Whips and Kisses: Parting the Leather Curtain (Hardcover)

by Mistress Jacqueline (Author) "Until a few years ago, I didn't know very much about S&M..." (more)
Key Phrases: being spanked, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Readers with sadomasochistic inclinations are the likely audience for this overheated tell-all by Mistress Jacqueline, a Los Angeles dominatrix. Born "Alice" to a middle-class Jewish family in the Bronx, she rebelled early against her emasculated father and dominating mother. In charting her career trajectory from fifth-grade teacher to clinical psychologist to dominatrix, and her personal metamorphosis from a submissive to a dominant personality, Mistress Jacqueline never satisfactorily explains the roots of her sexual predilection. Her confessional, a busy litany of lovers and "slaves," makes a graphic but unconvincing case for her claim that there's "nothing wrong or bad or ugly" with sadomasochistic sex between consenting adults. The book includes a "filmography" of Mistress Jacqueline's videos. Tavel and Rimmer collaborated on Raw Talent, the story of "adult-film" star Jerry Butler. Author tour.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Readable memoir of ``Alice,'' by day a psychologist, by night ``Mistress Jacqueline'': a dominatrix, or ``fantasy engineer''- -although ``some people call me `Goddess.' '' Rimmer (The Harrad Experiment, etc.) and Tavel started out to interview 10 or 12 porno stars to find out how they abandoned parental sexual and religious conditioning, bared their bodies, and had sex in public. They landed Mistress Jacqueline, who wanted all their time for her own story. Jacqueline is, she says, the most sought-after, highly paid dominatrix on the West Coast, and has appeared on national talk shows with one of her slaves to discuss the sensitivities at the base of B&D (bondage and discipline). Much that she tells us is unspeakable indeed, but enlightening as well. Some forms of sexual abuse she thinks truly perverse, such as rape, in which there is no bond or mutual agreement. B&D is largely acting, but sometimes with gross activities that make even Jacqueline run out of the room and heave. What keeps her servile clients returning are their bonding to her, as well as her understanding that they truly need a bitch goddess--and her leather outfits say she's just that. Outside the dungeon, Alice/Jacqueline herself is more sexually responsive in the submissive role. Her opening chapters present her as an overachieving Marjorie Morningstar in the Bronx, rebelling painfully against a dominating mother and passive father. Her four-year marriage collapsed when her no-money husband chose to do stand-up comedy and let her work. Only at graduate school, undergoing therapy, did she learn that ``nothing is wrong or bad or ugly between consenting adults'' and that her obsession with spanking fantasies was okay. Sympathetic--but rough on the stomach. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 236 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (June 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087975656X
• ISBN-13: 978-0879756567
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #629,046 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Drivel, January 5, 2000

By	Ms. Karen (Florida) - See all my reviews

This book does nothing to further the reader's education regarding the Ds/SM/BD lifestyle. Rather, the story portrayed here tells of a woman with no direction or self esteem. To claim she is a dominant is an affront to the very word. She has no personal power of her own. She is just a sad little girl who has no conception of what it means to internalize either Dominance or submission. Don't waste your money on stupidity.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Wimps and Misses, December 12, 2002

By	T. Jones (Washington D. C.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Talk about low self-esteem, the majority of her life is filled with being submissive and needy. This book tells about a woman who is a mental and emotional masochist. She spends the majority of her D/s experience as a lifestyle and Professional submissive. She also gets permanently marked on her buttocks by a Master who meant nothing to her. WOW! Talk about not thinking it through. All of a sudden she bucks against her master, grabs a whip, put on a corset, rents a dungeon, put an ad in a magazine and TAH DAH! She's Mistress Jacqueline the powerful dominatrix who is very successful and makes lots of money! *sigh* If it was only that simple.

The shocking part of this book was in the last chapter when she admits that she likes being Dominant but craves submissive activities. **gasp** Noooooo!

I believe she should have stayed a professional submissive, this way she won't betray her true tendencies.

I gave the book a two because it took a lot of guts to tell the world your flaws, however, some things are better left unsaid.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Are you sure she's a Mistress???????, August 18, 2003

By	"noooway" - See all my reviews

If this book was turned into a movie provided that the title would be "Whips and Kisses: Parting the Leather Curtain
by submissive jacqueline" I would give this book 5 stars if she stayed a submissive.

This book is full of drugs, sex, mental abuse and low self esteem stories. If you like to read stories about the weak and willing, this is the book for you.

If you want to read a story about the making of a REAL Dominatrix, I suggest you seek else where.