Joe Marzano's "Venus in Furs"

Directed by: Joseph Marzano 

Starring: Barbara Ellen,

Shep Wild,

Yolanda Signorelli,

Janet Banzet 

Released: 1967 

Language: English 

Length: 65 minutes

As I mentioned in a previous review, when it comes to movies with FemDom themes, “Venus is Furs” is a popular film title. I have no less than four movies by this name in my FemDom film collection. Yet surprisingly, the four movies have almost nothing in common.  

In 1967 sexploitation producer Lou Campa hired Joe Marzano to work on a bizarre little movie called “Cool it, Baby.” After making 16mm shorts throughout the 50’s, Marzano found work in the 1960’s as an editor for an outfit producing industrial films. One of these pictures, “To Face Life Again”, was an unusual documentary about disfigured accident victims readjusting to life. There he met Lew Waldeck, the editor of a series of low-budget soft-core films. Soon enough, Waldeck introduced Joe Marzano to the world of sexploitation.   

Declining cultural barriers were allowing more and more on-screen nudity. From the relatively high-profile Russ Meyer (“Faster, Pussy Cat! Kill! Kill!”) to the lesser-known film-makers such as Joe Sarno, each produced films based on their private fetishes and desires, normally backed by financiers who were willing to bankroll titles that often had little or nothing to do with the finished picture. Without script or concept, a producer would assemble a crew of inexpensive, hungry talent and tell them, “I want a sex film called ‘Cool It, Baby’ or ‘Venus in Furs’” and it was their job to make it happen.   

This was truly the golden age of American sexploitation, when a director could make a feature film for $10,000 and be allowed to follow his own private obsessions wherever they happened to take him, and perhaps end up with an odd little gem. Granted most of what was made was substandard and generally dismissed as trash but some of the sexploitation directors worked from true creative expression. Joe Marzano was such a man.   

Through Lew Waldeck, Marzano met Lou Campa, a director of numerous exploitation films. Waldeck was given $12,000 to make a picture, and was told whatever he didn’t spend would be his salary. Given that enticing stipulation, he made “Cool It, Baby” in 1967 for $7,000. Waldeck hired Marzano and Campa to help make the picture. It was filmed with a lone stationary camera on a tripod. The film ultimately had no real director, and screenwriter Lou Palisano delivered an unfinished script which was fleshed out by Marzano. Joe stayed on as an actor and directed some sequences, Waldeck directed others, and Campa directed the rest. None of them cared about who got credit seeing they were going to split $5,000 between them for a couple days work.   

When I ordered my copy of Marzano’s “Venus in Furs”, it was released on the ‘Something Weird’ label. The DVD contains 3 movies, including “Cool it, Baby”.

 

 

I fast forwarded through the film, "Cool it, Baby”, stopping here and there to get a feel for the movie, and I was surprised at how amateur it was. “Cool it, Baby” has some S&M themes but nothing that is in the least erotic or sexy. It has a cruel female lead but the film has more to do with forced female slavery, drug use, bizarre rituals, laughable whipping scenes, and a court trial filmed in someone’s office complete with office desk and filing cabinets. It is a terrible film but surprisingly it turned a profit. I guess there were enough men hungry for S&M themed movies in 1967 that even the lamest of films could turn a profit with the right kind of promotion.   

Not only did he help write and direct “Cool It, Baby”, Marzano brought most of the cast onboard himself. All of which impressed Campa, who had already secured $10,000 for his next project, a sexploitation film based on the Sacher-Masoch novel “Venus in Furs”. So Campa hired Marzano to direct it.   

Marzano’s “Venus in Furs” was a big artistic advance over “Cool It, Baby”. Able to control the lighting, Joe was free to experiment with the photography, and had two cameras at his disposal. With Lew Waldeck off shooting another picture, George Cirello stepped in as cinematographer, but Marzano did a lot of the photography himself. He brought back several of his friends from “Cool It, Baby” and completed the post-production work, editing and sound mix on his own.    

