Match Game ’78
The Game Show Network is rebroadcasting Gene Rayburn’s “Match Game” from the 70’s. I remember watching this show many years ago. Since these shows have come back, we record them with the DVR and play them just before going to sleep. In case you haven’t seen it, there are two contestants and six celebrity panelists. Gene Rayburn reads a question with a blank to fill in. The celebrities write their answers on cards. Then the contestant whose turn it is, gives an answer that hopefully matches as many members of the panel as possible.
On Thursday night on “Match Game” 1978, one of the questions was:
“Jimmy said, ‘My new wife has a strange idea of what’s fun. On our honeymoon, she made me wear a ____(blank).'”
The contestant was an elderly lady. I joked to Mrs. Lion that the answer was “A chastity device.” We chuckled.
Then the contestant answered:
Contestant “A Chastity Belt.”
Gene Rayburn: “Chastity belt!”
Contestant: “The male version.”
Gene Rayburn: “Do they make chastity belts for men?”
Contestant: “I don’t know. I didn’t do that.”
Panelist Dick Martin (from “Laugh In”): “Yes, they call them Jockey Shorts.”
(Big audience laugh)
Needless to say, none of the celebrities matched that answer. As far as I know, there were very few male, or for that matter, female chastity belts. Twenty years later in the early days of the World Wide Web, the concept of male chastity devices began to blossom. We both wondered where such a random answer came from. If we heard that answer in the new “Match Game” that’s been on ABC this past year, we would nod knowingly because there is every chance she might have heard of such a thing.
Fifteen years ago, I researched the subject of chastity devices. I learned that contrary to common belief, the first chastity belts didn’t emerge until the Victorian era. Interestingly, they were for males. The idea that knights of yore locked up their women in chastity belts before storming off for the Crusades is rubbish. Some museums had female chastity belts on display that were reputed to be from those times. When historians debunked that myth, curators scrambled to get the counterfeits off their displays.
The original devices were belts designed to prevent male masturbation. Victorians believed that jerking off caused feeble-mindedness and insanity. Male asylum inmates were locked in cruel devices in an attempt to prevent them from making things worse. Parents of pubescent boys purchased all manor of cruel devices to keep their progeny from masturbating away their intelligence. These beliefs persisted well into the twentieth century.
Recreational male chastity, what we practice today, didn’t catch on until the invention of the CB2000 in the mid 1990’s. Male chastity belts were available prior to that. But they had many drawbacks. One of the best was from Access Denied, a small company on New York’s Long Island. I had one of those belts made for me. It was offered for my review. At the time I lived 50 miles away in New York City. It took a measurement session and two fittings before it was right.
Movement at the waist was difficult. It had to be tight enough to prevent me from slipping down over my hips. Any change in weight made it unwearable. Aside from the high ($500 in 1997) price, it was simply too restrictive. There were and are other belts coming from Europe. The Tolly Boy is probably the most venerable. These devices are impractical for most of us.
So when the cock-ring based CB2000 was offered, recreational male chastity was launched. For a modest price, men could be locked up and unable to masturbate. I think the original CB2000 cost $175USD and, like it does today, came with a variety of base rings and spacers. The fit was never very good, but it worked if the male didn’t try too hard to get out.
Anyway, the “Match Game” contestant must have been a time traveler. I can’t figure out where in the world she got that answer. It’s certainly a question for the ages.
Getting Lion Well
Today Lion gets an MRI for his shoulder and then we hope he’ll find out what to do about it. It could be anything from nothing to surgery. Either way, I hope he finds out how to get rid of the pain. I’ve suggested everything from massage to heat to ice to a TENS unit. I don’t like to see my Lion in any pain I didn’t cause.
Needless to say, Lion hasn’t been interested in sex. In addition to his shoulder pain, his allergies have been horrible. Today is my half-day at work so I’m going home to do an extra good cleaning of the bedroom. All the nooks and crannies that dust likes to hide that don’t get really clean from a normal vacuuming. I may not be able to help with his pain, but I can help with his allergies.
I guess you could say our experiment with daily or near-daily orgasms is a bust. I was just thinking last night that Lion will hate to go back into the cage when our experiment is over. He’s been wild for weeks now. Initially it was because he wasn’t horny. Then he had doctor appointments. Now he has the MRI. I almost mentioned the newer, non-metal cage, but he doesn’t need to be distracted by anything other than his MRI right now. Plus, it’s not the end of our experiment and he’s not horny. He’ll remain unlocked for another five days, unless he gets horny or has more appointments.
Depending on his mood tonight, I may have him wear diapers this weekend. Only when we’re home. I haven’t decided the parameters yet. It’s only if he feels up to it. Pain and allergies take a lot out of a person. I don’t want to push. Last night, Lion self-reported that he forgot to wear the training collar when we went out. I’ve postponed his punishment till tonight because he didn’t want any possibility of having a bruise before going for his MRI. He also interrupted me, but I also did something to him that I hate when he does to me: I took a conversation about him and turned it around to be about me. He pointed it out. I agreed. I think the interruption is cancelled out by my high-jacking the conversation. Fair is fair.
If Lion is not in the mood for anything, I may postpone his punishment again. I’m trying to be fair with all the extenuating circumstances. Lion isn’t attempting to get away with anything. Delaying punishment gains him nothing. The longer we delay, the more chance he has of getting more punishment added. Eventually I’ll catch up to him. My mother (the one who had to get her own switch for punishment) and her siblings sometimes ran from my grandmother to avoid their punishment. It never worked because my grandmother would punish them more for running away. She always caught up with them.
