When it comes to a lot of the literature on the market to help out the Dominant crowd, males tend to dominate the majority of the authors. That’s why I did enjoy reading Claudia Varrin’s “The Art of Sensual Female Dominance“. It was spell-checked well and written in a well-thought out manner. The chapters were organized in a way that made sense. At 240 pages, it only took about three hours to finish reading through the entire book. It’s not a book that “screams” sex when you take it out in public, so you could get away with just keeping it down on a flat surface to read it. I’m not sure if I’d take it to work with you, though.
I would like to stress that this is written in a point-of-view for those Females that will be having males as bottoms. While some of it would work for females as bottoms, it’s just different in the amount of preferences. This book includes chapters on things such as Cross-dressing and foot worship which usually tend to be male bottom’s fetishes, not female’s. So when it comes to having a book on the market that touches on those things, she does add to BDSM library in general. Many Male-Dominant books don’t find a need to touch on those things because they usually deal with female submissives.
I also want to say that I did enjoy this book if for nothing more than the stories she includes in it. She includes some stories from some of the subs she’s played with in the past when appropriate. It really gives a nice look into the BDSM lifestyle.
Before I get into the rest, I do want to touch on the fact that she does not include anything about general safety or first aid. Since those topics are beaten to death in general BDSM books, she states that she chose not to include them in her book. This book assumes that you’ve read some of the other general BDSM novels on the market before reading this one specifically inclined towards Female Dominance. (If you haven’t read any general BDSM books, I recommend SM 101 for the basic first aid and general safety information.)
The chapters are geared towards Female Dominance/Male Submission like I said. It talks about how to get into the mindset of Female Dominance and what to wear, and what will help you keep that mindset. The next chapter includes things about bondage. It includes different bondage rope ties you can do that concern the penis along with some basic knots that can be done with rope. She also talks about the other restraints that can be used instead of rope.
The next chapter includes things about cross-dressing. She talks about the different types of cross-dressing. (Forced Feminization and Total Makeover) She also gives some stories about her real-life experiences and talks about how to be more accepting and nurturing of cross-dressing. The next chapter is all about Discipline. (This chapter most talks about impact play.) She goes over the places that you can hit without causing damage, then takes the time to explain the different toys you can use to do impact play. The chapter was written well overall. It doesn’t discuss the different techniques to use each different toy however.
There’s also a brief chapter on Exhibitionism and Voyeurism which doesn’t include much useful information. The chapter after that is about fetish clothing. That chapter is pretty useful to the novice because it discusses the differences in material and the differences in how to take care of each material.
The next chapter is all on Foot Fetishes. I was actually quite impressed with this chapter. It goes over the different types of foot fetishes and different, unique ideas to indulge the foot fetishist. It also goes into detail about trampling (the act of walking over someone with your feet), how to do it safely, and what areas are safe to trample. Then comes Humiliation and Head games. Nothing worth mentioning there except for a couple good ideas in the chapters.
Then she also puts in her two sense with some interesting party games that could be done at BDSM parties. Her parties are mostly aimed towards Female Dominant parties, so it’s pretty inapplicable to most. The “Positions” chapter is actually a really great chapter for learning about some of the different slave training positions. It doesn’t include diagrams (which I think would be pretty vital to a “Positions” chapter) but the text does a decent job of explaining it. Diagrams would have been very helpful, though. There’s a chapter on “Roleplaying” but there’s nothing worth mentioning there.
The sensory and sensory deprivation chapters were pretty long, but most of the information was common sense after you’ve been into BDSM for awhile. If you’re new to Female Dominance, it would be helpful. The “Slaves and Slave Training” chapter was a decent chapter, but it’s been done better in other books. “Erotic Slavehood” is great for ideas for slave training, but the chapter in this book does give it from a Dominant’s point of view. But it’s not very helpful for getting any ideas. It just talks about the different forms of punishment for wrongdoings. There’s a small chapter on Watersports that includes the basics along with enemas, and then there’s a “bits and pieces” chapter where she puts small snippets about Edge Play.
Overall, not a bad book, but definitely a beginner book. If you’re more Intermediate, I would say to pick up a copy just to get more knowledge and some ideas from some of the stories that she printed in it. Not a horrible book, but leaned mostly towards the vanilla housewife whose husband voiced some interest in submitting. It’s great for that.