He had a five day shooting schedule so Joe got together with his friend Barbara Ellen (who played a blackmail victim in “Cool It, Baby”) to write the screenplay. It was Ellen who had the brilliant idea of incorporating the opening scene of the Sacher-Masoch novel into a fantasy sequence in the film. Marzano’s “Venus in Furs” combines sexploitation, creative and artistic film making, and quite a bit of surrealism. Some have made the observation that the film bears similarities to the movies that Marzano’s friend Paul Morrissey was making for Andy Warhol at the time. Perhaps that was his inspiration.   

Marzano’s “Venus in Furs” opens with a close-up of a woman’s leg as she slowly and seductively removes her stockings. She drops them on a naked man who is lying on the floor. Then we see another stocking landing on him, then another, and another as we hear a female voice who paraphrases the words of Venus in the Leopold von Sacher-Masoch novel “Venus in Furs”; 

“You are the one who desires, we are the ones who are desired. This is woman’s entire advantage.”  

Then we hear the voice of another woman, “Do you have this in higher heels?” 

More stockings land on the naked man as he seems to be drifting off into subspace. We hear again from the first woman as she continues to paraphrase Venus,  

“There’s something in you that makes me want to punish you, subdue you, DOMINATE YOU!”  

Then we hear the other woman and then a third woman, we hear all three women’s voices as they alternate sentences. “You shall be bound, bound with stockings, helpless, gagged, put underfoot, lashed, unloved, until you can love, then you can kiss my breast, my mouth, but first my toes. Kiss my toes! You shall be our slave, without illusion, but first you shall feel the pressure of my foot, without mercy.”  

We see three sets of female legs touching the man, teasing him, one pressing her foot against his face, as we hear a repeat of the women taunting him with their words.

“You are the one who desires, we are the ones who are desired. This is woman’s entire advantage. Do you have this in higher heels? There’s something in you that makes me want to punish you, subdue you, DOMINATE YOU! You shall be bound, bound with stockings, helpless, gagged, put underfoot, lashed, unloved, until you can love, then you can kiss my breast, my mouth, but first my toes. Kiss my toes! You shall be our slave, without illusion, but first you shall feel the pressure of my foot, without mercy, WITHOUT MERCY!” 

And with that the film’s title “Venus in Furs” fills the screen, along with “A film by Joe Marzano, suggested by a novel by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch.” It was wise that they used the term “suggested” instead of “based on” because after the upcoming scene and its accompanying dialogue, the only connection between the book and the film is the title.  

Following the opening credits, we see a woman adorned in a fur coat sitting on a couch next to a fireplace, with a man (the same man we saw in the opening) on his knees before her, kissing and worshipping her feet and her legs.

 

 

Following Barbara Ellen’s idea, their dialogue is right out of chapter one of the Sacher-Masoch novel (paraphrased a little to give it a more modern meaning).  

It is the dialogue between the book’s author and the Goddess Venus (played by Ellen). Marzano’s first choice to play Venus was the young Warhol actress Mary Woronov, who appeared in “Chelsea Girls” a year earlier. Although she’d expressed interest in doing it, Marzano decided against hiring Mary because the Warhol crew had a reputation for being unreliable. Therefore he cast Barbara Ellen for both the roles of Venus and the female lead character, Marna.  

Getting back to the Venus scene, the fur clad Goddess and her submissive admirer discuss love and the female nature. An example of the rather lengthy dialogue goes like this,  

"You are a divinity, but nonetheless a woman and, like every woman, cruel in matters of love." 

"What you call cruelty, is simply the element of passion and sensuality which is part of woman's nature, and which makes her give herself whenever she loves, and love everything that pleases her." 

If you have a foot fetish or if you’re a fan of watching a man grovel and worship a woman’s feet and legs, you will no doubt enjoy both this scene and the overall movie, as there are numerous foot worship, leg worship and trampling scenes in the film.

 

 

In my opinion a better title for the movie might have been “Fetishes” as the film portrays a variety of unusual sexual kinks. (Campa wanted to name the film “Cherished Women”). 

I must say that I really liked both of the opening scenes in this movie. Very well done for a 1960’s sexploitation film. They are of course the fantasies of a submissive male, David, and we meet him as he wakes up from his dreams, with the book “Venus in Furs” lying on his chest. David has the perfect job for a submissive man with a foot fetish, he is a shoe salesman. 

