| Review:
What is it that makes
Pornreports
a slightly different porn
review? Our need to engage in subtle cultural analysis, genre
deconstruction, and foregrounding of wholly aesthetic criteria in
evaluating the awesome pile of smut that crosses our desktop. Yes, this
is the thinking man (and woman's) porn review, and we're not ashamed to
say it. In fact, we had to keep saying it to ourselves, over and over,
as we looked at the tortured titties and lacerated butts on display at
PainToy and wondered how we got into this in the first place. It
couldn't have been for the money (no joke, we don't make enough).
While it's clear not all bondage/S&M sites (and Paintoy is more
S&M than bondage) are the same, it's interesting
to stand back and take a look at some of the things they do seem to have
in common. For one thing, they are strictly fetish--meaning there is no
emphasis on conventional sex or sexuality. The girls don't even wear
sexy clothes. (In the case of most bondage sites they seem to go for a
retro 50s-style wardrobe, the cultural significance of which doesn't
strike us as all that relevant today. Are bondage connoisseurs still
hung up on True Detective?) The girls usually don't get fucked,
or even aroused. They are tied up/restrained and then abused. That's it.
That's the turn-on.
Another thing about bondage sites--and we're just blabbing about
bondage in general here, you might want to skim down a bit to get to the
review--is the visibility of the line between what's "real"
and what's make-believe. Of course this is an issue in all porn (which
is fantasy), but with bondage there is this need to make the violence
seem even more real. Pornstars may fake orgasms, but pain has to be
real. No "air spankings" or play whippings. But at the same
time it can't be made to seem too real, because that would be offensive
and dangerous. So instead of dramatizing the action the ropemaster
becomes a kind of stage hand of "real play". It his art--in
tying women up and administering punishment--and he is as much the star
of the show as the bondage object.
Finally, it also seems to us that most bondage video is (a) too dark
and under-produced (cheap dungeon sets, when you get a dungeon); (b) too
repetitive and static as far as the action is concerned.
OK, on to Paintoy.
First off you get the appeal to the reality of it all, the "real
play":
"You will find inside only REAL BDSM sessions. Welts, tears,
screams and bruises are common. This is not light fetish or leather and
latex dress up. Its [sic] real people doing real pain play with
some very sexy girls."
This is all true, except for the last part. There were 49 models (or
"paintoys") on
tap when we visited, and while there were a few cuties, many of them
were not very attractive. Lots of tattoos. Very sub-cultural. Not bad if
you're into watching biker chicks get whaled, but that's the nature of
the talent. None of these girls are glamour models or pornstars. But you
can browse the model index on the site tour so see for yourself. We try not to judge.
As far as the sort of beatings and bondage administered, it's
old-fashioned corporal punishment. None of that high-tech machine-fucking
and water bondage
stuff. The emphasis is more on punishment (paddling, caning, whipping) than
bondage. Most of the
girls get their butts reddened or striped. There is also some tit torture with
ropes and needles and clamps.
The usual guy dishing it out is a hirsute fellow named
Alebeard.
(There are 12 "sadists" in total, all of the men with beards.
What does this mean?) Alebeard is not a nasty man. The punishment is
lovingly, not aggressively, disposed. The girls even get lots of hugs.
Then back to the strap or whatever.
A big plus is that the site is producing all its own material (under
the name "Mead Hall Productions"). You will see stuff here you
can't see anywhere else. All the video is RealPlayer, without spectacular playback (from 250 to
450 kb/s, and it doesn't look good full screen.). In the clips we
watched there was a fixed camera
placement, some of it was too dark, and there was nothing in the way of
editing or close-ups, though the sound was captured well (with no
music). The clips average 3-4 minutes in length. In total there
were something like 400 clips for download.
The pictures are well presented, being clean and sharp and very large
(1200x1000 is a typical size). Now these aren't great studio shots, but
they are better than the usual snappy-happy junk and they do a good job
of focusing on the cause and effects of the pain these girls are
receiving. Over 30,000 pics when we dropped by.
All this and updates twice a week, every Sunday and Wednesday. For a
small niche-fetish operation like this, that's not bad at all. It's
definitely a solid effort.
Now on to something we didn't like. The site notes that it has been
redesigned recently, and whoever did the layout deserves to
have his ass caned and whipped. It looks bad. There are lots of
typos. Navigation is all done
through drop-down menus. Ugh. Primitive (and not always responsive). You
basically browse the content through a big general index that combines
pics and videos. There is a model index but it has no links!
There is little help in navigation. Thumbnailing is inadequate. Here is the directory of clips for one model, Eve:
Her very first taste of the cane ever
Her very first taste of the cane ever
cane and some paddling
nice ass paddled
nice ass paddled
ass paddled and start of punishment
cattle prod
paddle
paddle
paddle and start of cane
And that's it. You can see how helpful thumbnails would be.
Bottom line? Lots of exclusive S&M stuff, and it's growing nicely
with two updates a week. It looks ugly, but that may be part of the
appeal. The crude production values and site design take it down a notch
though. It could use an overhaul.
|
