge of what’s safe or not. The big brother censor knows better than her.

Here is our video explaining how we do it:

http://www.restrainedelegance.com/preview/video/videoarielsafety1_720p.mp4

Spanking

Spanking is out unless it is temporary and trifling- an arbitrary distinction which the father figure censor knows (but won’t define clearly for you, natch). Of course, the performers themselves- professionals who have FAR more experience of spanking than anyone else- cannot be trusted to set the levels or decide for themselves what constitutes acceptably temporary marks from a spanking. Some of them are only women, you know, and a lot of the rest might be homosexual. Of course those people don’t know their own bodies or their own minds. The paternal censor knows best.

I hereby propose we ban all sports where anyone has ever received a serious injury from video on demand services. Because someone might decide to play rugby and hurt themselves. So that’s bye-bye cricket, soccer, formula one…. Why can these professionals be allowed to decide acceptable risks for themselves when professional spankees cannot?

Denying Agency

This is the thread running through every line and fibre of the regulations and the organisations which enforce them. The idea that the people who do this for pleasure, or for a living, cannot possibly know better than the father figure censor what is acceptable, what is safe practice, what they want to do and what they want to have done to them.

This is called denying their agency- telling them that they cannot possibly know their own mind or make their own minds up. Because father figure censor knows best.

What the actual fucking fuck?

Won’t someone think of the children?

This will do exactly nothing to stop under-age people seeing this material because they will seek it out on free pirate sites anyway. I guarantee you they are NOT joining websites with a debit card!

How does this affect Restrained Elegance?

As with everything else to do with the censor, we don’t know. Restrained Elegance is operated under licence by a company registered in and based in the USA, as it always has been.

But a lot of our production is done in the UK.

Expect to see a lot of smaller hobby-level sites based in the UK close down.

We will not be pre-emptively stopping production.

When this first came up a year or so ago, we said we might move out of the country rather than stop running the site. But we’ve just moved house to a place we love, and DAMNED if we’re going to be forced out of the land of our birth by some pre-historic idiocy from the censor!

We believe we make lovely, intelligent, articulate, artistic, interesting, educational films and photographs in a safe, sane, consensual and professional environment. Our safety record and work practices are demonstrably effective in preventing injury and mishap. We have done our best to share this experience over the years precisely so people can enjoy BDSM for themselves safely.

We vehemently object to the suggestion that the censor has the first damn idea about how to signal consent in BDSM scenes, and believe that they should seek the advice of those in the BDSM community instead of presuming that we know nothing. They should be ASKING, not telling, what is good practice and how to ensure consent and safe working practice.

We are determined to continue doing what we do.

We’re delighted to say that we just won “Best Website” award at the 2014 Kiel Fetish Film Festival. It is a damn shame that the UK’s barbaric anti-porn laws have overshadowed what should have been a very proud day for us.

UPDATE:

This is the important petition- enough signatures and the government is required to respond. Please help us repeal these Medieval regulations.
Sign UK government petition.

Is it OK to like Erotica and Bondage?

5 Replies

Added 10th October 2017

Well, damn. In the three years since I wrote this, the situation seems to have gone from bad to worse. A “social conservative” backlash seems to be pushing back at equality in the west and more generally in the world. This has horrified me and, I must admit, made me a bit less comfortable shooting BDSM. It’s getting harder for me to be comfortable with the idea that female submissive BDSM is OK for play because we don’t act like that in the real world when demonstrably a fair number of shit-bags DO act quite like that in the real world.

Which makes it even more important for those of us with some sort of platform to make it clear how unacceptable we find discriminatory behaviour towards any group of human beings. Not on grounds of colour, gender, or anything else.

The thing that gives me hope is that I think this is a last hurrah, a desperate rear-guard action from the bigots before they are properly overwhelmed by the tides of history. Let’s all do our bit to keep the pressure up.

Original post

Hi All,

There’s been a lot of thought provoking stuff recently about every-day sexism, for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1XGPvbWn0A . Human being are clearly prone to discrimination, and one of the most deep-seated forms of discrimination is gender or sexual identity based.

I didn’t used to have very much time for the “all porn is bad” point of view. The more I see of the world, the more I realise where some of these protests are coming from. I believe they are misguided, but I have sympathy for the point of view.

