Save the Singletails
September 2nd, 2007My signal whip is still missing, and I am getting nervous. It’s my favorite toy, the only one that makes me feel like an official, card-carrying dominatrix. Granted, I’ll never use it at work — very few masochistic clients — but it’s nice to be prepared. (Yes, I was a Girl Scout, why do you ask?)
I had never seen so many of the damn things in my life as last weekend at Floating World.
Here’s what a singletail looks like.
Okay, okay, here’s mine. And here’s a picture of my nylon one. They’re better pictures anyway because they don’t have the confusing tassel on the handle end.
As far as I can tell “singletail” is BDSM slang, short for single-tailed whip. We are the only ones who need to disambiguate from floggers, after all. It basically guarantees that if you want to merge your love of loud sounds into an interest in the circus arts, you will suffer from slips of the tongue. Singletails can be snake whips, stock whips, bullwhips & so on. The shortest I’ve seen is three feet.
There are a few reasons I like them:
1) Loud and showy. A whipcrack can stop an entire party. If you like being the center of attention, that’s fun.
2) Learned skill. Some people pick them up like an extension of their hand, but it took me weeks to stop hitting myself in the ear. I feel competent and official when I use one, which is a pleasant change.
3) It’s a versatile toy. You can tease, if you must. You can pick off clothespins with the tip. You can cut someone up like a steak. You can hammer them into the wall with the lead-weighted belly. You can hit them with the handle. Hell, you can even strangle them with it.
4) Incredible amounts of pain. INCREDIBLE.
5) Pain-to-effort ratio is huge. With a whip in my hands, despite my lack of size and strength, I can inflict more pain than most anyone can take. What a fucking trip!
6) The crack is iconic. Judicial whippings, anyone? And I’ll always have the hots for Indiana Jones.
Reasons to hate singletails:
1) Owners crack them, even in the absence of a victim. If other whip owners are in the crowd, they create the whip equivalent of a circle-jerk. (They’re all straight, though. Cracking whips at each other is an entirely nonsexual activity.)
2) Long whips are ill-suited for most indoor play. Insisting on them in a close space can make you dangerous, inconsiderate or just plain rude.
3) The cracking.
4) The screaming.
5) The blood. Call me a pansy, but it’s hard to watch sometimes.
6) The machismo. For some reason we singletail people include the snottiest, most stuck-up, swaggering assholes I’ve met.
Perhaps as an outgrowth of #6, I’ve heard more contradictions about how to use these whips than any other toy. Every throw comes recommended by someone, and criticized as dangerous by someone else. Same for cracking at all or on skin, laying in more of the whip, and wrapping it. I’ve been taught four different ways to hold the handle. I’m supposed to keep my whips soft and well-conditioned, break them in by hand and store them coiled, hang them straight, and keep them stiff and unoiled.
Oh, and I discovered at Floating World that nylon whips aren’t real whips. That amused me. Being whipped by a figment of Eileen’s imagination really hurts.
If you know the right way to do it, don’t tell me, okay? I’m going to stick with the things that feel good and don’t kill anyone. But if you see my whip, please, send it back.
September 2nd, 2007 at 10:13 pm
This totally gave me the giggles. I think the “right” way to do it is whatever way works for you. Yes, being hit with an imaginary whip hurts a lot! Heh. I hope you find your whip soon (or it finds you).
September 2nd, 2007 at 11:28 pm
I was a girlscout too.
I wonder how many girlscouts grew up and wandered off the beaten path?
Though I have to say, its a damn shame they didn’t teach us some of the stuff they taught boy scouts. My buddy Coconuts made Eagle, and he can make all sorts of knots, and the boy never uses those skills!
All I learned in girlscouts was how to make stuff out of paper mache and glitter.
September 3rd, 2007 at 5:16 am
Only vaguely tangential to your post, and solely in the spirit of singletail admiration:
Many many a moon ago, I played with someone who would throw his long bullwhip in such a way that it would wrap all the way around your body and then hit you at the end. It was like being attacked by a giant leather snake. Beyond fabulous. I wonder what happened to him.