David takes the subway to work, all the while he fantasizes about worshipping and kissing the shoes of the women he sees on the train. He arrives at the shoe store and he obviously loves his job as he gets to serve women by kneeing before them and helping them try on various shoes.

 

 

 

We now know part of the meaning of his fantasy in the opening scene with the one woman’s voice taunting him “Do you have this in higher heels?”. 
 

After he gets off work, David goes to the New York Public Library. Before he enters, five young women run past him. (Marzano had a Fellini-esque vision of dozens of girls running toward the camera. Campa agreed and lined up the talent, but on the day of the shoot he arrived with just three women. After making a few phone calls, Marzano rounded up two more for a total of five.) 
 

Once inside the library, David is browsing books when he happens across a beautiful and mysterious woman, Marna (wearing a fur stole).  
 

He gives her a drive home to a secluded house in the country. She flirts with him but doesn’t permit him to kiss her. She invites him inside her sprawling Gothic mansion but tells him he will have to wait to kiss her. She offers for him to spend the night in a spare room. By this time the movie has taken on a distinctly dream-like quality. David wanders the hallways, hearing people behind all the closed doors. He goes door to door, peeking inside where he observes people engaging in a smorgasbord of fetishes and unusual sexual practices.  
 

In one room there is a muscular man, clothed only in his underwear, he is blindfolded and needs the use of a cane to stand. He has a tin cup in his other hand and several women, one by one, come into the room, drop a coin into the cup and then fondle his body. Perhaps this was a 1967 version of a CFNM fetish. 
 

In another room, David witnesses a woman tied to the bed and two other women are spanking her with their shoes. In another room there is a man removing the boots off of a woman’s feet. He then licks and kisses her feet before lying on the floor where she tramples him. In yet another room we see a masked woman giving a naked woman a milk bath. She pours milk all over her body, scrubs her body and after the bath, she pours milk into a saucer and forces the naked woman to drink it like a cat.
 

 

While this is going, David finds a book of photographs which obviously disturb him, although we don’t know what the book contains. 
 

The next day David meets up with Marna and he witnesses first hand her dominant nature. She is playing ping pong with a gentleman wearing glasses and whenever she scores a point, she makes the man kneel before her and she hits him on the head with her paddle. She also forces the ping pong ball into his mouth. Later in the match, she strikes him across the face with her paddle.
 

Next, Marna plays a game of chess with David. During the game a blonde woman sits down at the table to watch the chess match. Marna takes David’s Queen and drops it on the floor. She orders David to “pick it up”. He hesitates so she forcefully reiterates, “I said PICK IT UP!”
 

David bends down to fetch the piece when Marna kicks it under the table. David crawls under the table and Marna tramples him with her shoes, stepping on his hands with her heels. As she is doing this Marna begins to kiss the blonde woman as they are both obviously turned on by Marna’s dominance and David’s humiliation. 

Other bizarre things occur at the house such as the reading of children’s stories, and finally the climactic orgy scene. The orgy scene is more fetish-driven than sex driven. It’s more like a fever dream. There are people dancing while a woman rides an exercise bike in the middle of the room.

There’s a man in drag dancing with a woman. We see ‘objectification’ taking place as a woman is lying on the floor being used as a card table while another woman obsessively deals cards onto her body. 

There are couples making out and writhing on the floor, all fully clothed. This was common enough in 1960s sexploitation movies and usually looks silly, but in this case it adds to the overall fantasy quality and surrealism of the film. It’s as if the people are driven by something more powerful than sex.  

For his part in the orgy, David is totally focused on watching Marna. He makes his move and he begins to undress her (although she never becomes completely naked). He begins to kiss her but she pushes him away and orders him to kiss her toes. David removes her shoes and he worships her feet (yet another foot worship scene).

 

He works his way up her body, hoping to finally kiss her on the mouth but just before he does, the blonde woman from the chess match appears and kisses Marna instead. Marna kisses the woman back as she pushes David away with her hand. Once again David is humiliated and frustrated. 

