I’m becoming increasingly annoyed and dismayed by the increasing number of letters from male readers who moan and complain that girls do not like rubber, that it’s only a male prerogative, and why does his wife or girlfriend not allow him to dress her in heavy tight rubber, with a gas mask and hood, and hang her upside-down from the chandelier? To be serious for a brief moment, I’m certain this is largely their own fault.

On the few occasions I have joined in a rubber ‘party’, I have been appalled at the complete lack of understanding between male and female partners. Some pleasant and intelligent gentlemen become monsters when they get behind the wheel of a car; does the same apply when they dress in rubber? What happens to their manners? Unless and until they have commenced a Master/ Slave ‘session’, the woman should be shown every consideration and courtesy. This applies especially when the man wants to introduce his girl to the delights of rubber, don’t rush it, and use some psychology, and try not to behave like an over-sexed insensitive clod!

I am on the wrong side of fifty and have been into this scene for over thirty years. I can truthfully say that out of around eighteen ‘regular’ girlfriends (all at different periods!), only two did not respond to a gradual awakening and awareness of rubber and bondage; all the others became enthusiastic Slaves or Mistresses – sometimes both!

The M.M.A. Handbook gives some good advice, along with its hundreds of training photos, and I’m not about to give a long lecture on how to obtain your own female slave. However, a few words of advice: establish a normal sexual relationship first, for at least several weeks. Then gradually talk about your attraction to rubber, show her some mild photos (but of attractive designs), and casually convey how much you’d like to see her wearing such an outfit, and how terrific she would look; when out shopping, draw her attention to gleaming vinyl thigh boots in Elliott’s and jokingly say she must never buy a pair as she would look so sexy you’d become her instant slave of the Boot. If you already own a black rubber mackintosh, casually offer it to her if it’s suddenly raining and she hasn’t brought her own dreadful gabardine mac. Tightly belted, it’ll probably look smart on her, but if she’s very small and it looks ridiculous, agree with her and take it off, promising to buy her one to fit her, with the latest gold buttons and epaulettes.

When eventually she agrees to wear something – if only out of curiosity – order a loose cat-suit or lounging suit in thin latex, not in black, and make sure you have her exact measurements. Nothing puts a female off more than being made to wear a costume which doesn’t fit and in which she feels ugly or uncomfortable. Avoid black at the beginning, it seems to have a sinister connotation, and it’s essential her first contact with latex be a pleasant one.

On the night she wears it for the first time, cook a candlelight dinner and open a bottle of champagne. While she’s changing into it, dress yourself in your most attractive suit. If you’ve a good figure, wear a tight one-piece latex suit with boots. If you’re portly, then a long rubber caftan with a glamorous Grecian belt. On no account wear a mask or any sort of hood, this must come weeks later! Above all, don’t lech over her, keep it all very light and unimportant, but compliment her on how fantastic she looks. If you have sex later on in the evening, be gentle and loving avoid getting too excited and whispering in her ear you’d love to see her masked and gagged and in heavy bondage! Next day send her some flowers with a note saying how much you appreciated her understanding.

One of two things will have happened. She was not turned on by the latex costume, but it was light and loose and comfortable, and you were especially loving and thoughtful and it was a super evening. (In this way she has no fears or doubts or bad memories, and you must use great patience in slowly leading her onwards until she expects to wear rubber at odd times because it pleases you so much. Get her a stylish mackintosh and high-heeled boots, then eventually a tight thin very well-made black latex suit, with a wide leather belt in dark red. By now she’ll feel dashing and sexy in such a costume). Or much to her surprise, she’s found the material smooth and interesting and the loose latex has created small charges of electricity which stirs her body hair and makes her feel pleasantly sexy. She rather likes the way your shiny black raincoat rustles and crackles, and she must casually find that catalogue you showed her and remind you it’s her birthday in two weeks. Now you’re on a winner, but I stress again, don’t rush it. Just one false move, before she’s sufficiently prepared, can turn it all sour.

Now Mr. Editor, one small criticism of some of your contributors. No one objects to reading a ‘fantasy’ story (and indeed one can learn many new ideas from other people’s fertile imagination), but I do plead with would-be authors to keep it practical! Nothing kills the interest quicker than realising what he is reading is utterly impossible. Make your own rules by all means, stretch the pain threshold and the bondage to the absolute limit, but allow the reader to hang on to a tiny piece of belief! I find this can be irritating in drawings, too, where a girl has legs 8 feet long and a 6-inch waist.

Be careful with your details, they are very important. I’m often amused to see a reader’s letter where he describes dressing himself in layers of watertight suits and chest-high waders, three heavy masks and three pairs of gloves, then quite happily says he spent the weekend like that. If you’ve worn three pairs of latex and rubber gloves, you’ll know it’s almost impossible to bend your fingers, and you’re going to be in deep trouble if one of your three tightly-laced masks gets out of line! And if our enthusiast really spent 48 hours in such an outfit, he must have been almost drowning in his own body functions!

A quick pin-prick to illustrate my complaint! In Supplement 16 you have a short story beginning on page 24. I liked most of it, but oh dear! those irritating mistakes again. The heroine leaves her man sleeping inside a ‘latex bag’ while she gets herself dressed up. Then she returns to the bedroom where he is still asleep “in his rubber cocoon”. Next moment she has slipped a silver ring over both his testicles (highly difficult and extremely painful) and either she’s cut a large hole in his latex sleeping bag or she’s crawled into the dark interior and is doing it by touch.

But wait! Heroine now fits another ring over his penis and attaches a thick leather lead. All these complicated manoeuvres inside his sleeping bag, and still our Hero is dead to the world. (Or dead?) But no. She kisses him “sweetly” on his mouth and Sleeping Beauty awakes to find his balls and penis magically encased in steel.

Maybe these thoughtless details are unimportant, but how much more interesting is a story which is credible and just could have happened!

– J.E.D. (Sussex)