First steps into the physical BDSM scene (what to explect)

I remember my first BDSM event. I was just eighteen and a friend of mine (from the early days of my talking about BDSM online to strangers as a minor – oops!) had asked me to accompany him. I went along to what I thought would be a big, scary BDSM event in Melbourne’s inner suburbs. Full of heavy metal music and girls being tied to things, whipped until their flesh came away. Perhaps that was partly fantasy too. 

I walked into this event and thought, shit where are all the young hot people. Everyone was so, OLD. I was standing there with my friend, his scene friends (who he’d quickly found after we’d arrived) and looking around, feeling very alone and perverted. I had found this interest very young, maybe there was something wrong with me? 

I am lucky that I live in a big kinky city, and I have seen my local BDSM scene grow over the years. Now there’s something on every week, not just two events a month. There’s a heap of these easy to attend (if a little boring) events. I would defiantly recommend anyone looking to go to their first event, that although it’s tempting to go to the hardcore leather bar, going to a tamer event or even a munch is easier than ever in Melbourne (and luckily us young kinksters are not alone, there are often under 30’s or under 35’s events in your city). 

Once you’ve found the tame event near you, weather through word of mouth online (link leads to the fetlife events board and opens in a new window), or are being dragged to the event by a friend of potential play partner the most important thing to do is relax. You’ve found your fellow freaks now. It’s time to enjoy that first moment when you look around and think (hopefully) “wow! They’re all just like me!”

The best advice I can give you aside from the “just go!” (and yes, a lot of people go alone – that’s how they meet new people!) is to remember that you are a newbie and that no-one expects you to play at an event. Often if you talk to the people on the door and say you’re new, they will set you up with someone to talk to who will explain the nature of the event and listen to you talk about how you’re so happy there are people just like you in the world (my friend did this, and it’s a thankless job, she really has heard it all!) or if you’ve chosen a munch, there will be other people there who you’ll be sitting with to talk to. Really it’s not that scary once you get there, and it’s a challenge to get over that initial fear. 

I’m happy to listen to you talk about your first event – but not happy to hear you talk about how you’d just love to go, adventurousness is attractive. Remember that!

How to get more approaches from dominant women online

After talking about which ways you should not be approaching domme’s online. I’ve got some suggestions for you on how to perhaps have domme’s approaching you (wouldn’t that be nice?). Some might seem common sense, but keep reading. You might find a gem you hadn’t thought of if you have not been very successful in the online BDSM community so far. 

Work out what it is you’re looking for

I’m openly polyamerous and I’m not hugely attached to outcomes – if I go have coffee with someone and we don’t click, I don’t get upset that that person will not be my slave. I just smile and keep going, so I’ve cast a pretty wide net, stating in my profile that I am open to whatever I attract (ie, new friends, play partners, a sub or even a slave to own) but you might know better than me what you’re seeking, are you looking for a play partner for a few sessions? Will they be public or private? Are you looking for a long-term relationship? Someone to hold the key to your chastity device? A new friend or a new community of kinksters who you can learn from, but you’re just a bit shy right now to attend events? Whatever it is, write it down.

Give others’ something to reply to

When I travel I often talk to strangers in drinking holes across the world, if someone is wearing an interesting tee shirt and has open body language, I’ll approach them for a chat. If they seem hostile or unfriendly, bugger the tee shirt, I’m going to avoid them like the plague. If you want others to contact you, or even reply to your messages, write a little bit about you in a vanilla context, talk about your hobbies, use a bit of humour to add some color and be positive, you don’t want people to avoid your profile after you’ve gone to all that trouble of taking fetish-ish pictures because you seem hostile. 

Talk about what you want to do for the mistress

The reason why professional domme’s get so much work from disgruntled attempted lifestylers is because the rest of us read the profiles of ‘do me’ submissives, turn up our noses and walk away.

The messages I’m most likely to respond to are from guys who tell me the things they can do for me that are mundane because I know that the mundane are things they are not going to get off on, so it really is about me. If you message a domme telling her you will give her free foot massages, she’ll know straight away that it’s about you (you dirty foot boy!)

Don’t invent experience

Nothing worse than a twenty five year old “master” with four or five middle-aged online submissive’s in his “leather family” telling everyone he’s been a master since fifteen. Com’on! (Yes, I know I was active online not much older than him, but I was only i*learning* online, not playing with anyone).

For the love of god – no child kink!

Whenever I read stories – the graphic ones are the worst – about games people play as children being tied to kink it really grosses me out, age play is fine. Telling people you like to be erotically tied because it always makes you think of Sally who lived next door to you when you were five is just weird.

Don’t take a S/slashy speak

Taking a slash in Australia is (normally) men’s urination. I hate the term as much as I hate slashy speak (ie. W/we are A/all over Y/your English butchery) I understand that perhaps some online-only mistresses may require their submissives to use this speech, but for the reast of us it’s irritating. Please only keep it to private conversations with people who’ve got the same language butcher fetish.

If you take these pieces of advice to heart and change up your profile a bit, you should have plenty of approaches in no time!