Erotica 09: Bit limp, but crowds still up for it

Eh?

"or in the case of the gay community, going under entirely"

Is that some kind of euphemism?

True enough

"and Erotica does feel as though it is retreating to a base that is essentially vanilla, straight - but interested in bedroom hijinks" - you got it in one. I stopped going when the BDSM vendors started to dissapear; and that happened several years before the recession.

In fact, if anything, BDSM events seem to be dying off; a few specialist areas seems to be enjoying a resurgence, like pony play and kinbaku ... but that is about it. As society in general started to become more tollerant, the serious kinksters hang up their leather chaps. only the dedicated remain.

There hasn't been anything seriously new in the BDSM world for some considerable time. I mean, fluffy handcuffs must be collecting their pension, and if you look back at the bondage magazines and pictures of the twenties, it is all the same but just with newer, better quality gear. The really exciting stuff is both seriously expensive and needs considerable amount of room to use. Few people these days can afford a dedicated dungeon at home.

This last few years, it is as if someone just left and turned out the light. We need some innovation.

Thanks :-)

"director Anna Span was there and in clearly triumphant mood. She told The Register that since her victory over the British Board of Film Censorship in the issue of female ejaculation "the floodgates had opened". Perhaps, in the circumstances, this was not the most delicate of metaphors."

LOL, quality.

As for the bloke who complained about, umm, "underrepresented" BDSM vendors: wasn't that originally an underground movement to begin with? In the age of blanket CCTV coverage and blatant disregard for people's privacy I'd imagine that to revert to type..

Female libido pills

I read the Guardian report on tablets to increase female libido.

Judging by the outcome of tests, it is cheaper to buy placebos, and tell your woman that they increase her libido. You'll get laid just under 4 times a month. With the expensive tablets, you'll get laid just over 4 times a month.

Of course, placebos would not work if they were mixed secretly in her cornflakes, while ... hmm.

Engineers of Desire?

Lashers-up of Really Bad Photoshop, more like

@Alex King

Have you never heard of the sexual position called the "IT Angle"?

Look in page 69 of the Kamasutra.

Back To The Drawing Board

"...a radical mix of Victoriana and sci-fi, represented brilliantly by Engineers of Desire.."

A reasonable starter description of Steampunk there. However, those Engineers Of Desire are just producing soft porn with a BDSM fetish base and a badly done Goth topping.

If a woman wears a corset, it doesn't mean she's Victorian. If she also wears welding goggles, it doesn't mean she's Steampunk.

Methinks a niche style bandwagon has been jumped on by people who haven't really made much of an effort.

@Alex King

You should try some of the USB and wireless Internet controllable vibrators ... good for a laugh .. ahem! :-D

That's a question ... remote control of partners fitted vibration equipment ... is there an app for that?

Swings, BDSM etc

I think you're missing the point with the swings - they're for the slightly athletic rather than the very athletic. Holding someone in various positions must logically be a heck of a lot easier when it's the ceiling taking the strain rather than your body.

The BDSM community has run its own events for years. I suspect the real issue is as one of the commentators states - the stall prices. Additionally, Erotica was always likely to revert to a fairly vanilla base - if someone was seriously interested in BDSM, parts of the LGBT scene, swinging etc they'd be directly looking for that rather than going to a general event.

IT Angle : I wonder if those swings can be used to recreate the suspended from a wire computer use scene in Mission Impossible (the modern film).

@ Graham Marsden

Couldn't have put it better, and it's been disappointing not to see your stall there for the last few years.

Going back at least 4 years I have said to the friends we often visit Erotica with, that it seems more and more that the exhibitors could almost all be part of the same franchise, with very little variation/originality being shown.

Having spoken with other former stall holders, the story is the same, pricing is what has decimated the variety of exhibitors.

If visitor numbers are up (Saturday's event definitely was busy) then the chances of Erotica management doing anything about the declining variety of exhibitors will be very low.

also, @ Michelle Knight, i know there is a script made for doing just that via Secondlife, so an app can;t be far behind !

The Edison

visited a very good example fo the Steampunk Smut in LA recently called The Edison

While dressing up in a corset and welding goggles isn't really me... I can see the attraction ;)