fatigue
Keyholders need TLC. Tops have needs too.

(Wednesday, May 14 2014) Most of what you read about forced male chastity is about how to deal with a caged male. Most of it is written by caged males, including me. If you go by what you read, the keyholder has the best job in the world; she gets anything she wants any time she wants. I remember when I was a top, I would ask self-proclaimed submissive women what they give back to their tops in exchange for the effort it takes to top them. Almost every new bottom answered, “The gift of my submission.” Some gift!

Topping is work. A successful keyholder, even in a rather vanilla relationship, has to put in substantial effort to support her caged male. She has to decide what he must do, how long to keep him locked, discipline, teasing, ruined orgasms, and other entertainments for him. The problem is that many caged males refuse to understand the reality of their caged male/keyholder relationships. The fantasy is that the caged male is a sexual captive who can only orgasm or even get erect at the whim of his keyholder. She, on the other hand, can demand endless sexual gratification at any time from him. He also may be required to perform domestic and personal tasks for his keyholder. In that context it does sound like the keyholder has all the goodies and the caged male is Cinderella hoping for some sexual scraps. That’s the fantasy. One reason many keyholders soon lose interest in forced male chastity is that the reality is very different. Let’s look at it from the keyholder’s perspective.

One day her partner tells her that he has been dreaming of forced male chastity. She agrees to lock him up because it is clearly something he wants badly. The early days are filled with mutual discoveries. Both keyholder and caged male enjoy this new game. She enjoys being pleasured at will. She probably also likes that her male is now paying much more attention to her. This chastity honeymoon goes on for a while. She learns about rules and discipline, toys, pegging, and other topping activities. Most keyholders don’t even realize that they are, in fact, topping.

The honeymoon ends when the keyholder realizes that even though her caged male is at her beck and call, she only gets sex when she demands it and lets him know exactly what she wants. She wakes up to the fact that she is spending considerable time and energy keeping him entertained with rules, punishments, and whatever else they do. In short, she discovers that topping is work. This is when WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) cuts in. She realizes that everything is coming from her. The caged male receives her attention, but she only gets what she demands in the context of topping.

In the BDSM world, this is known as “top drop”. The top feels let down. This is made worse by her own values changing. She learned it isn’t nice to hurt others or frustrate them. Now, her main purpose is to do that to her love; her caged male. This takes an emotional toll. Gone are the soft moments when he shared love and affection. They are replaced by her being a demanding bitch. Why is she doing this? What is she getting out of it? The standard male answer is “everything.” To many women it feels just the opposite. Her male has gone from lover to elaborate vibrator, providing orgasms on demand. This may sound extreme. I used this language intentionally. The key is that there is a growing imbalance between the keyholder and her male.

A friend of mine once described this problem very simply: The bottom gets “done” – receives sensation and emotional gratification from the top. The top “does” – performs the work needed to “do” the bottom. Even if the top likes doing, she is still working and giving while the bottom just has to receive. If the keyholder / caged male relationship is to survive, something must happen to restore balance.

First of all, the chores and sex on demand must be discounted. They are being performed because it fits the caged male’s bottom role. The keyholder has to do something in order to get those “benefits”. The caged male can not live in the forced chastity fantasy 24/7. If he does, his poor keyholder will almost certainly burn out. The male must go out of his forced chastity role and provide for the well being of his keyholder. What does this involve?

First thing, after the keyholder disciplines, pegs, or otherwise entertains her male, he should recognize that this effort took a physical and emotional toll. When the session is done, he should hold, kiss, and thank his keyholder for the effort she put in to support him. Not part of the fantasy? Too bad. If you want to do this long term, you better get used to supporting your keyholder. She needs to know that you appreciate what she is doing and that it is ok that she teases and frustrates you. You may hate breaking the mood, but for her well being, she needs to hear that she is doing something you want and like.

Another critical step is to take very regular vacations from forced chastity. During these chastity vacations, the male is uncaged and not subject to the rules or orders of his keyholder. She goes back to being his partner and lover. Go on a date. Eat out, watch a movie, make out, and make love. This time tihe man makes the moves. She gets to feel loved without the chastity overlay. Some couples reserve a weekend a month, others a day each weekend. You both have to decide and agree on how you will work this.

Keyholders, if your partner reads this and decides that he can’t possibly get out of chastity mode, then you should seriously consider if you want to continue locking him up. Top drop can turn into depression and feelings of failure. Just like I need to hear that I am a good boy, lioness needs to know how much I appreciate her hard work to cage me and support forced chastity. She needs to know that I want to have sex with her. I love it when she tells me what she wants, but even if she never tells me, I still want her. Chastity is something we do. It isn’t who we are.

Until very recently I hadn’t given a great deal of thought to how a keyholder might perceive her role and how it affects her. I think that we caged males expect our keyholders to get aroused by the various aspects of our being locked up. I did at first.  It is an unreasonable expectation. For example, why would a woman be turned on by her male having his penis in a cage? If anything, it would make sex more difficult for her. We males are turned on because it represents the surrender of control. Should we believe that having control is arousing to our keyholder?

In the more than two decades I was a top, I don’t think that I found the things I did as a top to be sexually arousing. Being male, I liked to see my naked submissive partner. I like to see naked women. She didn’t find being naked for me to be arousing. She found being spanked incredibly arousing. As the top, spanking her was big fun, but not in itself a sexual turn on. The power over her was a turn on, but not the act. I loved all the things I did to her. It was fun and I enjoyed her reactions. But I wasn’t hard while I was topping. I was working hard and having a good time.

