Tuesday 1 October 2013

Review of 'The Penitentiary' by Tanya Simmonds

Another amusing femdom romp by Tanya Simmonds, with lots of luscious detail to satisfy the most exacting connoisseurs of the genre. Once again, there's a certain cinematic quality to it, though if 'The Paramount Rule' sometimes felt like an Ealing comedy, the trashy Southern aesthetic of this one really feels like it ought to have been made by Russ Meyer. How we would have loved the assertive big-breasted women prison guards!

All of Tanya Simmonds' favourite fetishes are here – orgasm denial, sadistic women getting off on men unable to come, punishment for ejaculation, and lots of cocks in cruel constrictions; I don't believe anyone has explored the erotic potential of the simple rubber band as much as Simmonds has. There's also a strap-on rape of an inmate by a powerful uniformed guard – I mean, really, what more could you ask for? There's lots of enforced cunnilingus, and some rather sweet depictions of vanilla romantic love between some repentant guards and their devoted prisoner-lovers. Once again, the cruellest, most sexually repressed and repressive of the women (a right-wing religious fundamentalist, naturally) is revealed to be a hypocritical sex-obsessed deviant herself.

The plot mechanics are carefully thought through, and there is enough action and twists to thread the sex scenes into a coherent narrative. I could have done without the epilogue which ties up all the loose ends and lets us know what happens to all the characters after the action, but that's just me. I also don't understand what has happened to the cover, either, which seems to depict a woman in bondage – where are all the dominant women and subjugated men from the story?


If you enjoy a sexually charged story with lots of wanton, cruel women in uniform, then this one is definitely for you.