September 3rd, 2007 at 11:17 am
“I wonder how many girlscouts grew up and wandered off the beaten path?”
Too funny!
September 3rd, 2007 at 7:42 pm
My favorite bit of Indiana Jones re-enactment fantasy has to be when the whip lasso’s perfeclty and you get tugged.
Seconded.
September 4th, 2007 at 2:09 am
Dear Mame,
On the link-picture to your single tail whip, I noticed that it was made of Kangaroo braid and as an Australian I wondered if, for you, this was a special preference over kip leather?
And please may I suggest if you are shopping for a replacement whip, may I recommend this store: www.rmwilliams.com
please follow the links, e-shopping, then saddlery, then accessories, for a fine selection of excellent quality if a bit pricey!
September 4th, 2007 at 7:33 am
Hi Nigel,
Thanks for reading (from Australia no less!)
I had to look up “kip leather” to find that you meant cow leather.
I picked my whip because it was reasonably priced and I’d liked other Morgan whips. I’ve been told that kangaroo has the most flexibility and strength, and thus makes the best whips. But having never held a cowhide whip, I’ve no idea if this is true.
I suspect that kinky whip buyers want control and craftsmanship (aka, prettiness) over durability or loudness of crack. We’re also buying short whips to use indoors. 6-ft yard whips are lovely, but impractical.
September 4th, 2007 at 9:53 am
I bought my singletail from David Morgan way back in the day too. Back then they didn’t offer the 4ft signal whip in black. It has been a great whip over the years.
The best way to condition and use a whip is what works for you. I laugh when I go watch some “whip masters” do a class and espouse the one true way to condition and throw a whip.
The cowhide whips have a different feel and throw to them I think. For the short whips I like ‘roo hide.
I hope your whip finds its way home. I know how I would feel if mine dissapeared.
September 8th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
My pet peeve in scene silliness is anyone who refers to a Signal whip as a single tail. Its kinda like referring to a Dog as a Dog, well yes it is now whats the damn breed.
A signal whip is a specific type of single tail, yeah I get anal about that
Hand positioning is an interesting that really has more to do with style and also what type of whip it is and how its made. Wheelers have a short stiff section which allows you to do that holding position just above the ball and counter rotate the whip on that axis. Other whip makers make there signal whips loose all the way to the ball so that hold isn’t as effective and can damage the whip at that pivot point.
And yes nylon whips are single tails damn it ROFLMAO
Number 6 oh my god its like “Bigus Dickus” with whips, it amazes me how generous and excellent the whip community can be and then you have them guys and I just cringe.
Whats worse is that its not a syndrome just limited to idiots who have learned one or 2 things but carries upwards to people who really, really, really, should know better
You took his whip class i bet he also said that the only whipmaker who makes good whips is wheeler.
Its funny hes one of the only Dclones I like.
I hope your whip turns up soon I don’t know what I would do if any of mine disappeared
September 8th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
Thanks, Dov, all good things to hear.
He did say the only whip to buy is Wheeler. I think if I owned something that expensive I’d probably ruin it within the week.
September 9th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Heh… I was nodding the whole way through this.
Love my single tails. Hate other single tail owners. Constantly worry that I am in fact as big a wanker as most of them. *sigh*
September 10th, 2007 at 9:59 am
Yeah wheelers are nice he does have some lesser price models and his top ones are worth the price that becomes the whip you only use when you really want to and never use it on just anyone.
I want someone to just buy me one as a present one day but I don’t teach wealthy students what can I say
Oh and on a funny not about the coyote style nylons while they are single tails technically they aren’t signal whips. Since they have a Nylon fall instead of having the cracker braid into the end of the whip they are black snakes or to be more precise a mini snake.
Doesnt really matter a whit one way or another other than abstract knowledge but they sure are fun to throw and use on people and thats what counts