Simone Justice

The impact of COVID on Pro Dommes

July 9, 2020 By kinkweekly 10 Comments

Los Angeles Dominatrix Isabella Sinclaire

The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc through every corner of society this year. One business that has received little attention amidst the storm has been that of Pro Dommes. A professional dominatrix is a woman (the occupation is overwhelmingly majority female) who is paid by clients to dominate them. And by dominate, this can of course include any number of a vast range of specific activities under the umbrella of BDSM – such as bondage, whipping, sensation play and so on. This is a perfectly legal business model in most Western societies – aided by the fact that actual sex (and sexual touching) is typically off the menu with professional Dommes.

With businesses across much of America doing their best to avoid contact between people, the business of domination faces unique challenges. Unlike ordering dinner, or attending a meeting, the experience of a BDSM scene (for both top and bottom), and the brain and body high that it can evoke, are intertwined with the connection and chemistry between the participants. And that’s before you even consider the physical touching and proximity inherent in so many BDSM activities (spanking, scratching, foot worshiping to name just a few).

As with most other businesses that involve in-person contact, Pro Dommes’ businesses have been largely shuttered since March.

Most of the pro-Dommes that I coach abruptly stopped their in person sessions, and many were scrambling to move their business to distance domination formats because they had relied primarily on in person sessions before the lockdowns.
-Simone Justice (SimoneJustice.com)

The sentiment was echoed by Princess Marx, a Boston & LA-based Domme:

I stopped in-person sessions immediately when the California lockdown went into place in mid-March. I don’t fuck with deadly viruses.
-Princess Marx (PrincessMarx.ch)

And where various levels of government have been offering assistance to businesses to keep them afloat during these unprecedented times, the nature of the business makes it difficult for Pro Dommes to access any of this aid.

Renowned Dominatrix Isabella Sinclaire says,

These forms of government assistance were not designed for very small businesses of one employee. So I have had to downsize.
-Isabella Sinclaire (IsabellaSinclaire.com)

With leases on two properties – The Ivy Manor, a private dungeon rented for sessions by other pro-dommes, and Demask DTLA, a latex clothing store – the current times are particularly trying.

I closed my Demask DTLA latex clothing store to mitigate the monthly expenses as Landlords were also not willing to negotiate a decrease in rent or offer free rent and we are going into our 4^th month of no income. I have two business rents. The store and my studio which cost $5000 a month in rents combined. Moving into July, that’s $20,000 of rent due with no income. It is an impossible scenario for a small business but I’m trying.
-Isabella Sinclaire (IsabellaSinclaire.com)

Of the Dommes we spoke with only Lady Sophia, a Chicago-based Dominatrix, had been able to benefit from one of the government assistance programs. She was granted Disaster Assistance loan from the federal Small Business Administration, which is separate from the more widely known Paycheck Protection Program.

I have to tell you, when the funds showed up in my bank account I almost didn’t believe it was real. It’s important to note that the Disaster Assistance relief loan that I received is a loan. This is money that still needs to be paid back. The good news is that the interests rate is very low and the monthly payments are also very reasonable.
-Lady Sophia (LadySophia.com)

For many Dommes who aren’t tied to property leases, their businesses have shifted exclusively online while the pandemic rages.

“Online sessions have been a big part of what I do for a few years now, but I don’t think even I fully realized how big of a part. I feel very lucky that I had things set up like this before the quarantine – if I hadn’t, My life would look very, very different.” says Princess Marx.

Justine Cross, LA Domme and owner of private venues Dungeon East and Dungeon West, similarly commented,

Luckily for me, I was able to pivot my real time with clients into online sessions. It was a lot of work, but I felt like it was the safest and best option. Not only have I adapted, I also created a class for others to convert their real time clientele to online. Meanwhile, Dungeon East and Dungeon West remain very much open for private rentals – things are very much thriving despite the pandemic.
-Justine Cross (LosAngelesBDSMevents.com)

For some Dommes, the move to online has been so positive that they plan to make it permanent. Dominatrix Lila Sage said:

In the comfort of their own home, people feel more at ease and able to drop into deeper states of relaxation and submission. Since my work as an Inspiratrice and Hypnotist is focused on creating sensations in the body through the mind, I can take people on fantastic journeys through imagery and their senses. I am finding new depths with clients online that they have never experienced before.
-Lila Sage (MissLilaSage.com)

For other Dommes and their clients however, online sessions are a temporary measure and no substitute for the real thing.

