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Where the Toys Are
by Lacy Stahl
#1 Impressions Paddle-SLUT (about $26)
Our last article about paddles, "Knick Knack Paddle Whack" (see archives), covered the difference between holy and unholy paddles. Those were full-sized paddles. Here’s one of the junior members of the paddle family, the slapper paddle -- more fresh than nasty. Still, even whapping it through the air, you can hear it sizzle like the sound of a slap, produced by a second strip of leather slapping against the first.
Recently, I got to try out the Sportsheets (TM) "slut" slapper (sold in our mall -- just click on shop and go to Extreme Restraints, then click "floggers and whips" -- for $26) and it was really fun. It’s a firm black leather (dense aroma and all) -- run it under your lover’s nose and make him (or her) smell what’s coming. It’s only about a foot long, so you can fit it in your bag -- or even a deep coat pocket (winter discipline will travel). With that slapper tongue on the business end you can just crack it in the air and terrorize someone who’s blindfolded (don’t let me put ideas in your head). It makes that nice exploding cap sound. Do it close across the front of his or her face (carefully, and keeping the sharp crack away from their ears) and they can also hear the air whipping out of its path as it flies by. Sometimes a promise is as good as a pain.
You’re probably using your slut slapper on a shameless slut -- I know I was -- so why not make sure they carry the label of their sluthood on their body where it properly belongs? This impressive paddle has the word "slut" punched out of the leather slapper tongue (spelled backwards of course). Slap you’re slut’s bare skin and it WILL leave a lovely brand by coloration. We tried it and yeah, it really works. Laying it on him at a stroke strength of about 5 (on a scale from 1 - 10) the word slut was completely legible on his skin. (Body art!)
For a small round ass, you may have some difficulty in placement, losing letters off the curvature, he, he. But that can make your play a lot of fun if, for example, you insist on slapping ass till you get it right, or should I say "get it red." Actually, the word "slut" shows up white (if your lover is white-skinned) on a rosy background (the letters show where the slapper doesn’t touch skin).
So my guy took a couple of good ones at a mild but firm stroke strength of about 5. He was quite impressed, so to speak. And he felt it. Not only did the mark of his true sluthood show through, but the skin wealed up ever so prettily. (He bragged about those welts the next day -- rather shamelessly). At that strength, there’s no mess or fuss and nothing to take home, since the mark goes away inside of twenty minutes. But I found that at a strength of any less than 5, you’re probably going to lose clarity on the "slut" -- at a stroke strength of 4 my guy’s slut brand came up missing some coloration around the edges. Sigh.
In the picture of this slapper (see photo), you can see how the word "slut" stands out a seductive red through black. What you’re seeing is just a piece of paper slid between the tongue leather and slapper, and the red is more somber than what you see in the picture. Alert: take the pretty paper out before you start playing. It only falls out anyway and gets dirty and crinkled. It’s just for show. And you’ll want to slip the paper back in when you go to hang your slapper in your toy closet (comes with a nice shoe-lacy hang loop). It will contribute nicely to the effect that gets you hot the minute you open the door to your toy chest.
Kinkster Masturbation Note: A beginning masochist or sadist, anxious to get started on their pervy way -- but who may not have a partner -- can get to work on themselves using this toy solo. Because it’s relatively short (compared to paddles, floggers and whips) you can safely reach yourself in all kinds of fleshy places -- thighs are nice because you can see them. And the pain is in the controllable range for the newbie.
Wrist Restraints -- Rubber versus leather
#2 While my slutty partner and I were on a roll, I decided to sneak a couple of new pairs of handcuffs on him (also from the ALT.com online shop). The leather cuffs are your industry standard, sold as "Leather Locking Cuffs" for $39. I basically used these as a point of comparison with the "Locking Rubber Restraint" which goes for 4 dollars less. Both types of cuffs consist of a strap studded into a two-ply underpadding. The buckle tab that goes through the tightening holes has an eye in it. After you tighten the restraint to taste, you can put a lock through the eyehole and the cuff can’t be unbuckled without a key. There’s also a silver ring joined to the restraint for locking the cuff to a variety of things -- the other hand cuff, some ankle cuffs, a cross or other dungeon station, a bed post -- basically wherever else your deviously creative mind can go. This means that to lock your lover’s hands together (why would you want to do that? Let’s see¡¦), you’ll need three little padlocks. Or tie shoe laces, scarves or what not through the holes and tie them to the bedpost, eh? Now, up to this point, both the rubber and the leather restraints are identical.
But then we come to the texture. Now my partner is a leather head: loves the smell, the feel, trusts leather like a good friend and does everything but want to marry it. So I have to admit that our experiment was a little biased -- nothing was going to persuade him to favor the rubber. Still, we tried both.
I like the rubber. I like its feel, its heft (the thick rubber wrist cuff is a lot heavier than the two-ply leather), and its fit. I love that grabby thing rubber does to the touch. I could get the rubber to fit my boy snugly the first time and without a whole lot of grunting and forcing. Pull the tab forcefully, and you can stretch the rubber till an eyehole yawns right up to the buckle tab. It can be a very tight fit, yet not blood constricting. We used these cuffs for four hours without any loss of sensation; no pins and needles. His skin bore a slight crease where the wraparound edge of the rubber lining was forced to press against his skin. But after four hours in the cuffs my man’s skin, he claims, felt no more raw when they came off than as if a band-aid had been removed. OK, four hours is extreme for erotic foreplay, but in the name of science...
Another great thing about the rubber is that it’s flexible. It pulls and stretches in such an erotic way -- but that’s rubber and that’s me. The leather tends to be harder to size, and it’s stiff at first, takes some "wearing in," and someone with a small wrist may find themselves swimming in it.
The only downside to the rubber is that it starts to look a little stressed under duress. My guy is pretty brawny, and a serious escape attempt from him (nasty boy) had the ring tab looking pretty iffy. The edges also curled a little. But that can be a plus because rubber’s tendency to flex makes you feel a little less helpless. Of the two, rubber is certainly the more erotic; but leather is, well, leather.
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