Thursday 13 November 2008

Disturbing Images 2

Before anything else I would like to tell you how chuffed I am at the responses to the Love Our Lurkers Day. I had hoped for many comments but didn't expect as many as I got. Thank you for stopping by and saying hello. It is still not too late to delurk. But as I say, reading is more important than commenting, has always been and still is.

When I started to post a Disturbing Image I thought about it as images that I really found objectionable but still are attractive or arousing. This image is a bit different. I still wanted to put it in this category.

Here we have a photograph of a naked woman, lying on her back, bound and blindfolded with a kind of gag. She is bound in such a way that her sex is easily accessible to her captor. In addition she is spreading her knees making herself even more open and exposed.

I am a prude and I keep repeating it. This may seem strange regarding my stories but if you think of it, there are not much raunchy details in my writing. And I do get terrible embarrassed by such a picture as this one, where a woman exposes her sex like that.

So why is it here? What is it that still appeals to me? I think what struck me first is her vulnerability, her helplessness. She is bound and open and exposed and accessible. Anyone may touch her and she can do nothing. She can't even watch the one doing it.

This could be rather nice, if you trust the one who has access to your body. Still I find this image menacing. I don't know if her friend or foe has tied her up like this.

There is however one particular thing that made me put this disturbing image here. I sometimes look at an image, especially the ones I find a little disturbing and think about what to say about them, what the participants would say, that sort of thing.

When I looked at this image and wondered what it would be like to be her, that exposed and bound woman, I knew what words she would say, or what I would say. The words are 'touch me!'

Not 'have me,' 'take me' or 'please let me go!' but 'touch me.' Suddenly there was a kind of significance to it, it became an image of a desire to be open to touch, to long for to be touched. It doesn't have to be sexual, it might be, though. Her pose, doubtlessly, makes you think like that.

The power in it comes, I think, from the fact that that, for me, touch is the most important thing, touch, not sex. One must not be put up against the other. Sex is important, very important, but more essential than anything is touch.

Fantasies are often like that for me, they are about very basic desires and some of them are not always the obvious ones. So here I am finding a kind of meaning in an image that I think would be far away from what most people would be thinking of.


10 comments:

Paul said...

Janice, without the senses sex would be nothing.
Of all the senses used in sex, though I prefer love making, touch is paramount.
Bondage isn't my kink, so yes I find this a little disturbing, but not much.
I don't believe that I'm a prude and in saying that you are, well!!!
Warm hugs,
Paul.

Meta said...

My response to this image? I want to be tied up like that!! But only by my Master, where there's already a very strong sense of trust. I love that feeling of vulnerability.

I also completely agree with what you've said about touch. Actually, I've had that on my mind for a while - how important touch is, whether erotic or asexual.

Mina said...

Dear Janice, I like this picture and yes touch is what comes to mind first. Touch is very important to me as I am a very tactile person. I love to touch and be touched. I could lie quietly for hours with just someone running their fingers over my back...mmmm. At the moment I miss it more than sex...just.

Hugs
Mina

Ollie said...

Touch is the most important.
I long for the touch of my wife, each touch is a gift, from the tiniest brush to a hand on the shoulder, and I appreciate each and every one to the extent that she feels embarrassed that I am making so much fuss over what seems such a small thing.

EddieBGoode said...

Forget about "touched" and forget about "sex". Exposed has its own power. I remember a few years ago, my ex was down here in Florida to visit and we got a bit liquored up at our favourite haunts and back at my place, I simply said "I want to see you naked". Off came the clothes and she just laid back on the bed, exposing herself like this lady in the picture (but without the ropes, of course). She is blessed with a most wickedly beautiful vagina with the classic European (German) extended inner lips and I just kneeled at the foot of the bed and savored the view for what was probably forever. That was the sex. Sometimes we just want to look.

Anonymous said...

It is odd that the woman in the picture evokes tenderness rather than savagery. I like to think that she has requested to be tied and exposed, in the way that she is; and that what she is giving expression to is a "Pandoric" desire--that she sometimes feels pulsing through her; but which she usually denies any ownership of.

When Pandora's box was opened, every desire and sin was set free into the outer world; the only thing remaining was delusive hope. The woman in the picture hopes that she will be treated tenderly, not savagely; the undecidability of her situation would make her wet. If I was to find her like that, I would give her such a tongue-lashing, that she would be seeing rainbows.

Anonymous said...

I think the others summed things up nicely. Drat, I hate it when that happens.

The one thing not discussed so far is that she is gagged. It is also the one aspect of the image that I would change.

How is she to ask for touch, or for anything else (mercy, punishment...) gagged? How can she express her pleasure, her fear, her discomfort, her excitement?

I suppose that is the dominant's purpose, to deny her her voice, but so much of what pleases me, in D/S (sexual or not), is the sound..

Regards,

Wystan

Janice said...

Dear Paul, I agree with you but I think the point I was hinting at, was that touch is something powerful in itself, sexual or not. I think, too, that there is a point in using different words, sex isn't always love making.

Dear Meta, I know what you are talking about, I think. Being vulnerable and helpless with someone you trust is very sweet, indeed.

Dear Mina, that picture you paint is very delightful and very true. There is a sweetness in that kind of touch that is what you really want at times.

Dear Ollie, a small thing but so immensely precious to us. I don't think there is any need for embarrassment...but we can't help how we feel...smiles.

Dear Eddie, so certain forms are connected to certain ethnic groups, I had no idea. But nudity is a power in itself but that won't make me forget about sex or touch. Just put it in another blog post.

Dear Jim, I am glad that you and so many of you see that there is sweetness in the picture. I am still terribly embarrassed about it but I see what you mean. Being tied up takes away some of the responsibility. I guess that is really what appeals to me.

Dear Wystan, thanks for commenting anyway. The gag she is provided seems a little flimsy. I do see your point though. For me, the gag has a great symbolic value and some of it is quite misogynous, connected to the idea that women talk to much and should really shut up. The strange thing is that this is a little exciting. I wonder why mean things still can be exciting.

Hugs

Janice

Anonymous said...

i stumbled upon this site.i of course was curious about"disturbing images",unsure what would be revealed. surprise!. this photo to me is NOT disturbing.to me it is so beautiful and free.i actually feel emotional about the trust she has given to another person to bind her in such a way.thank for sharing.mam

Janice said...

Dear Anonymous, yes, we all see things differently. Thank you and welcome to my blog. Hope you will find something of interest here. I called it disturbing because I can't really understand it.

Hugs

Janice