The next day, David is about to leave when Marna once again flirts with him. She tells him that she’s sorry they were interrupted at the orgy because she is attracted to him and she was hoping he would make love to her. David again falls for her seduction so they leave together and go horseback riding in the country. David loses sight of Marna and comes across her making out with the blonde woman up against a tree. David is furious and accuses her of deceiving him. Marna grabs a riding crop and attacks David.

 

 

David fights back and wrestles Marna on the ground. The blonde woman tries to help Marna fight David off (although it looks like all she really wants to do is crawl around in the mud). David gains the upper hand and subdues Marna. He begins to kiss her and acts as if he is going to have sex her, right there in the woods, with the other woman watching.  

But then we see David tied to the tree, tied with women’s stockings. The women are lying on the ground looking at him, and the people from the house are standing at a distance taking in David’s humiliation. 

As he is tied to the tree with a look of subspace on his face, we hear the women from the beginning of the film and realize the first woman’s voice is that of Marna. She recites the same words from the beginning of the film, 

“You are the one who desires, we are the ones who are desired. This is woman’s entire advantage. There’s something in you that makes me want to punish you, subdue you, DOMINATE YOU! You shall be bound, bound with stockings, helpless, gagged, put underfoot, lashed, unloved, until you can love, then you can kiss my breast, my mouth, but first my toes. You shall be our slave, without illusion, but first you shall feel the pressure of my foot, without mercy, WITHOUT MERCY!” 

Suddenly we see David sitting outside the New York public library. It is apparent the entire episode was just another one of his fantasies. He gets up and wanders around the streets when he sees a car pull up. He looks inside the car and there is a woman wearing a fur stole and a fur hat. She raises her head and looks at David. The woman is Marna. Perhaps his ordeal wasn’t a fantasy after all.

 

 

I definitely enjoyed both Jess Franco’s and Massimo Dallamano’s “Venus in Furs” better than this one. However, to be fair, it really is apples and oranges. When you review a low-budget Lou Campa sexploitation film you go into it with very low expectations. This version of “Venus in Furs” was undoubtedly not at all the sort of movie Campa had in mind when he commissioned Marzano to direct it. It is in fact a somewhat artsy film, admittedly an artsy film about fetishes, kink and sex, but it’s an artsy film nonetheless. This film is a strange but oddly engrossing mix of Sacher-Masoch, Fetishism, FemDom and surrealism. As you probably know by now, I like surrealism in movies.   

There’s a peculiar quality to the eroticism in this film, a kind of thwarted sterile quality. The plot is sketchy, but that seems more of a strength than a weakness, contributing to the feeling of events moving endlessly like recycled dream images. And I thought that Barbara Ellen, who co-wrote the script, played Marna in a delightfully dominant way. There’s very little nudity and no graphic sex, but the movie still manages to be very kinky and definitely expands the boundaries of societal sexual norms. That’s true whether you watched in 1967 or 2012. The film is in constant danger of taking itself too seriously, but Marzano comes up with enough striking and disquieting images to justify its pretensions to being a genuine art film. 

It’s not a great movie by any stretch but it’s well done given its pittance of a budget. Despite its shortcomings, this “Venus in Furs” is a fascinating example of an artist at odds with the sexploitation genre. Marzano wanted to make a real movie and he was obviously connected to the source material, Sacher-Masoch’s kinks and fetishes. Some have said that Joe Marzano was a conceptual and physical fusion of Orson Welles and Hugo Haas. Given the opportunity and freedom, Joe Marzano might have easily been a respected, major American filmmaker. 

Campa made a few more sexploitation films before his descent into mob-financed hardcore. Joe Marzano, on the other hand, never directed in 35mm again. He photographed Lloyd Michael Williams’s experimental “Line of Apogee” (1968), and worked as an assistant director on Jack Glenn’s unreleased “House of the Seven Gables”. He even went back to Campa and sold him a script called “The Leather Girls”, about an all-girl biker gang that may have been sparked by Russ Meyer’s “Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” Campa never shot it, but Joe made an abbreviated version in the late 70’s in super-8mm.  