Sexism is deeply ingrained in our media reporting. A male MP can attend cabinet without the newspapers feeling the need to comment on his hotness or lack thereof. Whilst I disagree with Esther McVey on almost every policy and opinion she holds, it is deeply wrong that her appointment to cabinet was hailed like this:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2692722/Watch-Theresa-theres-fashionista-Downing-Street-Esther-McVey-makes-big-impression-arrives-Prime-Minister.html
not just by the Mail, but by almost every news report.

Is it OK that RestrainedElegance.com and SilkSoles.com present pretty young women, made up to look attractive?

I can see why it may not seem so from the outside. We know that we are ethical producers of erotic art. But we don’t tend to bang on about it, and maybe we should.

The models are paid (significantly higher paid per hour that they work for the site than anyone else involved in production). They are self-employed freelance professional women in successful careers.

The stories we enact are done in fun, in the spirit of roleplays between consenting adults. Shoot days are fun. We often lose shoot time from the giggles. Models are not forced or bribed or cajoled to do anything; they show up, have a hopefully fun creative shoot, get paid and go on to their next professional assignment.

There are arguments which trouble me.

It troubles me that we might be perpetuating the idea that a female person’s worth is primarily to be judged by her physical attractiveness, as rated by a 40-something white heterosexual man.

It troubles me that some idiots on twitter appear to be a bit hazy about the dividing line between respectful fan comments and sexual harassment.

It troubles me that my own sexuality is sufficiently unadventurous that I seem to be unable to do a really good job of creating art which lies considerably outside it (although I’ve greatly enjoyed the opportunities to shoot it with other producers when I’ve been able to).

The main thing that troubles me though is the realisation that I grew up in an anomalous bubble of time and place and society in which sexual equality was taken as a given.

My mother, although she would never recognise herself in the description, is a true Renaissance liberated woman of the 1960’s wave of female equality. When she wasn’t given interesting enough work to do in her first job at an aircraft designer, she stormed in to see her boss and made them give her something more challenging. She did a Pure Maths degree as a mature student, and worked part-time all through to retirement as a computer analyst and troubleshooter working with University researchers on cutting edge projects like early finite element analysis software for civil engineering.

She and my father had calmly and rationally decided how to divide up the responsibilities of raising a family and working full-time, and clearly have nothing but the greatest of love and respect for each other.

As a University kid in a University town in the 1970s, this was the norm. Friends’ families were like that too. And being Welsh, there was less social stratification and class bias than in England, I now realise.

Put together the kids of these University families in a single school, mostly in one or two classes, and the idea of gender equality was definitely the norm. I vividly recall the short shrift given to a (female) Royal Navy recruiter by (female) students who tried to defend why the Navy wouldn’t allow her to serve on a battleship. We had very progressive schooling, including classes on morals and social responsibility where many of these issues were discussed, led by teachers who also entirely embraced sexual equality.

I now realise that the rest of the world wasn’t like that then, isn’t like that now. It may not even be like that back home these days, I don’t know. The glass ceiling hasn’t fallen, women are still under-represented in many walks of life, and most shamefully underpayment for doing the same work as a male colleague is still a routine reality of life.

For me, it seemed entirely reasonable to enjoy bondage and fetish games where one real-life equal partner chooses to play a submissive role and one chooses to play a dominant role. It doesn’t impact on their equality, because I just assumed that in real life they are equal. Different, but of equal worth.

I still do think it is reasonable. But you have to really mean the equality thing, deep down, right down to your heart. If you don’t, I question whether it is really OK to play out the roles in bondage games.

If I had been brought up in a setting where sexual discrimination was the norm, I doubt I’d feel as sanguine about BDSM and erotica.

Similarly, I try very hard not to judge a person by their sex or by their appearance. I’m far from perfect at it; millions of years of evolution have gone into making me notice pretty girls. I can’t really help that.

What I can help is what I do about it. Not staring, for a start, and definitely not cat calling or slut shaming or judging a politician by their perceived hotness instead of their professed policies.

I’m aware that by running Restrained Elegance and Silk Soles I might be perpetuating the problem.

That’s why I try to explain what I am doing, why our stories are more than “I saw this slut on the street and I just had to tie her up and fuck her”. (It was Kate who came up with that – she said if our stories were like that, she’s not be happy to work with us).

RE and SS shoots are fun, collegiate, collaborative, friendly and cheerful. It’s just that some of the stories we like to tell are a bit cops-and-robbers, damsel-in-distress. It’s OK, because we all buy in to the shared fantasy in its correct, mutually agreed context. And by describing the models as valued artistic collaborators. If you ever see a word like “slut” or “bitch” on our sites it will be in the context of a character, and most often just one character accusing another of acting like a bitch, rather than “this fucking bitch deserved it”.