Sound familiar? I think we’ve seen keyholders here say that spanking us, tying us up, pegging us, and any number of other activities that get us really hot, didn’t really turn them on. They said they like doing it and it pleases them that it turns us on. I am guilty of expecting more; wanting them to be aroused. In my case, I should have known better. I’ve been on the other side of the paddle so long, I should have known better.

When I think about why I was blind to this obvious difference between bottom and top, I realize that a good bit of this is guilt. I understand that I am asking my keyholder to do a lot of things to support my forced chastity. I want her to get benefits from my captivity too. Is this a form of topping from the bottom? Am I trying to control her emotional investment in my chastity? It could be. In my mind it is difficult to believe that she can keep this up for long unless she is getting something out of it too. I have to trust that she is getting enough for herself to keep it up. Trust is a key virtue for a bottom.

When most people think of male chastity they immediately think of orgasm deprivation. If the purpose of locking a man’s penis up is to keep him from playing with it then depriving him of sexual release seems obvious. After all, he should be pleasing his keyholder. Those are the rules. I’ve never been one to follow the rules. I think that’s why I’ve been having such a hard time topping Lion. Besides, aren’t I the one making the rules?

If you’ve been following us, you know that my libido is in the dumpster. I think one of the reasons many keyholders are able to be so successful is that they are as horny as their caged male. When they want to be pleasured they just order their males to perform. That’s not the case with Lion and I. It’s not that I don’t want Lion. I just don’t want sex. Not interested in my own pleasure at the moment. So when the rules say your caged male has to pleasure you, where does that leave me?

Perhaps I’m evolving from just wanting Lion caged because it makes him happy into creating my own pleasure even if it isn’t a sexual pleasure. I decided the other day that Lion should have to give me an orgasm every night. And since I don’t particularly care about having an orgasm of my own, I’ve been taking one of his. Yes, he has been having an orgasm every night (except the night he couldn’t handle a little Icy Hot on his balls) because it pleases me. Does it please him? Sure it does! But the other night he didn’t really look like he was in the mood. Tough! I want my orgasm. And I took it. Was it a long, slow blow job that curled his toes? Yes, indeedy. Did I have fun doing it? Absolutely! 

So how did I reach my “aha” moment? I found the hidden message when I played the record backwards. My key, my rules. There may come a time when my libido wakes up again and then I’ll figure out how to manage that aspect. For now, I’m giving him exactly what he asked for. I control his penis. It’s mine and I can give him an orgasm whenever I want.

 

work in progress sign
Dreams and fantasies happen all at once.
Real progress takes time and very hard work.

I have been locked up for a while now. Each week I find that wearing the cage becomes more and more a natural part of my life. I am generally unaware that it is there between my legs. Other things are happening as well. I’ve stopped asking for sexual attention. Yes, I still get incredibly horny and I silently ask Mrs. Lion to relieve that itch, but I don’t ask out loud. I work hard to avoid asking for anything sexual for me or for her. It’s no longer something I should do. I find myself looking for ways I can help her. Most importantly, I am making a conscious effort not to argue or offer my opinion unless asked.

That might sound like my personality is dissolving into a bland, passive mush. I don’t think so. My nature is not passive in the least. I’m not fooling myself. I still contribute actively to pretty much everything except decisions regarding sex. That’s definitely off limits for me. Over time I am hoping that I will continue to become more and more attentive. I want to focus more attention on pleasing my lioness. It makes me smile to type those words. One of the premises of forced male chastity is always that the male becomes attentive and more and more interested in the keyholder’s pleasure. I admit it. I just never saw that as a natural process. I figured that it could happen, but probably needed the keyholder to provide the incentives needed to modify the caged male’s behavior.

Apparently those incentives aren’t necessary. It just seems to happen on its own. I’m sure that I have a very long way to go. On the other hand, I had a mental image of how my lioness would take charge and provide the control and discipline that I wanted. Now I realize that sort of expectation is as unrealistic as expecting me to become a fawning sycophant. While locking up my penis is a single act, the changes a male chastity lifestyle requires takes substantial time and cultivation.

Mrs. Lion is making wonderful progress. She is thinking (and writing) about sexual activities to heighten our enjoyment of this lifestyle. Even more significantly, she is growing more independent in her actions when we are together. Today is a case in point. We were out running errands. I asked if she wanted to get lunch; I was feeling hungry. She asked where I would like to go. So far, this is our normal conversation when it comes to deciding if we want to get a meal and if we do, where to go. I said that I didn’t care. Normally, she would throw out some ideas for me to consider. Not today. Instead, she drove purposefully to a local fast food restaurant without saying another word. That may sound like small stuff, but it isn’t. She took control and acted. She didn’t consult me; she just went where she decided to go. I, for my small part, kept my mouth shut and went along for the ride.

She made significant progress with that move. I’m sure it wasn’t easy for her to do that. What’s interesting is that this step had nothing to do with sex and everything to do with forced chastity. The little cage that follows me everywhere stimulated a change in a completely unrelated part of our lives. That change felt completely right to me.

If you had asked me how I would gauge our progress, I would have talked about tease-and-deny, ruined orgasms, spankings, milkings, extra time in the cage, and the other chastity-related sexual activities. By the way, there is progress sexually too. But today’s subtle change is a much more profound signal to me. It shows us changing some of our basic behaviors as a couple. When she reads this, Mrs. Lion may shake her head and say that there was no change, she asked me and since I didn’t say where I wanted to go, she simply went where she liked. That is an accurate description of what happened. But, Mrs. Lion, that has never happened before in the more-than-a-decade we have been together. Progress!