His Terrible Femdom Hookup
Bill Ward was a prolific fetish artist and illustrator whose work provided striking covers and interior illustrations for a whole bunch of stroke books back in the day. I wouldn’t say he was a good artist precisely; for one thing, his people have odd proportions, and he tended to draw women that look just like his men, only with implausible tits superglued to their fronts.
It’s also my impression that Ward didn’t really understand many of the fetish topics he illustrated on any kind of emotional level. Too often, for example, his BDSM people don’t seem to be having any fun. Not to put too fine a point on it: his tops look angry and his bottoms look miserable. When I see art like that, my first thought is “These people are bad at bdsm dating — they need to do a better job of finding compatible playmates!”
This current set of illustrations illustrates the problem perfectly. (They are from the 1973 title A Woman To Be Feared by John G. Yard; it’s an Eros Goldstripe “Bizarre Books” publication.) From the very start, the domme looks nothing but angry, and her sub is in tears. Now, I’m not saying there might not be some tears in a perfectly happy and healthy F/m kinky relationship, especially when there’s a huge paddle and/or a vicious-looking cane in play. Sometimes that’s how people roll with their kinks. But does this man ever have a look on his face that suggests he wants to be present in the scene?
Don’t get me wrong, Ward had his moments of erotic brilliance. I wouldn’t have at least fifteen posts of his work in the ErosBlog post database if I didn’t like some of his stuff. But he was such a prolific artist, it’s impossible not to suspect that he often worked to order, without much concern for the content. “We need a dozen illustrations for our latest dominatrix book, the title is “A Woman To Be Feared,” no you don’t need to read it, it’s the same old shit for wimpy perverts, just give us the usual package.” It often seems to me that if he wasn’t inspired, or if the fetish topic in his work order didn’t have personal meaning for him, he may have just kinda winged it. In the most extreme cases, I expect this lack of engagement may have extended back up the chain of production to the stroke book authors and publishers, churning out cheap porn on fetish topics without having any more notion than Ward what the fetishes were about on an emotional or practical level. How else to explain an illustration like this next one, featuring our unhappy submissive having tap water forced into his mouth?
To be fair, their imprint was called “Bizarre Books”, and kitchen sink water torture is undeniably bizarre. I’m not sure what else it has going for it. Likewise this scene, where our beleaguered boy is getting kicked in the ass with a sharp stiletto heel while his mistress simultaneously slams a door on his head. What the actual fuck?
I’m not the kink police, and to be fair this was the 1970s. But I say “no.” The only rational conclusion is that this was bad femdom, written and illustrated by people who did not understand the kink and did not care that they didn’t.
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In my opinion, your observations and perceptions are quite astute and particularly well articulated. I have at times wondered if his dominatrixes were consciously or subconsciously she-male’s or if he was working for a sole patron. Prior to the internet, it may have been difficult to fully understand one’s inner fetish dialog…
Not sure if this is lack of understanding, or simply an example of “fantasy” far exceeding the pragmatic boundaries of SSC. Likely the audience had as little knowledge of actual BDSM practices as the writers and artists, and actual practioners didn’t bother with these books.
I do like that his people aren’t “pretty”, but I do associate my perspective with your comments on his art.
Forced water drinking to induce urination (and then allowing or restricting or at the very least *controlling* urination) is a fetish and torture that apparently goes back thousands of years.
I do enjoy implausible fantasy stories from the old Star Distributors; nearly all the illustrations of “Di Mulatto” are for books which depict tortures that no one would enjoy accompanied by the depraved addictions of people who are sex + torture junkies. Non-consensual is just the start of it.
Personally I prefer BDSM where the dom is happy and aroused and the sub is happy and aroused — and if that involves shoes or peeing or a good sound paddling with a custom oak paddle with SLUT etched into it – well more power to you.
It’s particularly hard for me because I enjoy erotic humiliation, and trying to convince someone that you WANT and CRAVE it and how you execute that together can get pretty complicated or twisted sometimes.