Pointes, pain, gas masks and Gardasil

The US Army M40 Gas Mask

Pointes, pain and eroticism: I was chatting with a friend this morning while I was doing pointe maintenance. He has a new master at work who requires him to do a lot of physical training and he was just back from a session that worked his arms until he could hardly use them for much other than keyboarding.

I was telling him about a ballet teacher in school who was like that. In her pointe classes she kept us on our toes forever until most of us were bleeding regardless of how well our toes were taped or what padding we used in our shoes. The good news was that those of us who survived Miss Willoughby’s classes were much better and stronger dancers and some few of us found we enjoyed the pain. I think pain caused by standing en pointe is erotic! Of course you have to come off pointe occasionally or your toes go numb and you lose sensation. Toes going numb can be a blessing if you are trying to get through a long and difficult piece of choreography w/o mistakes, especially toward the end where your leg muscles are burning. But if you are into pain for pleasure as I sometimes am (usually at the end of my cycle when I’m nearing my period) I find it's best to come off pointe every 8 to 10 minutes to keep the pain going during the entire sexual encounter, class or rehearsal where I’m using pain for pleasure or as a performance tool.

Men in gas masks: My friend is into gas masks and his fave is the M40 currently used by the US Army. [The M40 is pictured in the image accompanying this entry.] Most of my circle both men and women wear Mestel SGE 400 gas masks for fetish-sex so I’ve been penetrated by a lot of men in Mestel gas masks, but I’ve had sex with guys who were wearing Israeli or Russian masks they got from surplus stores or on-line and a few in the Czech M10 with cheek filters. The men say they enjoy wearing a gasmask for sex because it makes them look scary and conceals their identity while causing dread in their partner. I like guys in gas masks because it makes it harder for them to breathe when they are fucking me and I love to see the man sweat and the lenses of his mash fog up as he begins to thrust more urgently when he nears orgasm.

HPV Vaccines in Canada: “Gardasil, a vaccine against human papilloma virus (HPV), has been approved as a treatment to prevent genital warts in males aged nine to 26 in Canada, the vaccine's manufacturer said Tuesday.

Health Canada approved Gardasil to prevent infection caused by human papilloma virus Types six, 11, 16, and 18 and genital warts caused by HPV types six and 11.

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in Canada, said Merck, the vaccine's manufacturer.

In 2006, Health Canada approved Gardasil to prevent cervical cancer and genital warts in females aged nine to 26. All provinces and territories now offer school-based programs using Gardasil, which works best if given to females before they become sexually active.

Two weeks ago, GlaxoSmithKline announced that Health Canada has approved its HPV vaccine, Cervarix, in girls and women. Cervarix protects against three other cancer-causing strains, HPV 31, 33 and 45.

In most people who develop genital warts, the infection clears up on its own. For some women, the infection persists and can lead to cervical cancer.

A study published last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that Gardasil in females has a safety record on par with other vaccines.

In January, researchers in Montreal published a study in the journal Sexually Transmitted Diseases showing 56 per cent of young people in a new sexual relationship were infected with at least one type of HPV.

The federal government announced in its March 2007 budget that $300 million over three years will be available to the provinces and territories in support of a national HPV vaccination program for girls and women.

It is up to provinces and territories to recommend vaccines for use within their jurisdiction. Doctors may also prescribe any approved vaccine.

An estimated 40,000 new cases of ano-genital warts are diagnosed each year in Canadian men and women”.

Pointe shoes for pony-play

PONY BOOTS

Pony play in pointes: I’ve been chatting a friend who is into Pony Play. His Domme wants him in pony boots, bit, blinders, butt-plug with a real horsehair tail… the works, but he is looking for something a bit more adventuresome in footwear as her Sub, so I suggested a pair of black or brown pointe shoes. Pony boots [see the image above] are just 4 inch heels on a modified wedge platform which takes no skill at all to wear, which is probably the reason for that design. He is a masochist. Well, he says he is, but a lot of guys say they are then when pain is applied they decide otherwise. But he says he is, so I suggested he be fitted for a good supportive pair of ballet-boots, as an interim measure, so he can get used to the weight of his bod taken on his toes while giving his ankles support of tightly laced leather boots. Wearing Ballet-heels first also gives him a chance to learn how to trim his nails and tape and pad his toes correctly and learn how to ‘set’ his pointes by pushing his toes into the blocks of pointe-boots and walk around en pointe before zipping them up to make sure they are as comfortable as possible. Of course after 20 minutes or so standing en pointe ones toes go numb, so the trick is learning how to gracefully walk in boots when you are some distance off the floor balanced on a 1 ½ x 2 inch diameter platform. That’s where the 9 in heels of ballet-boots come in handy for beginners. The heel is rather like training wheels on a bicycle, providing some measure of confidence and stability while the wearer accustoms him or her self to balancing and moving en pointe. While his ballet heels training is going on our student should also be taking ballet class at least three times a week to build up the strength in his feet and ankles so he will be able to actually walk confidently in pointe-shoes rather than be like so many men who aspire to wearing pointes but who can only pose in them.

