NewsLink Article - Orifice Restraints: Gags and buttplugs

Orifice Restraints: Gags and buttplugs

On April 12, the large meeting room on the third floor of the Center was nearly full by 8:30. A huge turnout of men and women showed up at this meeting, attesting to the wide interest in the topic of hole-plugging. Rich led the panel of John, Lolita and Matthew, making sure that they talked about every hole in the body, from asshole to eye-socket, and about every type of plug, from boiled egg to double-headed dildo. Audience members demonstrated some of the gags.

Rich's first question-"Why do we all like gags and plugs?"-received answers of two types: first, they're small and portable; second, they bear psychologically significant meaning. We use gags and plugs for practical reasons such as shutting someone up (muffling unwanted screams or stopping the bottom from talking), forced feeding, and sensory deprivation. These practical functions often relate to psychological effects. Gags and plugs can assist in exploring the primary s/m issues of control, power, and submission by providing a symbology that links physical acts to the deeper elements of individuals' desires.

The ability to speak, for example, gives you power, and if someone takes that away from you, dominance is asserted and you are left less powerful. Similarly, you usually have the power to make a decision about what and when to eat, but if someone decides for you about that fundamental physical act, a comparable shift of power results. Insertion gags or plugs make a double statement, not only underlining the translation of the power in the relationship but also breaking the boundary of the body. The body orifices have functions legitimized by societal norms. By plugging an orifice you transgress the boundaries of society. Moreover, this taboo is paradoxically enjoyed by both the bottom (the powerless, and even sometimes unwilling, perpetrator of the transgression) and the top (who lures the bottom over the boundary yet doesn't transgress it him or herself). Butt plugs bear meaning in this sense, for example, since a buttplug transgresses not only the orifice but also the ancient societal norm that has declared that the asshole can provide only illegitimate pleasure. Hoods with insertion gags attached are especially powerful: they block senses (sight, hearing) and they transgress the boundary of the orifice (mouth).

A gag and a buttplug used at the same time provides for a double pleasure: intellectual, in that there is a personally meaningful symbolism involved; and physical, in the sensual, primal pleasure of erotic gratification.

Strap-on dildos or plugs allow a woman symbolically to become a man, and can elicit gender characteristics for both bottom and top. A strap-on was used for that effect in the video "Sensual Surrogate," the third part of the trilogy Three Faces of Women (A Feminine Trilogy) by Rick Castro (1994), screened at the 8th New York Lesbian & Gay Experimental Film/Video Festival in November, 1994: when a so-called Freudian analyst was approached by a same-sex couple (transgendered men in female drag, who had a lesbian relationship) to assist them with their troubled relationship, the analyst prescribed the use of a strap-on to solve their problems. "Who could have a relationship without a penis?" she asked. A message of the video, made with double irony, is that a strap-on can help to clarify gender confusion.

On the other hand, a strap-on can help to create gender confusion. The woman panelist, when asked what her all-time favorite scene was that had gags, buttplugs, or dildos, described the following: she went to a mixed s/m club dressed in male drag, but with a female wig and makeup. Wearing a strap-on, she got straight guys to suck it, saying, "Yeah! You suck my dick, just like I can suck dick! I can fuck you now, too, just like you fuck me!" She added that this was especially good for the homophobic straight guys, who she forced to suck dick because it was hers.

GAGS

Gags that are incorporated into hoods often make the bottom docile after a few minutes. The combination of sensory deprivation, loss of speech, a certain amount of breath control, and the secure feeling of the pressure of the hood render a bottom sometimes wantonly submissive. Eyes, too, become ultra-expressive.

Don demonstrated an elaborate head harness made with rope, and which was designed to hold in an inflatable gag. This gag was inserted into the mouth after the head harness was on, and pumped up with a simple squeeze-bulb device. The bottom was shortly unable to speak. The head harness allowed him to be attached to anything or to be pulled or pushed in any direction.

Ironically, a gag sometimes can evoke more noise from the bottom than he or she would make without it. The gag loosens inhibitions, and groans, moans, and muffled screams can be eerily loud.

Any gag that inserts even slightly and that isn't absorbent will make the bottom drool if it is left on long enough. The humiliation for the bottom who drools down his or her face, neck, and chest, is the humiliation of one who has lost control over a bodily function essential to the norms of even the most marginal societies. Forcing a bottom to drool can be a highly effective and erotically charged way to humiliate.

Do not be deceived by the appearance of a simple gag: being gagged is a powerful physical and deeply symbolic act, and a top has to be aware of both those elements. For the physical, the top has to watch extremely closely for injury and for difficulty in breathing or swallowing, as well as take the usual precautions with body fluids and bacteria. The symbolic must likewise be closely controlled. It may be too intense, for example, for a bottom to be both gagged and bound at the same time.

TYPES OF GAGS

Bandanna; socks; sock firmly pushed into the mouth; rope, braided like a bit, or single strand with a knot in the middle, placed in the mouth; duct tape, with or without something inside the mouth; elastic athletic wrap; leather strips, wound around and around the head; fingers or fist in mouth and throat (grabbing the teeth and jaw at the back is also an effective way to lead a bottom from one place to another); and soft balls of different sizes (toy stores are a good source).

Also: harness gag, horse-bit gag, and ball gag: each of these is a store-bought leather-metal-plastic combination, and they must be well and strongly made. Audience volunteers modeled these gags. The harness gag is a network of leather strips, and often has a few hooks with which to attach the head to something; the horse-bit gag is great for playing horsy as well as for keeping the bottom from talking; the ball gag (besides giving the bottom a comic-book startled expression) is a highly effective mouth stopper. You can also make your own rope harness, and attach a gag to it, as was demonstrated. Even more: dildo-gag with rubber insertion plug just long enough to touch the uvula, prompting intermittent gag reflex and tube gag, or "piss-gag," consisting of plastic tube that fits into the mouth and a leather strap that goes around the back of the head.