I’m delighted that there are some female-gaze erotica sites, BDSM sites with a wider variety of gender roles, wider variety of body types, and all sorts of things. If times were less tight, I’d probably run several mini-sites exploring some of those aspects myself, even though I don’t think I’d be very good at it. I’m very keen to collaborate with others and reach understanding of other niches and fetishes and orientation- which is at least part of the rationale behind running the British Fetish Film Festival, too.

So my current thought is that yes, looking at erotica, BDSM or fetish material of whatever flavour and orientation you happen to like is absolutely fine and healthy… so long as you genuinely do realise it is a game for fun, and there’s no malice in your heart, no sneaking disdain for the performers in the porn you like, no thinking that your fetish and your orientation is the “right” one, the “natural” one, the one true way.

Be a bit vigilant about your thinking and you can enjoy your artwork, erotica, roleplaying, videos, photos and whatever you like with a clear conscience. (Oh, just so long as you support its production and don’t pirate it.)

Regards,

Hywel

British Fetish Film Festival – 21st February 2015

1 Reply

Hi Everyone,

Sorry we went so quiet on the idea for a British Fetish Film Festival. We decided to move house (and country) at the start of this year and we put off organising it until we got settled.

We’ve moved, we’re settled, so now we’re organising the festival!

We plan to hold the event in Welshpool, Mid-Wales, on 21st February.

Train and road links are pretty good- we’re only an hour from Liverpool or Manchester, an hour and a half from Birmingham, and it’s not too cruddy even from London (especially on the train). Sorry we couldn’t be further north for the Scottish contingent, but it’s the best we can do 😉

We’ve found a venue who are happy to host us, we’ve got plans for how we want to run the event.

We’ll have a session for film-makers (the proposed theme of the first one is “how to make your fetish videos
look more cinematic”) and a session where we watch a bunch of fetish films. Everyone is welcome to come to both sessions, but if you’ve got no interest at all in making films you might just want to come to the screening session.

Watch this space for details of venue and prices very shortly!

The event will be invitation-only, but if you’ve got a strong interest in fetish films or film-making just drop us a line.

Exciting!

Thoughts on bondage modelling, safety and chaperones

1 Reply

Hi Everyone,

I wrote this post on a forum thread about models taking chaperones on bondage shoots. It turned into something of an essay on safety at shoots too so I thought I’d post it here for reference.

I’m a pro bondage photographer, it’s how I make my living.

Objectively, bondage has some risks not present in other photographic styles. You and the photographer should constantly be doing little risk assessments to see how to mitigate the risks in a reasonable way.

Plumbers don’t take their boyfriend or their mum with them when they go to a strange house for the first time. Conversely, plumbers don’t get tied up as part of their job, either.

Having a chaperone along can help, but it can be a pain in the ass for the photographer. It depends on the shoot… and the chaperone. I’m never delighted at the prospect because it is one more person to manage through the day, one more distraction to getting good work. And I’m sorry to say that I’ve met more bad chaperones than good ones.

It’s particularly bad when the chaperone is the model’s partner and they want to be on set, because the model usually then starts modelling to and for the approval of their partner, rather than directing their attention to the camera.

This is VERY tiresome to manage on set. Add to that the typical pattern is that the chaperone is also a wanna-be photographer and ask me an incessant stream of technical questions. I’m not paying the model to give a free tutorial to their partner: I need to get good stuff from the day so I can cover the cost of paying her and make enough profit to live from.

So… I don’t like chaperones. They can come along but I’m clear in pre-shoot communications that they have to stay out of the model’s eye line and off set. I’m fine with them being within earshot, obviously.

My solution is to shoot with a rigger.

That way I can concentrate on the photography and the rigger can concentrate on the bondage. It doesn’t absolve me of safety responsibility, but it becomes my secondary responsibility rather than my main one.

Of course not everyone has a live-in rigger or knows anyone or can afford another person at the shoot. I didn’t have one for the first few years, either. Its entirely possible to be safe without one.

What are the main risks from bondage? How bad are they? What can you do to mitigate them? Does a chaperone help?

1) You’re tied up and the photographer gets ill, faints, has a heart attack, falls over and breaks their leg, etc..

