| Review:
Dominant women, at least on the Internet, tend to fall into two
categories. (Actually, this probably isn't true, but it helps to make
our point with this review so we'll let it stand.) On the one hand you
have the Bitches, and on the other the Goddesses. The Bitches are messy,
raw, a bit gonzo, and proudly amateur. Goddesses are professional, a
little colder, and more theatrical. They tend to dress up more and have
nicer-looking dungeons to play in.
An example of a bitch-domme (at least when she's in the mood, because
she's a sub too) is Absolute
Kim. Her site is totally amateur, gonzo and filled with bodily
fluids. Goddess Heather is a dominatrix machine. Everything about her gleams.
And we're not just talking about her oiled muscles--though we should say
something about that while we're at it. You see, "Goddess"
Heather was, in a previous life, the bodybuilder Heather Tristany (this
was back in the day of big, big hair). Something about the bodybuilder
mindset (the body as a temple/work of art) feeds the Goddess syndrome.
You think of these sculpted forms as sexy but not always sexual.
So on a physical level you have this perfect form, all smooth and
done out in gleaming fetish fashion (Heather looks great in rubber).
Then you have all of the gleaming metal-work she has had done. A bio
page tells us she has 26 piercings, and 14 of these are rings through
her labia, which she usually has long chains attached to. Throw in some
sunglasses, a short hair cut, and you have the domme as Terminator.
She's really an impressive sight. No age given, but one of her shoots
was apparently done for the Over 40 magazine. Could this be true?
She looks half that age. Clear evidence, if any more were needed, that
women who want to look great into their mature years should be lifting
heavy iron regularly.
Also gleaming is the "dungeon" set, which is so bright (all
white walls) you'll need those Terminator sunglasses. It seems a
little sterile, but we liked it. Better a brighty-lit dungeon than a
dingy dark one any day.
OK, on to content. As you can probably guess from Heather's physical
presence, she is very much the domme throughout. She wears a lot of
great fetish fashions, fucks her girlfriends with a strap-on, and abuses
her resident masked gimp (the "Cabana Boy"). Maybe it's her
bodybuilder background, but the action involves a lot of what we would
call posing. You don't notice this in the photos as much, but in the
videos there is always a sense of playing to the camera (even a lot of
talking directly to it). Again, it is quite theatrical and you rarely
have the sense that Heather is getting lost in the moment.
The range of action is pretty good. Heather's girlfriends (who are
usually pretty husky too) show up for a lot of girl-girl sex or to
tag-team the Cabana Boy. Most of the fetish hot buttons get pushed: some
watersports, lots of cock-and-ball torture, bondage, strap-on sex, foot
fetish and bodybuilder/workout sex (lots of girls in the gym fucking).
The production values are quite high and the photo galleries in
particular look really good (the site tour offers a preview). This is a
very professional site.
One thing we thought could have been better was the video. The clips
are all RealPlayer files and the playback isn't great: a small picture
at 255 kb/s. The clips are all in the 2-7 meg range (running 2-5
minutes). They are well produced (Heather has her own line of videos for
sale), but the technical quality of the downloads is disappointing.
Site layout is a little confusing. The photos are split up into two
main sections: Muscle and Glamour (37 galleries)/Fetish and Femdom (31
galleries). Since this site is essentially all fetish, members
might take a while figuring out how this works. Then there are 61
"galleries" (we put that in quotation marks because not all of
these galleries, unlike the other galleries, have many pics) that are
"Favorites". This is a grab-bag area, with pics from earlier
in Heather's bodybuilding career, candid pics, behind-the-scenes, etc.
So much for the main photo sections. Then there is a
"Diary". This features more photosets, along with a lot of
written commentary. Seemed to be updating every two weeks (the site as a
whole seems to update a couple of times a week). Then there is the video
clip page: 62 clips when we visited. The action is similar to the
photosets. As noted, the site uses RealPlayer throughout. In addition to
these videos there is a section of video clips taken from Heather's
movies. There were 21 movies to choose from when we dropped in, each
represented by three clips. These are a little shorter than the normal
video clips (usually 2-3 megs), but they aren't just teasers. You'll
probably want to grab a few of them.
Other extras include "Slave Stories" (16 stories written
for/about Heather), and a big selection of "Favorite E-mails",
followed by Heather's replies.
It's in the e-mail pages and the surprisingly extensive written
commentary that goes with the diaries and photosets that this site
really goes up a notch. Usually we prefer the messy/bitch/amateur
femdoms to the glamour gals, but unlike a lot of "pro" sites
Goddess Heather has personality. She is bright, funny and articulate.
Yes there is the usual superwoman stuff about self-actualization and
following your dreams. One of the authors she lists as a personal fave
is Ayn Rand, which struck us as such a cliché. But there are all
sorts of genuine moments that really made us feel that this was a real
hands-on personal site. Attitude is just attitude, but personality is
what we really like to see, and Heather's got it.
Overall we thought this was a very good site, with a lot of
high-quality exclusive content and a spectacular Amazon headliner.
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