GAG SAFETY

When using a sock (or any other piece of cloth) be sure it's not totally dry, since that will cause dryness of the mouth and possibly choking.
Never leave a gagged person alone.
Gags must fit. The jaw is anatomically related to the ear, and thus to dizziness. If the jaw is in a position that is not natural for it a bottom can faint, temporarily lose hearing, or have the jaw go out of joint. (The latter can happen, by the way, with alarming ease.)
The bottom must be aware of what can go wrong with a particular gag. (This is not knowledge for a top to withhold.) A bottom most know his or her limits, must know the top, and must know all the risks. As one panel member said, bottoms are proud of their feats, and want to perform well for their top, and this can only be done when all the practical aspects of the scene are known and mastered.
Since a bottom cannot speak, arrange a safe signal (as opposed to a safe word).
Clean gags with a germicide or anti-bacterial soap. Leather should be thoroughly washed and well dried.
As with any type of restraint, have blunt-tipped scissors always at hand for a quick release, if necessary.
Tape around the head with duct tape loosely, so the bottom does not bite cheeks. A good way to do this is to have the mouth open while taping.
Make sure the nose is clear and the opening is not blocked, and that the bottom can breath sufficiently through the nose alone.
Use insertion gags that are molded in one piece, since the insertion part of a two-piece gag can break off in the mouth and choke the bottom. For the same reason, avoid using the dual-purpose gag that has a detachable insertion piece.
Before using an inflatable gag, check the inside of the bottom's mouth for excessive dental work or other sharp points on teeth, and, of course, ask the bottom if he or she is aware of any sharpness in his mouth anywhere. An inflatable insertion gag that pops can cause serious injury.
Beware of over-inflating inflatable insertion gags: make sure the breathing channel at the back of the throat is open so the bottom can continue to breathe through the nose.
When using a tube gag for ingestion of liquid, allow the bottom to practice swallowing before the scene. Swallowing with this type of gag is different from swallowing without a gag, since the tongue is restrained by the tube. Train the bottom not to choke.

PLUGS

Buttplugs-in the generic sense of an object to plug the butt-come in any shape or size you can imagine. If a distinction needs to be made between buttplugs and dildos, you could say that it's more a difference in what you do with the object than what it looks like or how it feels. Generally, a plug stays in place and a dildo moves; a plug is not necessarily phallic-looking; a dildo probably is. Dildos can be considered along with buttplugs in this discussion. Vaginal plugs are the same, but a wider variety of sizes and shapes can be used.

When inserting a plug, use lots of lube, and go slowly. Save twisting, grinding, and vigorous movement for later, after the muscles have relaxed. (Faster movement should, in theory, be reserved for a dildo anyway.) Most commercial buttplugs have a narrow part at the bottom where the sphincter muscle can hold it and keep it inside. Since a vagina has no sphincter muscle to hold a plug in, a plug must be stuffed in and held or strapped in.

Routine use of condoms on buttplugs is an easy safe practice to follow regularly, and it allows for sharing of toys among bottoms. Remember that while plugs can be shared (with a condom), lube should not be. A hand moving from a lube container to a person and then back to the lube container inevitably deposits things from the person to the lube container. Reserve a lube container for that bottom, or, better yet, a bottom should have his or her own lube container. Women should follow the dictum, "From vagina to butt, but not butt to vagina."

TYPES OF BUTTPLUGS AND VAGINAL PLUGS

Store-bought plastic, in various sizes (some with leather bottoms or holes for hooks in order to attach a strap that will hold the plug in); vibrating; plug with leather tail attached (great for playing horsy, especially with a horse-bit gag); corn-on-the-cob; vegetables; eggs, hard-boiled, cooled, and shelled; marshmallows, frozen or thawed; frozen grapes; anal beads of various sizes (a string of plastic beads of any size placed a few inches apart on a string); chain link, any size, the type that has no rough edges on the links.

PLUG SAFETY

The skin of the anus is thin and sensitive and therefore, easy to abrade. Use lots of lube and know the size of the bottom, knowing approximately what he or she can take. After play, eat food with bacterial culture, such as yogurt, which can assist in recovery of the normal rectal fauna, which ultimately aids in healing abrasion.
Wash thoroughly any food or other biodegradable objects: grapes, for example, can create a yeast infection.
Practice carefully using anal/vaginal beads in order to learn how to avoid scraping the knot against skin.
Do not use anything made of wood, to protect against slivers and splinters. (Billy clubs should be plastic.)
To state the obvious: what goes in must come out. Therefore, the more manageable buttplugs are those with flanges at the bottom to keep the plug from sliding inside. Even buttplugs may disappear inside, however, and if this happens, the most important thing to do is not to panic-or even fear panic. Most lost objects can be retrieved easily if the bottom remains relaxed. If you can't reach it immediately, some soothing tea, mental relaxation exercises, massage of the lower back, or a warm bath may help. Moreover, the intestines may have stopped their normal movement, and eating a small amount to restart that movement may naturally (or with a little assistance) pass the object out. Do not use a laxative. Do not leave the object inside and assume it will eventually come out. If it doesn't come out after relaxation and movement of the intestines, or if the bottom cannot relax at all, a hospital visit is necessary. (Invasive surgery is usually not indicated, since physicians have access to muscle relaxants and appropriate tools for stretching the rectum and reaching inside to grasp an object.)
Spanking should be avoided if a buttplug is inserted.
It is not necessary to take a full enema before using a buttplug, which only goes a short way up the rectum. A quick, simple douche will suffice in most cases.

-- Terry F.

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