Isabella Sinclaire summed up this perspective:

“Everyone that works beside me has moved to online platforms and online networking. But the enjoyment and income will never compare to the in person experiences.”
-Isabella Sinclaire (IsabellaSinclaire.com)

Looking ahead, there will eventually come a time when the virus has subsided enough for people to resume their usual activities – exactly when and how will be a personal choice for each individual.

Princess Marx beautiful Los Angeles Dominatrix — Boston & Los Angeles Domme Princess Marx

Princess Marx had been preparing a plan for reopening prior California’s new surge of COVID cases. “Well, I thought I was all set to re-open (with lots of safety precautions in place), and then California’s case count started going up!”

I developed a 3-step screening protocol for re-opening (in addition to My usual screening protocol): 1) a phone session to get to know each other, 2) testing done within 3 days of our session, and 3) an optional tele-health screening, offered by a medical professional friend of Mine.
In addition, I had 3 new rules for play: 1) a temperature check at the door, 2) both parties required to wear masks, and 3) no direct-contact foot kissing/worship (though boot or shoe worship might have been okay)
Might it adversely affect the session experience? Sure. Wouldn’t it be nice to be face to face and getting My feet worshipped? Absolutely. But am I willing to stake My life on seeing a submissive’s face? Absolutely fucking not.
-Princess Marx (PrincessMarx.ch)

Do you work in the world of kink or sex, and interested in being quoted for future articles? Or do you have a story about how COVID has impacted the world of kink in some way? Email us at kinkweekly@gmail.com.

Interview with Simone Justice

July 6, 2019 By kinkweekly 3 Comments

Can you tell us a little about how you became involved in the Kink Community? Can you tell us a little about yourself, your career, and your current involvement in this community?

I became involved in the kink community in the nineties when I started going to public events. Prior to that, it had been a private part of my life. For a time after that, it became most of my life, because I immersed myself in it. I joined organizations, took classes, socialized, wrote about and worked in the kink community for years and then started teaching and organizing events, as well. My participation has ebbed at times, but ever since I set foot in that first nightclub and was warmly welcomed, I have been a member of the kink community, and I always will be.

A little about myself: I was born in California and have lived all along the coast, until recently moving to Fort Worth, TX. I think the details of my life that best describe my personality are my degrees, a B.A. in Philosophy and a Master’s in Psychology. I love to travel for the learning experience of being somewhere foreign and meeting people who live in a different way.

My dominatrix career, I owe to the generosity of the late Mistress Sabrina Belladonna, who hired me to join the lineup of dommes in her house of domination, The Velvet Underground. After I went independent, I started going to NYC for sessions once a month and traveled the world to play. I also began performing on stage at Club Sin-A-Matic and other venues. Later, I owned a dungeon, The Halls of Justice, on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood where I began teaching to train several dommes who worked there. I’ve continued teaching and have mentored many of the globe’s most successful ProDommes. I hope that I honor my mentor and give back to the community by teaching what I know at conferences, in weekend immersion workshops and on the phone. I don’t do in person sessions anymore, only phone and webcam.

What fulfills you most about being involved in this community?

Giving back to the community that has given so much to me.

Has kink led to any self-growth for you? How has it helped you in your own life?

My relationship skills have definitely grown through the practice of negotiation, setting boundaries and the co-creating process of kink. I’ve also learned important lessons through my mistakes. For example, underestimating the impact I could have on a play partner taught me to be more careful in my all my interpersonal interactions.

What do you find most beneficial about being a dominatrix?

The humility that comes from being placed in a position of power.

What do you feel your clients gain from sessions with you?

I hope that they gain at least a temporary satisfaction of their desires/needs.

What are your specialties?

Verbal and psychological domination.