Some rope bondage is fairly escapable given time, some isn’t. Metal bondage generally isn’t escapable at all unless you have the keys, especially if you’re locked to something. If you are in a place with other people in earshot (eg studio, assuming the owner hasn’t popped out) that’s not a big deal. If you’re somewhere isolated, this could be life-threatening.

Solution? Having another person present vastly reduces the risks here. This is the main place where I think an extra person is necessary for both the photographer and model- if I pass out, I’d quite like someone to be able to call an ambulance for me, thank you very much.

If you really can’t have an extra person, make sure the keys are inside the model’s reach or that she actually could get out if she really needs to. Moderate your ambitions for the bondage to account for the conditions of the shoot.

2) Dangerously done bondage

There’s some things you just shouldn’t do. Any rigger with an ounce of common sense should know this- just make sure they do before you let them tie you up.

Here’s our web page on the very basics (targeted more at play partners but applies even more to photoshoots):

http://www.restrainedelegance.com/bondagesafety.php

For example, anything which might put pressure on the front of the neck is a definite NO. If they want to attach you to the ceiling by a noose, run a fucking mile* because they don’t know what they are doing. A collar attached to the ceiling by enough rope or chain that if you fainted the chain wouldn’t go tight before other ropes eg at wrists caught you and held you up is an acceptable alternative way to get similar images without incurring unacceptable risk, for example.

* Actually rather than run a mile, just say it isn’t safe. Suggest some variant that might be safe, or say you have to shoot something else. It is, after all, just a photoshoot.

For heavens sake please don’t go along with it just because.

A member of our site passed on a maxim from the oil industry: “EVERYONE has the right to stop the job”. People die on oil-rigs because no-one raised their concerns. So for the love of god if something worries you SAY SOMETHING.

A chaperone could possibly help here, but unless they’ve done bondage themselves they might interfere with communications more than help them.

Solution? As a rigger, learn to tie. As a model, say something if it seems dangerous, and if you’re not convinced by the explanation, flat out insist on shooting something else.

As a photographer, have some common sense. Don’t leave a girl tied up while you read off your cards or go to the loo, and if she’s gagged don’t leave the room, period. Don’t be over ambitious, be realistic about what is safe to do here, today, with this model, in this location.

As the model, do your own risk assessment. Does it look safe to you? Does this person seem to know what they are doing? Where are their safety scissors or rope hook? Where are the keys? Discuss your concerns with the photographer and make sure they are addressed.

3) Too tight or tied in the wrong places

The most common form of injury that bondage models do pick up is nerve damage. This usually manifests as a deadening of sensation in a certain part of the body and can last for a few minutes or a few months. (I’ve not heard anecdotally of permanent cases but I’m not a medical expert).

This can be avoided by making sure that the ropes don’t put on too much pressure. You should be able to slip two fingers underneath the rope at every point, and if a lot of weight is going to be put on the ropes, make the “bands” broad to spread the load. There are also particular parts of the body to avoid- actually on the joints, the upper arms immediately above the elbows, the insides of the wrists (tieing wrists facing inwards reduces the risk considerably).

To put this in perspective, my wife (who does a lot of bondage modelling) has had mild nerve damage a few times over the years. This is not ideal, but nor is it a grand drama: the injuries from bondage shoots are probably less than the scrapes and bangs from art nude shoots and definitely not as damaging as the injuries from dance and dance shoots.

Solutions? As a rigger, learn to tie. As a model, if you feel pain or go numb, say something immediately.

4) Bondage that’s not right for you

Leaving aside bondage that is just plain dangerous, stuff which is fine to tie on one person might not be fine to tie on you.

If done well, paying attention to the model’s capabilities, comfort levels, flexibility, any injuries etc. bondage can be safe. It isn’t totally risk free (nothing ever is) but with good communication between model and rigger there’s no reason for anything more than a rope hickey or two even from a full day’s shoot.

One of the things we try to get across to models is that they need to help us here.

Only they know how the bondage actually feels, and everyone’s body is different.

Positions that Ariel can get into and hold comfortably would dislocate me; nerves run in different places, some people can touch their elbows together behind their backs and stay tied comfortably for half an hour like that where other people lose feeling instantly and can’t be safely tied up that way.

So we always make a song and dance at the start of the day because it is REALLY important to tell us if something hurts, or you’re going numb. We can always tie something else but we CAN’T magically know about it – you need to tell us.

Solution? Communication.

