Superheroines and other Damsels in Distress and Railway Tracks

Superheroines and other Damsels in Distress and Railway Tracks

Maybe you remember the wonderful old cliffhanger serials starring Linda Stirling and Kay Aldrige, captured by evil viallains and placed in deadly perils.
Or Diana Rigg, the british Super-Woman, who did beat up evil guys by the dozen and in return had been bound and gagged by the bad ones, sometimes more than once in one single episode. In "The Gravediggers" episode, Mrs. Peel gets tied up two times and especially the sequence when she is tied to the railway tracks is sensational...

There must be something special about beautiful women getting captured, gagged and tied up to railway tracks as these lovely kind of scenes have become a standard in thriller and horror movies over the years since the old days of silent movie cliffhanger serials.
Especially in the USA and England this kind of entertainment is an improtant part of thriller movies and tv series. Or even comic books.
It´s not that common known that even Wonder Woman, created by William Moulton Marston, involved lots of bondage scenes. Wonder Woman had been held captive by the bad guys almost the whole story, bound, gagged, tortured and only towards the ends always managed to break free and to beat up the evil villains. And of couse, Wonder Woman looked always great in her Damsel in Distress scenes.

There is obviously something quite interesting in the Damsels in Distress scenes. The producers of The Avengers were obviously pretty aware of this kind of strange attraction of having her beautiful heroine tied to the railway tracks and invited reporters and photograpers on the set to take some pictures of the helpless bound and gagged superheroine. This was in the 1960´s.
Today as I write this in 2010 there are all new Harper´s Bazar photos showing beautiful supermodel Claudia Schiffer bound and gagged in a dark basement, menaced by a sinister skeleton. Heidi Klum is handcuffed - just for fun - in a bizarre shooting for her model tv show and British newspapers go crazy because in the
Royal Court Theater in Liverpool former soap star Suzanne Collins in bound and gagged in her underwear in a comedy entitled "A Fistfull of Collars".
This obviously is so important that photos of Ms Collins bound and gagged are all over the net and frontpages. It seems we are on the right track with Unhappy End! and The 7 Nightmares Girl.

So let´s face the fact: this kind of thrill is beloved all over the world. I think there is some kind of attraction involved for everyone, that´s why those shows are so popular all over the world since such a long time. There are those guys who love to see themselves as kind of White Knight in shining armor who - like the debonair and elegant John Steed - come along just in time to save the beautiful Ms Peel. Then there are the other guys - like myself and our Grandmasters John Willie and Marston -who for some strange reason think the villain part is not that bad at all because the villain actually has the pleasure to capture all those beautiful super heroines and keep them bound and gagged. Then there are sure women who see themselves in this kind of role just loving the idea of playing Jeanne D´Arc or Mrs. Peel or Wonder Woman. A German writer, Sina Aline Geissler, some years ago wrote some books and mentioned she loves the idea of being bound and gagged, the idea of being the helpless victim while the villains discuss in which manner to torture their beautiful prisonder.
And not to forget, there are also many women who obviouly also love the idea of being a villainess and seeing anoter woman, more beautiful, at their mercy, helpless bound and gagged. It´s alos interesting to see that some actresses play this kind of scenes over and over again. Like Cameron Diaz who is bound and gagged surprisingly often in her movies. Maureen O´Hara had many such scenes in many differnt movies. Terri Hatcher of course, Lynda Carter, Linda Evans. And many of these actresses have one thing in common: they play these scenes very cool instead of scared what makes them look even more powerful. They certainly realize how beautiful they look in those scenes.
So let´s face the horrible facts: That´s Entertainment!