What is the biggest challenge you have faced concerning your job?

The confusion that clients now have about how to find and evaluate ProDommes, which compounds their lack of self-understanding about their kinks and fetishes that they used to gain from guidance by experienced dominatrices.

What are your core values? How do these factor into your profession, your involvement in the Kink Community, and your personal life?

My core values are Integrity, Honesty and Compassion, by which I am guided and try to uphold in all aspects of my life.

What is the best advice you can give to someone that wants to become a dominatrix? What makes for a great Dominatrix?

My best advice is to take classes from people who can give you helpful feedback.

A great dominatrix is safe, ethical and skilled.

How do your own fetishes factor into your work?

There are some things I won’t do, and some that I like best, but in general, it is not what we do, the kinks or fetishes, but rather how we do it together that matters to me. It is the energy exchange that I care about most. My biggest “fetish” is excelling in my scenes. My favorite kinks are flogging, sensory dep and hypnosis.

What do you feel is the biggest challenge the community faces right now? What do you feel needs to be done about this? How can your work help? How can the general public help?

The biggest challenge is growing too fast to maintain safety standards by educating newbies. I think that we need to be welcoming of new people and take personal responsibility for being helpful and informative. Some people don’t want to share what they know, I think that attitude hurts the community. My work can help when I teach basic and free/less expensive classes and post info on the internet. The general public needs us to help them through conscientious interaction, understanding of their ignorance, and a willingness to inform their curiosity.

What is the best advice you can give to someone concerning power exchange dynamics?

Don’t let anyone tell you who you are, what you want, or when it is too much for you – decide for yourself.

What are some common misconceptions about being a D type? What do you feel needs to be done to eradicate this/these stereotype(s)?

A misconception is that D types don’t need aftercare. I think dominants asking for their own aftercare needs to met, even if it feels uncomfortably non-dominating, is important.

When did you first know you were kinky? Was it evident in childhood?

Yes, it was evident to me early on that I was into kink, so I started playing in my teens.

Do you have a personal motto? How do you live by this?

I don’t have a personal motto, I haven’t found one that feels right.

Are you currently working on any new projects? If so, what are they?

I am working on improving my classes, and looking into new ways to teach through webcam conferences and maybe online modules.

What would say is your overall mission concerning everything kink? How do you plan to achieve this?

My overall mission is to contribute through my teaching and writing and to try to honor my mentors in every act of participation, no matter how small.

Any closing words?

Thank you for this experience, answering your questions required introspection, vulnerability, and community awareness

About Simone Justice

Simone Justice is a BDSM Hall of Famer, long time lifestyle member of the BDSM community, internationally renowned dominatrix, BDSM educator, mentor to many of the world’s top dominatrices, Sublime Lady of OWK, producer of kink events, performer, TV & film BDSM consultant and writer.

anniebear Learns to be a Dominatrix

August 28, 2017 By anniebear 3 Comments

A few weeks ago I attended a full weekend, three-day group immersion course on how to become a Dominatrix. The instructors, DommeCraft founder, Simone Justice and co-teacher Mistress Damiana Chi are experienced professional/lifestyle Dominatrices. We could not have been in better hands. If you haven’t heard of DommeCraft, consider it the university level training course for those interested in learning the ins and outs of lifestyle and professional domination. The course includes handouts, homework, live demos, practice demos, feedback, and at the end a graduation with a certificate of completion. If there truly were a legalized, certification course for Domination then DommeCraft would be the leader in the industry.

Damiana Chi and Simone Justice, our instructors for the weekend.

I had a lot of nervous feelings in the days leading up to the course. I’ve mostly identified as a submissive and had always been such in my past and current relationships. In the last year or so I’ve been playing around with topping and dominating a few play partners, mostly women. The idea of going to learn from the pros was appealing to me because I thought it would help me gain more confidence and also develop my blossoming skills as a top. My expectations going into the course were completely blown out of the water! While I’d like to divulge every little detail, for the privacy of the other students and also the coursework, I will only cover some of the major highlights.

