Nina Hartley's Guide to Sensual Domination 1 Review

Description
The well-regarded Nina Hartley makes an instructional movie about dominating a man.

General Impression
Like her earlier efforts in this series, it is rather lightweight. She is articulate and concise in her introduction, thus quickly runs out of things to say. The rest of the dvd is devoted to two sex scenes. The main usefulness of the dvd is to soften the idea of domination and submission, and to show it in an unthreatening light. She succeeds in this - the scenes look normal and healthy and should be a friendly introduction for a partner who might be uncertain about the idea.

The emphasis here is on mutual pleasure, with no inclusion of discipline or punishment. This is gentle role-playing in which one partner is teased and pleasured, while the other teases, pleases, and is also pleasured. Nina keeps the focus on play, rather than politics. She discusses safety, limits, and safewords. She makes a nice point that setting limits makes possible wider ranges of sexual exploration.

Sex
Nina teases Chris Cannon, stripped to his waist as she kisses and strokes him. She uses a whip very softly, mostly dragging the tails across his chest, and alternating with licking kisses. She follows that with a little mild dirty talk, and mouths his cock through his pants. Nina has Chris worship her legs and ass with his hands and mouth. Then she rewards him, taking to his dick like it's catnip, working it over and slurping. He looks pretty happy. She does a little lap dancing, crawls up his body, and does some more cocksucking. He's officially in heaven. As they continue, Nina explains that stop-start action keeps arousal percolating. By the time they get to penetration, he does appear to be simmering a bit. They use an almost invisible condom, starting in a very slow doggy, and she's a bit talky as they move into mish, then cowgirl. The pace is realistic but slow. She brings him off with her hands.

The second scene has Amber Michaels with Frank Fortuna, and she takes a firmer hand than Nina did. This scene is also mild and friendly. Amber starts with a bit of over-the-top moaning, but settles into the scene shortly after. Her talk runs in the vein of "That's a good baby. That's it, let me work your cock." She has him wear a blindfold, then a collar and leash. They finish with some vigorous anal.

Negatives
I love Nina, but she does have a cloying quality. If you are not a total beginner, this dvd might be only mildly interesting.

Dvd Quality
This dvd has better quality than her earlier efforts - it has better sets, is better organized, and doesn't have the awkward cuts and strange off-screen noises of some of the others that I have seen.

The extras include a reasonable interview with Nina, and a fairly boring behind-the-scenes feature for her Guides to Sensual Domination No. 1 and No. 2. There is a bonus scene from Nina Hartley's Guide to Better Fellatio, featuring Nina with Alex Sanders. This scene was the heart of that dvd. It has a sense of fun and is decent, but has some odd editing and Nina baby-talking a bit at the end.

Summary
This is an introductory lesson, and is best suited to helping someone to loosen-up sexually. It is very tame. For the right audience, it will be useful. She does a good soft sell, and after I watched it I was moved to dig out my whip and crop, which I hadn't used in a while.