(The kinky sense of band — ‘restraint’ — in the Rhymes cartoon drifts into some hard-core sex between men, so that partway through, this posting becomes no longer suitable for kids or the sexually modest.)
The Rhymes With Orange cartoon from yesterday (2/18) has two lobsters arranging a hookup for some kinky sex with lobster bands:
(#1)
The elastic bands in question are rubber or silicone bands referred to commercially as lobster bands. They function as restraints on the lobsters’ ability to use their claws — so that they’re roughly analogous to the cuffs / bands / restraints of bondage sex, hence the kinkiness in the cartoon.
A passel of digressions. In no particular order. One, Piccolo and Price could have made the lobster couple in the cartoon indeterminate in sex (allowing for the possibility that they’re a same-sex couple, which would be nicely kinky), but they chose instead to gender their lobsters, with a male making the band offer to a female. That accords with the most common pattern for bondage sex, dominant male over submissive woman, but neglects a considerable vein of gay male bondage (to be illustrated below).
Two, about Piccolo as a collaborator in the cartoon (since 2017), not previously noted on this blog. See the “About” site for the cartoon, with information about its creator, American cartoonist Hilary Price; and about her collaborator, Canadian cartoonist Rina Piccolo.
Three, the label lobster bands unavoidably suggests to me a musical group whose members are lobsters, or perhaps lobstermen; N + N compounds are notoriously potentially ambiguous, and this one also easily evokes the image of bands ‘groups, packs’ of lobsters roving through the sea or seashore, or of metal (finger) rings with the image of lobsters engraved on them (cf. wedding band).
Four, about lobstermen. This occupational role is now fairly often filled by women, who are (according to sites in Maine) called, simply, lobstermen or sternmen (with unaccented final syllable); that’s their nomenclatural practice. There then are female / women lobstermen.
On lobster bands. From the Alliance Rubber Company site, about lobster and crab rubber bands:
Rubber Bands are used to band lobster claws at catch point to protect them from each other in the holding tanks as well as protecting those who handle them from painful nips. Our bands minimize the probability of damage to soft-shelled claws and maximize the quality and flavor of the meat. Different bands are often used in banding claws: a softer stretch band for soft-shelled lobsters and a tighter stretch band for hard shells. A leading lobster band supplier, Alliance provides seafood bands that exhibit excellent cold water resistant properties while maintaining strength and stretch. Bands may be left on lobster claws in boiling water or for steam cooking.
The company also makes silicone lobster bands, as here:
(#2)
Bondage and its restraints. (This is where things get explicitly kinky.) From Wikipedia:
Bondage, in the BDSM subculture, is the practice of consensually tying, binding, or restraining a partner for erotic, aesthetic, or somatosensory stimulation. A partner may be physically restrained in a variety of ways, including the use of rope, cuffs, bondage tape, or self-adhering bandage
Perhaps the closest bondage item closest in function to the lobster band is the wrist restraint / cuff, for immobilizing a hand. From the Army of Men site, a pair of wrist restraints in black (there are very similar ankle restraints):
(#3) On the site: “Easily clipped together with a double-ended snap or hogtie.”
[Brief digression. These devices could quite reasonably be called wristbands / wrist bands, but that name seems to be rarely used, perhaps because the name has two other competing meanings already. From NOAD:
noun wristband: 1[a] a small strap or bracelet, especially one used for identification or as a fashion item. … 2 a strip of absorbent material worn during sports or strenuous exercise to soak up sweat. ]
Wrist restraints can be combined with ankle restraints and some further hardware, to make a full hogtie / hog tie kit. One such kit, from the Fort Troff site, illustrated in use:
(#4)
And then a hogtied man getting fucked:
(#5)
Hogtieing is ideal for the supine bottom (Missionary) fuck position, because the bottom’s legs are held firmly over his head (he doesn’t have to do any work to maintain the position; the restraints do the work for him), so his asshole is held as open as possible for the top’s entry into him.
[Personal note. Back decades ago, when I was sexually active, I loved getting fucked, but because of back problems couldn’t manage the Missionary position. A great shame, because it allows for deep penetration of the bottom, which is satisfying for both men, and because it’s a face-to-face position, which lets the two men monitor each other’s facial expressions during sex and also makes it easy for the top to bend forward and kiss the bottom. Yes, it’s raw animal sex, but it’s also affectionate bonding.
But not to despair. There’s still one thoroughly satisfying face-to-face position that makes kissing easy, namely Cowboy (the receptive man rides the insertive man’s dick) with the insertive man sitting up, especially with some support behind him (the head of a bed, the back of a chair or sofa). Particularly satisying for the receptive man, who’s the more active participant and also literally on top.]
February 19, 2021 at 5:56 am |
Just curious, how are you determining the intended gender of the lobsters? They look pretty much identical to me. Is it that the half-lidded eyes on the second lobster represent a more traditionally feminine “come hither” expression?
February 19, 2021 at 6:28 am |
The male is larger, and (more important) what you see as half-lidded eyes are a cartoonists’ convention for representing eye makeup.