I arrived at the secret dungeon location on a Friday evening. There was one other attendee already there and we shyly exchanged hellos and a few questions. The dungeon space was amazing. It had everything you would need for a great scene; an open floor plan, high ceilings, bondage equipment and racks. My favorite was a suspended globe shaped cage, perfect for trapping someone inside to prod and tease! Damiana greeted us first and I was slightly intimidated but quickly realized she was an extremely warm and friendly person. In all there were six students. Simone arrived last, in a wheelchair. A sidenote, Simone had recently suffered a broken hip so I thought it was incredible for her to have such dedication and commitment to still come and lead the full weekend class. I’m sure it was extremely exhausting but you would never be able to tell that she had suffered such a terrible injury.

We quickly got down to business. Simone began the class with everyone introducing themselves. I was surprised at the variety of women in the class. Everyone came from a different background yet managed to have so much in common. It truly was a lovely group of women. Simone lead us through some exercises to familiarize ourselves with each other and to create good energy amongst one another. I’ve never worked in this manner before, but the exercises we did really worked! It made me feel both closer and eager to learn more about the other women. We then sat in a circle and received handouts on the first evening’s lessons. I won’t go into too many details due to the very personal nature of the work we did but suffice it to say it was revolutionary.

The next morning I arrived ready to rock! We dove headfirst into lessons on verbal domination with our partners. We were told that around noon, some demo submissive men would be arriving that we could practice our work on. I was expecting one or two submissives and we would take turns. I was delighted to see that there was more than one submissive per student in the class! This just goes to show the dedication and attention that Simone and Damiana give to providing the best tools in which we could learn. I was extremely nervous to work with actual in the flesh human beings. In the past, I have topped a handful of men and women, but this was an entirely new environment where I would be observed while at the same time practice the lessons. We were given the opportunity to take a submissive through a “preliminary” scene using verbal tactics only. I never realized how much I relied on physical touch. It was definitely a challenge as expressed by some of the other students as well.

We did a recap on how the scenes went and proceeded on to the next lessons. A lot of the specific information we learned is confidential, and only reserved for those in this line of study, however we continued the course with bondage cuffs, collars, leashes, and light impact implements and sensation play. We of course practiced all on our willing submissives, who I think delighted in all of us “baby dommes.” From personal experience, I’ve been a demo bottom before and it is a fun process watching someone discover and explore his or her domination.

Another unique aspect of this workshop was the use of “Goddess work.” I’m unfamiliar with this method, however many of the other students were well acquainted with their Goddesses and which ones they identify with, and requested inclusion of more Goddess elements. Simone changed the class to accommodate and brought in several Goddess statues as well for us to use. As a female Domme, it is important to be able to at least be open to tapping into those who have come before you and the energy derived from not only within but the Goddesses and those around you. I’m still working on grasping these concepts, but it was very powerful.

Day three commenced and was the final and most invigorating day. We observed both Damiana and Simone give full scene demonstrations which was so much fun! They acted as if there were no one else in the room and the intimacy between them and the submissives was incredible. Afterward we got hands on with the demo subs and did a rotation of different implements and domination techniques to try out. Damiana showed us some CBT (cock and ball torture) techniques which included tying up the penis and the balls and then delivering smacks or whatever type of play you wanted to do. I was pretty nervous about this particular technique as it looks super painful. I’ve also never been one to be too handy with rope so the concept never particularly appealed to me. But, I rolled up my sleeves and jumped right in when the time came to try it out! I am pleased to confess that I was able to master the CBT tie quite quickly! Perhaps I have a new calling, haha.

Day three wrapped up very quickly. I missed going to the graduation play party, but I heard it was a fantastic experience to bring together all that we had learned and try out our new skills in a party environment. It was incredible meeting so many wonderful women and also the very dedicated male submissives who assisted. Thank you to Simone and Damiana for a wonderful class. I’m also very eager to attend the “Dommes of DommeCraft” play party, September 2nd, which will have Dominas who have attended past DommeCraft weekend and daylong classes and private lessons with Simone. To join us write Damiana@DamianaChi to apply. Wish me luck!

To find out more about all of the classes offered go to here

Simone Justice

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