Kink | Mr. Pink's Blog

Kink: Amalgamated

Since its inception back in 1997, Kink.com existed as an assortment of largely independent websites all operating under the general guidance of Public Enemy #69, Kink founder Peter Acworth. With recent controversies surrounded the company and its base of operations at the San Francisco Armory, the future of the always-challenging BDSM studio wasn’t as clear as it once had been. A recent announcement has quelled any suspicions that Kink was going anywhere and instead streamlined the company’s subscription offers to bring everything branded with a bed red K into one package.

Kink has always felt like a porno outlier, content to shoot its esoteric content for a limited audience then happy to ride the wave of success and notoriety that naturally flowed its way. Now with its Kink Unlimited program, the most loved and loathed studio in porn packs the agendas of all its subscribers with everything from the all-female anal explorations of Everything Butt to the utter brutality of Hardcore Gangbang, Public Disgrace’s daring humiliations, and the sci-fi masturbation of Fucking Machines. For a service of this magnitude, excellence, and sophistication, the $49.99 being asked of prospective members by Kink seems quite reasonable. In all fairness, though, this deal won’t really suit those only interested in a single site, especially if said site is one now falling from Kink’s list of priorities. The network hub does connect to 24 sites, however, and there’s hardly a porn viewer alive who can’t find something truly, awesomely arousing among them.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have call my landlord and explain why watching French women tied up and taunted in public is more important than paying rent on time.

After Deen, Kink Revises Rulebook

When Stoya alleged her former boyfriend James Deen was a rapist, a claim supported by at least four other women also claiming to have been assaulted in some fashion or another, it almost seemed like the accusation could signal the death knell not only for Deen himself and possibly Stoya, but for companies like Kink.com and Evil Angel, companies that had built their empires on shooting porn that pushed boundaries of taste, decency, legality, and artistry. Although both studios (and others) dropped Deen after the Stoya’s accusation caught on, Kink has been the only one to address its on-set environment and its responsibility to all its workers, onscreen or otherwise.

Adding verbiage to its Model Bill of Rights and Model Expected Behavior Guidelines (expanded from Model Rights and Responsibilities) to address concerns raised not only by those who claim to have been assaulted by Deen while at Kink headquarters in the San Francisco Armory, but by other pressing lawsuits contingent on OSH guidelines and the enforcement (or not) thereof, Kink clarified its amendments to the documents to Vocativ, which shared many excerpts.

Key changes directly inspired by the alleged incidents involving Deen include the following from the Models Rights and Responsibilities:

– I understand that no one has a right to my body besides me, on-set or off. No one has the right to physical contact with me, on set or off, without my consent.

– If any of the above is violated, either explicitly or in spirit, by any staff, performer, crew or visitor, I can and should report it to the talent department. I understand that anything I tell the talent department will be kept confidential, if I request it, except in the case a criminal offense (e.g, sexual assault, theft), in which case law enforcement will need to be contacted.

Two very important stipulations there, folks, and hopefully ones that will ensure better safety for all those stepping into the Armory to make some smut. Kink spokesperson Michael Stabile called guidelines “living documents” open for molding and updating as performers and employees “help identify places where [Kink] can strengthen protections.”

Now, if you’ll allow yours truly an editorial moment for one minor criticism of Kink’s new decree… First of all, nobody, not even some girl needing a ten-minute break from her Hardcore Gangbang debut, can smoke inside the San Francisco Armory. Really, Kink? You couldn’t install a little mobile air-filtering chamber – perhaps a leftover from the Water Bondage prop department – and let a fucked-ragged Kink first-timer take a drag to settle her nerves. She has to go outside? How long will it take her to get dressed and find a spot 20 feet from any Armory door or entryway? This is an outrage. All the other changes are solid, though, Kink. Nice work.

Hardcore Gangbang: Under New (Female) Management

Kink.com has undergone some major changes lately, from a huge network-wide redesign that’s still in beta, to some modifications to its lineup of websites. Now, a classic Kink site is attempting something new and refocusing its attention not only on the bodies of its featured females, but on their own fantasies and desires. Out with the abduction-based, totally male-dominated Hardcore Gangbang of old and in with… Midsummer Night’s Dream fantasies?

Under the direction of Maitresse Madeline (and, to some extent Lorelai Lee), Hardcore Gangbang will now conduct in-depth interviews with featured female performers so that the scenes they shoot won’t be some mindless back-alley thrashing by construction workers* but will instead be based on her own fantasies, desires, and interests. And, boy, we’re off to a racing start!

Anime fan Marica Hase has fantasied about being a magical sprite from her favorite show and, when surrounded by hunky fellas she can’t communicate with, she zaps them with her Marica Magica rays and – ZZAAAP! – she’s naked, bound in ropes, and being whipped by the now naked men, all their throbbing dicks angled at her. Then there’s that Midsummer Night’s Dream concept I mentioned earlier, this one brought to the table by Ella Nova. Putting together a script incorporating elves and an arranged marriage and a fairy godmother, Madeline hopes to help Ella fulfill her fantasy while giving audiences something truly unique, perhaps even bizarre.

The other important element of the new Hardcore Gangbang is the more frank and detailed conversations about the models desires that, in keeping with Kink’s habits, the audience is privy to. Where previous scenes tended to keep men as the aggressors, snatching an unsuspecting woman for their own repugnant needs, now it’s the women’s turn to be in charge. And, yes, that also means women are making the choices to live out faux-abduction fantasies (should they appear here later).

With issues of consent and the apparent endorsement by some porn outfits of a very murky kind of verbalized consent a hot topic on social media and in social commentary today, it’s great to see Kink take a more mature and responsible approach, an approach that also brings its viewers hotter, better, and more satisfying gangbangs than ever before.

Now, the one thing that’s really left to change is the term ‘gangbang’ itself.

*Unless that’s what she wants, of course.

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The New Face of Kink

A new post-breakup haircut or wardrobe can bring you back from the brink of obsession and depression, enlivening your existence with the hope of prosperity, romantic or otherwise. In short: everyone needs a new look now and again. Kink.com, the most notorious adult website operating on U.S. soil, is no different. Having tackled most every conceivable (legal) fetish, kink, and sexually adventurous act, the San Francisco-based studio has obviously decided a new look is the best way to celebrate its continued success. Inviting a select group of loyal members to check out the new online digs, Kink has opened the doors to a beta version of its new website. Always interested in where Kink is headed, I stepped behind the red velvet rope and took a look-see for myself.

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Quite clearly designed with tablet and smart-phone use in mind, Kink has dispensed with the majority of the text that once greeted members, instead thrusting them into an image-based update listing that’s more vibrant and eye-catching than ever. Hovering your cursor over each update (in the form of thumbnail images) strangely doesn’t bring any more information to light; for that you’ll have to make a selection and check out the viewing page. Video streams and download options are all easily accessible and see the same dedication to visual quality that has made Kink the Internet’s go-to BDSM dungeon. If you select a video stream other than that automatically presented on the page, it’ll open not in that same window but in a new tab.

Performers could still be given more info-rich profiles and there’s plenty of room for keyword tags (in a cloud?) and other one-touch navigation tools, but Kink’s certainly onto a good thing as far as clarity and ease-of-use is concerned. Tablet users will love the larger, more vivid thumbnails and the simple menu sidebar, but there’s still some changes to be made. Kink knows this, too, which is why the design is still in beta mode; they’re working out the, uh, kinks. If you’d like to help guide porn’s boldest and baddest fetish workers towards a brilliant new look and greater functionality for your preferred device, you know where to go to sign up, and start making the most of being a Kink.com member at the dawn of 2015.