He continued in super-8 into the 80’s but even super-8 became unaffordable, and Joe Marzano went on to make a proliferation of short films on videotape up until his untimely death in the summer of 2000. Many of his fans considered “Venus in Furs” to be his finest work.

 

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

 

See what happens when you tempt me? Hubby gets the caning of his life

One of the reasons I started this blog was for personal motivation. If I was going to start over again with the femdom lifestyle after a two year hiatus I knew I was going to need something to keep me motivated. My first go around with femdom I was fortunate and blessed to have several mentors. I was also part of a femdom group, ClubFEM. All of that helped to keep me motivated and moving forward with the training and domming of my husband. However, once I lost contact with my mentors and was no longer active in a group, the fire within slowly became extinguished. Other things in life distracted me and occupied my time and attention.

This time around I decided that writing a blog, where I could share past experiences and current events and receive ideas from others, would keep me motivated. So far it has worked and sometimes even better than I expected. I find myself doing things I never would have done on my own if I didn’t have this blog.

A few weeks ago a gentleman from my femdom past wrote me asked if he could send me some self-made, hand-crafted Delrin canes. I gave him a mailing address (a PO Box) and last week the canes arrived.

 

I was expecting one or two canes. He sent me seven canes, of various lengths and thickness.

 

 

I must confess that holding the canes in my hand, inspecting the craftsmanship of the handles, giving each one a practice swing, and hearing them “swish” through the air, got me very excited. I couldn’t wait to try them out.

 

  

I own several wooden canes and use them from time to time on hubby’s bottom but had I not received this most generous gift of the Delrin canes, the thought of administering a severe caning to hubby’s bottom would not have entered my mind. The canes were more than a gift, they were a temptation and a challenge to expand both my limits when it comes to administering discipline and hubby’s limits to endure a harsh caning in order to please his Mistress.

So last night I showed hubby what was in the box he had retrieved from the PO Box with the words “For Kathleen’s Eyes Only”. I dressed in my custom made leather pants,

 

laid the canes out on the bed and called him into the bedroom. He immediately dropped to his knees, hugged my waist and begged me to punish him. He was overcome with submission.

 

I asked him if he wanted a light caning, a moderate caning or a harsh caning. He was so excited from the sight of all those canes laying side by side each other I knew he wasn’t about to say “light caning”. He said “moderate caning”. But I wanted to challenge him so I said “what if I’m in the mood to administer a harsh caning. Will you endure it for me?” Of course he said “yes, Mistress, your will be done!”

I tied him face down to the bed and I began with the lone black cane as that was the thinnest. I administered ten strokes and it really cut him. I moved to the white cane with the black handle for ten more. It didn’t take hubby long to realize these were heavy duty canes that hurt like hell. He was squirming big time, begging for mercy after about stroke number 5 from the second cane. Once I reached the tenth stroke (twentieth stroke counting the first cane) I took a break and rested in my chair, drinking a glass of ice water as hubby caught his breath.

I gave him five to ten minutes before I started up again. I moved down the line, ten each from the other five canes. I was slow and deliberate, tapping each cane three times against his bottom before drawing it back and flicking my wrist. I forgot what a skill it is to administers a proper caning. It is an art-form and I love doing it. What is really nasty is when you try to hit the exact same spot with two consecutive strokes. James hates that but I enjoy challenging myself to see how good I can get with my aim.

I got a lot of mileage out of his discipline session. I made him apologize for things I had made a mental note of recently, nothing all that bad but just those little things that he does that bugs me from time to time, things he needs to work on to be a better submissive to me. I also made him promise to add a few household projects to his list of chores in the coming weeks. The screen in the basement door needs fixed and the sink in my bathroom is not draining as fast as it should be. Of course he was very eager to see things my way as I dished out his discipline.

The little canes were especially wicked.

 

 

  

It might have to do more with his bottom being tender and very sensitive by the time I got around to them but he really seemed to jump and flinch from those. Lastly, I ended by opening my toy box and getting my favorite wooden cane that was lying near the bottom but still easily accessible.
 