5) Falling over

I’ve listed this as a category all on its own because it is a very common risk, it’s just so prosaic that it is easy to overlook.

If you’re tied standing up with your ankles tied and your hands tied behind your back, if you START to fall over, you might not be able to stop yourself. A face-plant onto a hard studio floor is not good. Just bear it in mind. The risk is massively reduced just by tying someone sitting down, or on the floor, or if standing, tied to something solid that would stop her overbalancing (and wouldn’t wrench anything- arms behind up to the ceiling isn’t really safe without something on the body to prevent falling forwards and dislocating shoulder).

The risks are pretty small: actually, most healthy young people probably could fall over without serious injury even if tied up – but why tempt fate?

Solution? Do your risk assessments for every tie as you’re going along. If the rig has the potential for face-planting on the floor, change it to reduce the risk.

6) Suspensions

If there’s one thing that horrifies me about the bondage I see inexperienced photographers go for, it is their fascination with suspension. Suspension is something that you should only attempt when you’ve got a few years of experience under your belt.

Why? Because suspensions takes the moderate risks in the above categories and turns them up to 11, before adding a bunch more issues all of its own.

Photographer passing out? Even if model could get free of the ropes, she’s going to be doing so in mid-air and therefore risks falling as well.

Dangerous bondage? A loose rope with no pressure across the windpipe vs. a rope with 50 kg load on it across the windpipe? Doesn’t bear thinking about.

Too tight? The ropes WILL be tighter in a suspension, because they are supporting the model’s weight. A rope that wouldn’t cause a problem in a gentle on-the-floor tie might be pressing in a lot harder.

Not right bondage? Ditto.

Falling over? Not only is the model going to have further to fall if she does so, she’s even less likely to be able to control her fall or shield her head etc. in a suspension.

Additional risks: how secure is the suspension point? How are you getting her up there? How do you get her down again?

A winch and suspension mechanism rated for AT LEAST ten times the load (to account for dynamic loads like a model adjusting position) bolted through a joist with a crash mat underneath is, frankly, the only way I really feel comfortable rigging “big” suspensions.

A standing semi-suspension where the model is suspending herself by just lifting her feet up is a good way to start- the flying is more under the model’s control and if the weight distribution is all wrong, she can come down again immediately.

Don’t suspend people by the wrists or by one ankle. I don’t care if you’ve seen photos on the internet. The model might have been a very lightly built five foot nothing acrobat weighing 35 kg; don’t try it on an amateur model weighing 60 kg.

For heaven’s sake, don’t do it until you’ve got plenty of bondage experience: know the basics of tying safely first.

7) Being raped or murdered by the photographer

I’ve deliberately left this one until last. I’m not going to say there’s no risk of this happening but realistically you’re MUCH MUCH MUCH more likely to be injured in a car crash driving to the shoot.

If you really think the photographer is a dangerous psycho, don’t take a chaperone- don’t take the shoot.

Check references. Shoot with them at a studio first. All the usual stuff that applies to non-bondage shoots.

Probably worth leaving a note with someone of where you are and when you plan to be back, same as I do when I go walking up a mountain on my own. I do prefer her to let me know shoot details when Ariel works with a new photographer just in case.

The fact that it is a bondage shoot doesn’t really change the danger of intentional harm coming to you, I don’t think.

Does a chaperone help here? I don’t know. If the psycho is really intent on doing you harm, would he scruple at poisoning the chaperone or something? It’s all such a remote risk. Isn’t it more sensible to concentrate on the less viscerally icky but statistically much more likely issues of “If I fall over, am I going to face plant on the concrete floor of this studio?”

The executive summary

Bondage is not a risk free activity, but with a little knowledge and a lot of communication between the person doing the tying and the person being tied up, it can be done safely. Some people work full time as bondage photographers and bondage models, so it can’t be THAT bad. It’s less risky than being a dancer or professional sportsperson.

Chaperones are often a pain in the ass to manage on set, so few photographers really welcome them on shoots. There are some times where having an extra person present reduces the risks significantly- shooting in the middle of nowhere, specifically.

Having a rigger present at the shoot is generally a more satisfactory solution for all concerned in my experience.

Do your pre-shoot reference checks.

Do your own risk assessment at the shoot.

Communicate with the rigger constantly at the shoot.

Be firm if you have safety concerns.

Don’t do suspensions until you are an experienced bondage model and then only do it with experienced riggers.