Porn Vegas Dispatch: Ashley Fires Down Below

Ashley Fires, looking like a Carnaby Street firecracker who could disrupt national security, told me about pro-domming and Top Drop at the 2010 Adult Entertainment Expo. It's important to remember that the ones we love who hurt us sometimes hurt, too.

Pro-Domming, an occupation your guidance counselor never told you about, involves being paid to inflict physical or emotional punishment to a willing subscriber. Ashley Fires, who took her nom de porn from another profession - fire spinning - might look good in her bondage mistress gear, but at home she just wants to kick back and be submissive.

"I guess you could call me a switch," she said. "I can be very submissive at home."

But being submissive doesn't necessarily mean you let someone else do all the work.

"Both roles are an exchange and both partners need to be mentally engaged," she said.

Which is why true BDSM scenes (I'm thinking of Ernest Greene's work and the output of Kink.com), walk a line between porn and something ranscendent.

Fires, who sells her fetish work on the massive porn clearinghouse Clips4Sale.com, admits that, when she's done with a scene in which she has been particularly brutal, she sometimes crashes. (That's why she's also into sexy fetish tickle torture.)

"The energy sometimes leaves my body," she said. "It takes a lot of work to beat someone up."

· Clips4Sale (clips4sale.com)