 

Ten final strokes for a grand total of 80! Hubby was literally whimpering by the time I was done. I examined his well caned bottom and it was a sight to behold. I would say he has endured overall harsher whippings but this was definitely the most severe caning that I can recall dishing out.  And to be honest, I could have caned him much harder. I felt as if I was holding back, especially toward the end. Maybe next time I’ll go even harder.

I left him there, still tied to the bed for a short while to contemplate the discipline he had just endured. Then I returned to tend to his cuts and welts with much care and love, soothing them with peroxide (ouch, burning), anti-bacteria cream and finally a healing aloe.

I untied hubby and allowed him to worship my body, ending with me having several orgasms from his most eager and passionate tongue. See what happens when you motivate me with ideas and gifts?

A night of Water Sports

As with all things in life, sometimes you have to force yourself to stay motivated. It had been two weeks since I last dominated my hubby within a D&S session. It’s easy on the weekends to neglect femdom because there are other fun things to do, and during the weeknights we are both usually too tired. But last night I felt like we needed to “play”. Believe it or not, James wasn’t very enthused when I mentioned it. He did lots of yard work yesterday and he wanted us to order a pizza and download a good movie.

I had the advantage of reading “Interview with a Dominatrix” which motivated me to want to “play” so after we ate the pizza and I allowed hubby to relax on the couch (after he had loaded the dishwasher and cleaned up the kitchen), I went into the bedroom and rummaged around my toy box, looking for inspiration. There is something about the smell of the leather that rises from my cedar chest when I unlock it that gets me in the mood to dominate my hubby. And touching the various harnesses, whips, paddles, boots, corsets, and other fetish items always gets me excited.

 

 

 

I got down toward the bottom on the chest and there was that darn black pumpkin enema bag along with the aluminum butt plug shaped nozzle.

 

 

It had been quite a few months since I last administered an enema to James. I dressed in leather bra, leather thong and knee high leather boots and I filled the enema bag with lukewarm water and hung it from the ceiling fan above my bed. I spread an old blanket over my bed and grabbed some dirty towels out of the hamper and laid them over the blanket.

I walked out into the living room and motioned for James to join me in the bedroom. He was nice and relaxed on the couch but once he saw me in my leather bra and thong, he got his second wind and eagerly followed me. When he saw the enema bag hanging from the ceiling fan, he knew what he was in for.

I had him strip naked and I first administered an over the lap spanking with my leather paddle. It was nothing severe or intense, just a brief discipline to put him in the proper frame of mind. Then I had him lay face down on my bed, his ass elevated with towel covered pillows, and I lubed up the enema nozzle and inserted it into his anus. I slowly filled him with about two quarts of water.

I rolled him over on his back and I straddled his face and had him lick my leather thong. I pulled my breasts out my bra and I stimulated my nipples with my own hands as James continued to lick my thong. I slid the thong to the side and had him orally pleasure me as I continued to play with my breasts with my left hand. I took my right hand and pressed on his bloated stomach, also batting the rubber rubbing which tugged on the butt plug shaped aluminum nozzle that was still inside of him.

I told James that he had to make me climax before I would allow him to relieve himself of the enema. I was very excited but for some reason it took me longer than usual to orgasm. James probably wondered what was wrong as he had to lick me long and hard, had to be at least ten minutes, before I was finally able to climax.

I unhooked the enema bag from the ceiling fan and handed it to James so he could carry it with him into the bathroom. I grabbed the towels off my bed and I decided to follow him. I had to tinkle, actually tinkle isn’t the correct word, it must have been the beer I drank with the pizza, combined with the orgasm I just had, but I had to go badly.

My first thought was I would make James wait until I had relieved myself before he was permitted to relieve himself. But then I had a better idea. I spread the towels over the tiled floor and I ordered James to lie face up on the towels. By now he was in some serious discomfort from holding in the enema. I told him that I promised this would be quick.

I straddled his body and I let loose, a long flowing golden shower all over his body, from his caged penis to his chest to his face. James was drenched when I had finished. I lowered myself onto his face and ordered him to lick me clean. This got me aroused again so I commanded James to “do his business”, put the towels in the wash, clean-up the floor, take a shower and join me in my bed.