My only concern right now is to get Lion better. Some spring cleaning will help the allergies. Then we can go after the pain.
Doms And Subs
It was very kind of Mrs. Lion to decide I don’t have to wear a male chastity t-shirt at Kinkfest. While I’ve never kept my current BDSM interest secret, I didn’t advertise either. It’s true that I have been an educator at these events for many years. People attending my workshops, like you, get an intimate view of what I do as far as the workshop’s subject. I wanted to do one on male chastity this year, but I made that known to the organizers too late to be considered. Mrs. Lion wondered why I would be sensitive about revealing my interest in male chastity if I am happy to offer public workshops on the subject.
These events are attended by people of all sorts. Some are completely unaware of our kink. Others might view wearing a chastity device as an invitation to treat the wearer, me, with disrespect they think a “sub” should accept. I’ve seen this behavior in the past directed at guys who were obviously submissive. Lion that I am, attempting to treat me that way is likely to go poorly. I choose to avoid such annoying, energy-draining encounters.
People who attend a workshop on a given subject are willing to learn and tend to treat practitioners with respect. That’s why I don’t mind sharing my submission to Mrs. Lion in that part of a public venue. But in the open space there is just too much opportunity for unwelcome attention.
That brings me to the central issue: submitting to someone does not a “sub” make. The people who tend to refer to each other as “doms” and “subs”, also like to generalize about what that means. Those terms may be useful on the Internet, but in real life they are ludicrous. Virtually everyone can be dominant or submissive at various times. Dominant isn’t a noun. It’s an adjective. It describes behavior, not a person.
I am an aggressive, dominant male. I always have been. In the past, when not inflicting pain on willing victims, I have enjoyed receiving sensation play myself. No one, including the woman topping me, considered me submissive. So here I am in a full-time power exchange. There is absolutely no doubt that Mrs. Lion is in charge and controls significant parts of my life. Does that make her a “dom” and me a “sub”? Please!
Life just isn’t that simple. What we write about here is the part of our life where Mrs. Lion is the boss and exercises significant control over me. It’s very real. The male chastity and domestic discipline are 100% in force. None of it is so-called play. But that is only a slice of who we are as individuals and as a couple. Most of the time we are equal partners and share everything. We support one another and share responsibilities. I make decisions for both of us some of the time. Mrs. Lion does the same at other times.
As Mrs. Lion has written, to most of the world we are a normal vanilla couple. You, of course know we aren’t. The reason we “pass” as vanilla is because most of the time we are. But in private, as you know, I better follow my rules and I get orgasms only when Mrs. Lion decides to give me one.
People are too complex to label so simply as “doms” and “subs”. We are complex, multi-dimensional critters. The Internet is the only place where it works to reduce folks to such simple stereotypes.
Humiliation
I’m pretty sure no one but our readers knows what goes on in our house. I certainly don’t know what goes on in other people’s houses. Some people make comments about training their husbands to empty the dishwasher or spanking them if they step out of line, but I think they would be appalled if they knew they were in the same room with someone who actually does those things. Maybe not appalled. Maybe shocked. Maybe jealous. They certainly wouldn’t be going to a gathering of “weirdos” like Kinkfest.
I’ve only been to one convention(?) like that. It was eye-opening. It was a little strange. This was before Lion was locked in a chastity device and punished for breaking rules. We were just “normal” kinky people. I definitely felt out of place. Lion was in his element. He knew some people because he was active in the community for a long time. My assumption is that he’ll know some people at Kinkfest. My assumption is that I’ll still feel out of place.
A while ago, one of us (I thought it was Lion) found a shirt that said something about being a keyholder or being locked in chastity. I think it was Lion who suggested we should get them to wear to Kinkfest. Then he said he didn’t know if he wanted to wear something that labeled him as submissive. It’s a little humiliating. Here’s Lion, known for being a slave owner and dominant, now announcing his cock is locked away.
Recently, I was looking at the shirts again to see if I could find one that would work. When I showed him, he again said he wasn’t sure he wanted to broadcast his situation. What’s interesting is that when we first registered for Kinkfest, he asked if they needed anymore speakers. He knows that male chastity isn’t normally represented and he was willing to volunteer us (how did I get dragged into that?) as speakers. But now he’s not sure he wants to draw attention to his caged cock.
Sure, I have the authority to make him wear any shirt I want him to wear, especially in circumstances where we know we’re among “friends”. The question is, do I want to? It’s possible, with people dressed as ponies and puppies and babies, it would help us “belong”. (Lots of air quotes today.) Another thought I had was that it would be an icebreaker. People might be interested in something they’ve never really thought about. Certainly no one would be in a position to think we’re strange.
The main thing is that I don’t want Lion to be humiliated. It’s different when he’s home and he wandering around in a pee-filled diaper. Or even a diaper in public with clothes on so no one can see. Or if I paint his toenails and we go out shopping. No one sees his toes. He knows they’re purple, but no one else does. Still, it’s a little humiliating because if they did know…. So I’m nixing the whole idea of any shirt that says he’s caged or that I hold the key or that he can’t come unless I give him permission. If he wants to share that information, he can, but he doesn’t need to wear a billboard proclaiming it. I want him to be comfortable.
