An interview conducted by email for a researcher of a book on modern female domination which was never published.
The internet has enabled connectivity enormously, through email, munches ,social media, notifications of clubs, etc. I don't know how much it has changed attitudes but I do know that it has enabled people to socialize who would not otherwise have done so, so it might seem to have become more acceptable given that people feel easier with it, having been able to meet others .
Acceptance is a word you can only use when you know what is to be accepted. Few people even knew the word femdom so it was not a case of being acceptable or not...it was just part of a vague concept called kink. When I started I didn't even know what all this was called. You couldn't google "whip, mistress" and discover about everything in one afternoon.
That is inconceivable to anyone under 30. There was a lot of stumbling around trying to find what you were all about. You weren't swamped with visual material as you are today, so what you did see actually made more impact. It kept it fresh.
One by-product though has been the sad demise of the magazines I started in. They just could not compete with what is around today.
Skin Two was around and a few specialist mags but they provided no way to meet others, so unless you were into the club and music scene you just hoped to your luck. That wasn't my thing. I never quite understood why I needed to dress up and listen to music I hated just to talk to another soul who might understand my art. Moreover you never expected to be able to meet other submissives privately or go to munches, have a cup of coffee with another man, let alone another woman, who was "into" the same things. ...all that has changed for the better wonderfully.
However I don't think that means the scene has necessarily widened -perhaps the same number of people are interested now as ever before only they can now all say to each other "and I thought I was all alone".
With knowledge that others exist has come confidence to find them out, and that confidence has led to more events and more knowledge which in turn connects people even more and can only give a better impression for others new to it all.
I don't think it was ever looked at in a derogatory way -I never got people spitting at me(!) - maybe the worst was even a raised eyebrow but way back when I first started it did seem more underground and unless you were actively seeking it out you wouldn't have come across images of BDSM. The huge increase in publicly available material for good or bad has made people much more accepting or blasé about it all. As above people can educate themselves more about it .
I actually don't feel comfortable with presenting it before anyone who has no interest in it. I don't go looking for public recognition and never did. The people I want to see my work will find me. As for " Art", well it's never going to be Turner prize (British art award) is it?- but it's appealing to the minority who understand it.
I think that connectivity has allowed people to educate themselves much more, and try to understand at least superficially what the other sex feels and requires, which is all to the good. Please remember that my incursions into the "scene " are actually rare, as I have no personal interest in a femdom relationship, maybe I never did. I just draw my images.
I think women are freer now to explore than ever before, submissiveness or dominance. If they decide it's not for them then fine, no-one has commanded they have to enjoy a different lifestyle.
It is a metropolitan thing generally, like most fringe culture and it's difficult to say as I have only anecdotal information about the rest of the country but there are so many events and munches, etc throughout the country there is now the network to explore being an "amateur femdom" .Are you aware how modern that phrase is-the concept would not have been around 20 years ago?
A few years ago for instance I joked with someone that the West Country of England was a fetish dustbowl, now I hear more and more what a developing scene is happening there! So it happens everywhere in pockets - just we hear about it more now - it's not the covert thing it used to be.
Now really - that question does surprise me as even a quick look at my site will show you that I swerve from that cliché all the time... black tight clothing – sure I like that, and whips of course are the symbol of dominance and so they do appear often, but certainly not always. I am quite aware how many dominant women shun the stereotype and have drawn away from that type very often. It's the media like fashion magazines and advertisers who prolong that cliché, and if anything I have tried to show personally that it doesn't have to be that way.
Of course it's a male idea of femdom – how could it be otherwise? I can't draw with a female eye, though I have tried to see things from a female point of view. A lot of attention is given to the look of the domme herself in my pictures and less on the submissive , but the male eye in general looks at women that way.