I relaxed and browsed the internet on my laptop from my bed as I awaited my humiliated hubby. He finally joined me and I ordered him back between my legs for some more oral servitude. He licked me until I had another orgasm. Again, it took me a while and poor hubby was exhausted.

He lay there, totally spent. I allowed him to cuddle next to me and I asked him, “Now, wasn’t that more fun than watching a movie?” It sure was for me.

Words of wisdom from Henrietta the Humiliatrix

Back in February I posted the following observations;

“Based on the feedback I get, it is obvious how much some of you enjoy reading about my husband’s humiliation. Why is that? Does it turn you on because you fantasize about a woman humiliating you? I will probably never fully understand the mind of the submissive male but if humiliation is what you want, I am more than happy to share some of our experiences with you.”

People ask me about humiliation play and why my hubby likes to be humiliated by his wife. Unlike highly educated dominant women such as Nancy Ava Miller and Elise Sutton, I do not have a background in Psychology. I do not take the time to analyze these things. I just know that my hubby and I enjoy certain D&S play. Why does he like to be humiliated? Why do I like to humiliate him? When I’m asked deep questions like this I usually find my inspiration in music lyrics, and in this case the Rolling Stones; “It’s only Rock ‘n Roll (but I like it).”

I was being honest when I said that I will probably never fully understand the mind of the submissive male but I am open to learning, and I find that I learn best from other dominant women. In my previous post I told you that I was sent the e-book “Interview with a Dominatrix” which includes interviews with 20 different women (including yours truly). I was browsing through it last night and I realized that I had only read about half of these interviews when they originally ran in “Predominant”. I wrote movie reviews for the e-zine but I never read each issue. In fact, I only read about half of them, if that.

So last night I was browsing the e-book and I came across the interview with Henrietta the Humiliatrix. I had never read it before and I’m sorry that I hadn’t because there was some juicy words of wisdom about humiliation play in there. She really has a grasp on humiliation play. Here are a few snippets;

Predominant: You call yourself a Humiliatrix. What does that term mean to you? 

Henrietta: The first time I heard that word was from the ladies that produced WHAP magazine. I subscribed to WHAP and I saw that term in there. It was a perfect word to describe me based on how my husband and I utilize humiliation play within our marriage.  

Predominant: How long did it take you to come to terms with his need to be humiliated? 

Henrietta: You do it a few times and then you measure the cause and effect of humiliation play. It’s only natural to be concerned that the humiliation will have a negative effect. Once you witness positive results, you begin to feel more comfortable. In my case, once I was convinced that Nathan wanted it and needed it, I was able to focus more on myself. As is common with most D&S interactions, humiliation play has an effect not only on the submissive but also on the Humiliatrix.  

Predominant: That’s interesting. Can you eloborate on that? 

Henrietta: There is a tendency to view humiliation play only from what it does to the submissive male. In the beginning, that probably needs to be the focus because of the emotional tide that washes over the submissive but once the Humiliatrix can get past that and focus on herself, she will be able to understand the positive attributes humiliation play can have in her own life.  

I discovered that my personality needs to experience the thrill of humiliating a man every bit as much as my husband’s personality needs to experience humiliation. 

Predominant: So what you are saying is there’s nothing wrong with using humiliation as a tool to establish relationship boundaries and relationship hierarchy. Is that correct? 

Henrietta: As a society, we cannot condone the stronger taking advantage of the weaker. However, that does not remove human nature or the evolutionary process that resides in us. In fact, the more society enforces equality, and rightfully so, the more the dominant personality needs outlets to exert strength and aggression. I myself have channeled that dominant energy in my career, in sports and at the gym. But what about the submissive? How does the passive person channel that submissive energy? D&S and Female Domination is the perfect lifestyle for a dominant woman and a submissive male because they can explore and channel energy that other societal interactions forbid. 

Predominant: Are you saying that to you, dominating and humiliating your husband is similar to you exerting physical energy at the gym? 

