Lady MacLaine: 30 Years Behind the Whip

A German pro-domme retires

Lady MacLaine [left] and Katja Inga Baldowski as Lady MacLaine

Back in the mid 1990 a friend of mine moved into the same building as mistress Madieanne and was offered a tour of her premises. If it were me I would have jumped on the opportunity, but I think she declined. In Berlin, 30 years ago something similar happened.  "Many years ago, Tina moved into a Berlin apartment building and created a dominatrix studio on the ground floor, where she became known as Lady MacLaine. Unlike many of her colleagues and despite personal crises and gambling addiction, she worked in the industry for over three long decades."

When movie director Rosa von Praunheim moved into the same apartment building as dominatrix Lady MacLaine in the 1990s, they became friends and now that Lady MacLaine has retired [and moved to the country side] a film about her life and work as a professional dominatrix has been made, called 30 Years Behind the Whip [30 Jahre hinter der Peitsche]. It recently premiered at the Internationale Hofer Filmtage.  The life of Lady MacLaine is presented as a docu drama, not exactly sure what that means but some dungeon scenes are re-enacted with actress Katja Inga Baldowski as Lady MacLaine. The movie is accompanied by a book of the same title, or is it the other way around? Doesn't matter. Seems to be a continuation of 20 Jahre hinter der Peitsche. Despite the fact that it is subsidized by both the European Union and German Public Broadcasting, it's almost impossible to watch it. Dutch lives in neighbouring Holland and so far has had little luck.

Reviews are overwhelming positive but there is a catch. Local broadcaster Bayerische Rundfund [BR] is one of those positive reviews. It, however, cannot hide it's surprise that a woman can work her whole adult life as a pro-domme and retire like anyone else.

"Despite personal crises and her gambling addiction, Tina held on to her career as Lady MacLaine for over three decades and managed to retire unscathed. Her intelligence and middle-class background helped her - in contrast to many of her colleagues who met tragic ends." [1]

Never understood the disrepect pro-dommes get both from the vanilla world and the haters within 'our' community. Nobody forces you to visit a pro-domme but if you're curious about BDSM there's probably no safer way to learn more about it than booking that first session with an experienced domme. It's probably one of the best life choices you'll ever make and Lady Maclaine is one of many dommes making that possible. I'm glad she decided to publish her life story. Now all I have to do is look for a chance to watch it.

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Face the Music

Jaden Bojsen & David Guetta - Let's Go

Jaden Bojsen & David Guetta - Let's Go [click to listen]

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US President Joe Biden has given Ukraine permission to launch longer range missiles into Russia, two months before the end of his term. Russia not only has some 10.000 North Korean troops added to its military strength but also is making sizeable gains against Ukraine. Incoming US President Donald Trump has vowed to end the war within 24 hours, which seems impossible. Most likely he will halt aid to Ukraine, forcing the country to negotiate a peace settlement where they give up terrain. It explains the fierce battle that is going on in what might be the last months of the war. Both sides are trying to grab as much land as possible the gain a better bargaining position. And yes that effectively means that Russia is rewarded for starting a war against Ukraine and we, the West, failed both Ukraine and ourselves. Only question is what will Putin do after his 'victory'. This is far from over and the Russian president is not done yet.

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Notes

[1] "Trotz persönlicher Krisen und ihrer Spielsucht hielt Tina als Lady MacLaine über drei Jahrzehnte hinweg in ihrem Beruf durch und schaffte es, unbeschadet in den Ruhestand zu gehen. Ihre Intelligenz und bürgerliche Herkunft halfen ihr dabei - im Gegensatz zu vielen ihrer Kolleginnen, die tragisch endeten."

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The Stanford Prison Experiment

When being a prisoner femdom style feels safer than participating in a scientific experiment

Last month Philip Zimbardo passed away. Most likely that name doesn't ring a bell but perhaps the Stanford Prison Experiment does. In 1971 a group of 24 volunteers was divided into 12 guards and 12 inmates. The 1971 psychological experiment was designed to study participants' reactions and behaviors in a prison environment over the course of 14 days. However from the very start guards became increasingly brutal in their tactics to stop the prisoners from escaping. Christina Maslach visited the experiment on day six and was troubled by what she saw. The psychologist confronted Zimbardo, who played the role of superintendant and as such was in charge of the guards. He ended the experiment that same day.

Today many consider the Stanford Prison Experiment to be unethical. One element that directly casts doubt on it's scientific merit is the fact that those who responded to the ad, mostly did so for monetary gain, making the pool of participants all but random. Volunteers were paid $15 per day, roughly equal to $113 in 2023, meaning that for the whole fortnight, participants were paid $1862 for the full duration of the experiment. Zimbardo also "instructed guards to find ways to dominate the prisoners, not with physical violence, but with other tactics, verging on torture, such as sleep deprivation and punishment with solitary confinement", thereby directly intervening in the outcome of his very own research project.

The project went of the rails so bad that when one participant staged a hunger strike, the other prisoners, rather than considering this inmate a hero "and following along in his strike, they chanted together that he was a bad prisoner and a troublemaker."

Looking back half a century later, a consensus that seems to be forming is not so much that William Golding was right in 1954 when he wrote Lord of the Flies [2]  [he was not] but that the guards were led towards extreme behaviour by Zimbardo himself. Not only did Dr. Zimbardo not stop his guards, he even instructed them in the way they should behave. Nature or nurture, the answer will forever be blowing in the wind.

For quite some time now I've been wondering about the recent increase in the popularity of prison play -  or so it seems. Then again perhaps it's not so much that whole prison scene but the warden in chief and her crew behind it. The question that remains is what happens to a man, how does his attitude change, when he signs up voluntarily for femdom prison? One day, one day I'll tell you.

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Face the Music

Interesting article in the Financial Times about the Doctor Who theme song.

Delia Derbyshire, who helped create the Doctor Who theme in 1965.

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Support Ukraine!

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Notes

[1] Keep in mind that the standards in the 1970s for scientific experiments were different from today.

[2] In the novel Lord of the Flies boys turn into beasts after their plane crashes on a deserted island.

[3] In the real Lord of the Flies, six boys are shipwrecked for 15 months. Rather than fight for power, they cooperate. “One day, in 1977, six boys set out from Tonga on a fishing trip ... Caught in a huge storm, the boys were shipwrecked on a deserted island. What do they do, this little tribe? They made a pact never to quarrel.”

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