Gaynor Minden pointe shoes with suede platforms

The Best pointe shoes for pony play: Once he is confidently walking around in ballet-heels he can then be fitted for a good supportive pair of pointe shoes – with his toes taped and while wearing the toe padding he normally wears with ballet heels. Gaynor Minden pointes with suede platforms for traction would be an excellent choice as first time pointes for a fetishist because a pair of properly fitted GMs will last a long time especially with suede platforms, take a lot of abuse and are very hard to destroy. Once the correct size is determined the pointes can be purchased and dyed black, brown or gray as necessary to go with the rest of the wearer’s pony tack.

Out here, in the clubs we seldom see female subs in full pony-gear, boots and full tack. There is a private pony club but it is very exclusive and all the men are quite old so the girls mostly parade around in an enclosed arena in full pony gear and occasionally race for their Masters pulling sulkys, light racing carts.

Foreplay with pointe-shoes

A well broken in pair of my Freed Classics with ¾ Forteflex shanks

Men, pointe-shoes and desire: It’s easy to tell if a man has a thing for women’s feet or pointe-shoes and if he does I consider him fresh meat! It is so easy to seduce a man who has those sorts of interests. Just by letting him watch me preparing my toes by taping them and putting on my pointes I can have him uncomfortably aroused and hoping for more. I will give the tour a brief overview of what they are going to see while taping and putting on pointes so I get to tease men this way when we have groups come through on behind-the-scenes tours, but those instances usually come to nothing as far as encounters are concerned. The real fun is when a VIP is brought through. We have advance notice so we can be rehearsing something erotic or psychologically dark and troubling so the guests will have something to remember us by when he get home to the wife and daughters. And, occasionally when he is important enough or is rabid enough about his foot fetish a one-on-one encounter is arranged. It’s almost always guys who make up the tours that get to watch and sometimes meet us so we cater to a guy’s fantasy of what Vegas dancers are like.

The XY Chromosome puzzle: I know it’s a very small sample but in my experience the guys who are into legs, feet and shoes all seem to have only daughters, why is that? Some guys seem not to be able to get a Y chromosome to take with a mating partner. What ever the reason the guys with daughter want to be all over me sucking my toes, helping me tape my toes, helping me slip my toes into their gel pads and then watch me slowly force my toes into the blocks of my pointes and pull the backs over my heels so my toes are packed in the blocks. I wear Freed Classics so there is the scent of sweat dampened leather and paste which is distinctive to Freeds English paste pointes. Some other men get stiff watching me wrap the ribbons tightly around my ankles tying my feet securely into my shoes. I think it’s the guys into bondage who love seeing me force my toes into their blocks and bind my feet into the pointes and since I love the feel that works for me! Usually that sort of guy wants to know that the woman he is watching is uncomfortable so I tell him my feet hurt when actually I’m probably having more fun being drilled that he is taking me. Being a masochist I enjoy the pain for the first few minutes, after that my toes go numb. It’s pretty standard for me to have the guy take me bent over a barre or table, en pointe and from behind when I will be the tightest – vaginal muscles are clenched when a girl is en pointe - and can be penetrated the deepest. By having us en pointe, in addition to making our legs look longer and more attractive I think there are also elements of misogyny as well as sadism involved in a man’s love of seeing women’s feet bound into pointe shoes and being penetrated that way. That’s because of the discomfort most of us experience when in pointes and en pointe for any length of time which has been widely written about. Only Toni Bentley, who is a best selling author and who danced for Balanchine at NYCB, has written about the few of us who enjoy wearing and performing in pointes and who only experience pain when we take them off. It’s when our feet are adjusting to their natural shape again that can be uncomfortable to me. During those times icing my feet reduces the swelling and ibuprofen helps with the pain.

Gardasil update: “On June 9, 2009, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a revised label for Gardasil. … FDA requested the manufacturer, Merck and Co., Inc., to add this information to the Warnings and Precautions section of the label, so that it is more prominent, and reminds healthcare providers that recipients of Gardasil should be closely observed for 15 minutes after vaccination. Gardasil recipients should be encouraged to remain seated or lying down for this length of time and be alert to the following warning signs and symptoms that may happen before a person faints: paleness, sweating, dizziness, ringing in ears or vision changes.”

Comment: Since we began offering the vaccine our clinic has had Gardasil patients rest for a few minutes after getting an injection. We recognized early on that it was not uncommon for a girl (or boy) to become light headed and occasionally faint after getting the shot.