Henrietta: It can be physical energy but more than likely FemDom is the exertion of sexual energy. That’s what I meant when I talked about focusing on my own needs. I was very hesitant to humiliate my husband but after I got over the initial shock, as it were, I began to focus on what humiliation play did to me, and it aroused me sexually. There was no escaping the truth that I enjoyed humiliating him.  

Predominant: To make sure our readers don’t misunderstand, your husband introduced this to you because he wanted to be humiliated. 

Henrietta: That’s absolutely the way it happened. I started out doing all this for him. 

Predominant: Do you still do it for him? 

Henrietta: Yes but I also do it because I like it. I look at it this way, humiliating my husband is no different than having my nipples stimulated. Both arouse me sexually. It is a means to an end. The motivation is sexual arousal. The byproduct is the establishing of the marital hierarchy, and that is probably the main factor but the evolutionary process has channeled it through the sex drive. To enforce marital dominance outside of sex would be cruel and combative but because the hierarchy is established through the sexual senses, it is pleasurable and agreeable for both partners.

 

 

 

  

Predominant: In talking to women who work in the field of professional domination, they substantiate the fact that a lot of their clients desire to be humiliated by a female. The humiliation triggers something within the male psyche and it is the mental stimulation that triggers the submissive and sexual desires within the male and this trigger can cause mental pleasure and sexual arousal. What to one person may seem as being mean spirited and abusive, to the submissive man, within the safe confines of a D&S scene, it is pleasurable and even therapeutic. Do you agree? 

Henrietta: Certainly, my Nathan goes into what can best be described as subspace when he experiences intense humiliation from a woman, and I’m not necessarily just talking about myself. However, the one area I might disagree with you is when you say ‘the safe confines of a D&S scene’. What is a D&S scene? If we are interacting in our regular lives and there is an opportunity for me to humiliate my husband, even if it is spontaneous and not pre-planned, if I decide to act on it, does it not become a D&S scene right then and there? 
 

Predominant: Good point. Yet, just to play devil’s advocate, if a wife would verbally humiliate her husband within their everyday lives, chances are he could become either angry or hurt. The woman who calls her husband stupid or worthless outside of their D&S playtime might risk driving her husband emotionally away from her. But the woman who verbally humiliates her husband within a sexual setting might touch a chord within him that drives him to subspace and thus will cause him to bond with his wife on an emotional level. What do you say? 
 

Henrietta: That’s good advice to the general masses but as you have stated on your site, each person is distinctive. I don’t call Nathan stupid or worthless as a person because he isn’t. He is a brilliant man and I value him dearly. Conversely, I would argue that I have the right to verbally dress him down whenever and however I want. If he were to go into some kind of cocoon then naturally I would desist with the humiliation, but he doesn’t go into a cocoon. He becomes aroused. As I previously stated, at first I struggled with how to embrace humiliation as a tool of dominating my husband while trying to maintain a healthy relationship with him. He needs this and he wants this, for reasons I am not exactly sure, but I do know that it sexually arouses him. 

I really believe his need to be humiliated stems from his desire to be dominated by women. He is not talkative or confrontational therefore he seems to be attracted to women who are the opposite of himself. A woman who verbally puts him in his place is exerting dominance and superiority over him. I don’t know this for sure but I would imagine that most men who seek out humiliation from professional Dommes do so because it places the woman in the superior position.
 

There is a lot more, including examples of how she humiliates her husband. She does it both publically and privately, verbally and sexually. I do not consider myself a full-fledged Humiliatrix but I can identify with Henrietta when she talks about how and why she enjoys humiliating her husband. Like her, my personality enjoys the thrill of putting a man in his place. It really is a thrill and that thrill seems to be getting stronger. I find myself wanting to push the envelope with longer denial periods for James and more intense humiliation play. Yet I love him more than ever.

Judging from feedback on my blog, there is a large audience out there who love to read about women who humiliate men, and especially wives who humiliate husbands. I don’t mind sharing some of our experiences but please keep in mind that the majority of our lives are no different than anyone else. The mundane things of life occupy most of our time and we are life partners together. It just happens that I am the dominant partner and he is submissive to me.