Val's Kinky Column: Caught in the Wild

I think we all have that moment. You flip on the TV, an old movie or television show is on. The plucky female character is sticking her nose where it doesn't belong. Suddenly a bad guy comes up behind her. Maybe he grabs her, or sticks a gun to her back, or clamps a hand over her mouth as her eyes go wide with shock. She's caught. 

Then it goes to a commercial, or shifts to another character. You're left hanging in excitement as your heart flutters and you break out in a light sweat. What will happen to her? You're glued to the TV, waiting, wondering, feeling that tingle of excitment and arousal. Then the show comes back from break, or the scene changes, and you see that the plucky female heroine is now bound and gagged, a prisoner of the bad guys she sought to capture.

These are the scenes and the moments that made us, that shaped us and our fetish. I still vividly remember turning on FX to a rerun of Wonder Woman where Diana Prince chases a bad guy down a dock, only to get grabbed by a few other villains who come to his aid. The show went to commercial as the lead villain commanded his men to bring the shocked Diana on board. I was left in suspense, glued to my TV throughout the commercial break, which seemed to take an eternity. When it came back, the heroine was bound and gagged on a cabin on the boat as one of her captor's leered at her. The image of Lynda Carter gagged on that boat was burned into my 8 year old brain. At that point, I already knew that the image of a bound and gagged woman made me feel... tingly. The only reason that I watched the Wonder Woman reruns at the time was that I hoped to one day see her bound and gagged.

Years later, in the throes of my hormonal teen years I would have a similar experience. I turned on the SyFY Channel only to find that they were airing an all day Wonder Woman marathon. The episode that I was watching in particular was the Hot Wheels episode. Once again, Diana Prince is snooping where she shouldn't and gets caught by a bad guy, we cut to Steve Trevor, listening on a radio, as Diana asks her captor why is he tying her up. My heart races again, and at this point I'm old enough to know that the "tingly" feeling is sexual arousal. While at first the bad guys have Diana tied up in the back of the car, eventually, off screen she is gagged. I can't believe it, and neither can my teen hormones, which go into overdrive. 

I can't shake the image of Lynda gagged in the back of that car from my mind, and I go to the internet, hoping for more. My search proves more fruitful than I could ever imagine because I find that there are entire websites dedicated not only to the image of Wonder Woman in bondage, but to damsels in distress entirely. Up until this point, I thought I was alone, that no one else got turned on at the sight of tied up women like I did, but now, for the first time, I realize that I'm not alone. 

The internet is a great tool, and through it I found so many damsel scenes that shaped me into the writer that I am today, I found community and acceptance, and I found an outlet through my writing, but there was a thrill to catching a scene in the wild like this. These Wonder Woman scenes weren't the only time I happened to stumble onto a damsel in distress scene, but they were the most formative for me. There's something to be said though about the thrill of the hunt, turning on the TV only to find an unexpected scene, or flipping through channels hoping to find one. Now there are plenty of websites or social media accounts dedicated to finding and posting scenes. The folks who run these accounts are great, and are doing the lord's work, but part of me will always miss the thrill of searching for these old scenes. In a way, it almost felt like I was hunting and catching these damsels myself.

What about you guys, any scenes that you stumbled across that helped shape you? Please chime in with comments and experiences. 

I have another fun month planned for you all. You'll be getting the final installment of Mystica, another Writer's commentary, and the first chapter of Damsels Anonymous volume 5! Good stuff coming. Also, merch is going out to you long time supporters, so enjoy! I should hopefully have the Black Scorpion/Phantom Lady comic done in a bit too for you all. As always, if you have requests, please feel free to reach out!