Right off the bat I was slightly disappointed in Varrin's book, Female Dominance. I tend to be a little picky, but I found this book fairly heavy in heteronormativity. The submissive is considered to be male and female subs seem to only be referred to as helpful for play with your male slave.

The beginning section about the "types" of Mistresses seem to revolve around clothing, which seems to be automatically perceived as feminine. In the BDSM circle it is popular for women in a dominant role to involve more ultra feminine and even uncomfortable clothing. I find that interesting as thoughts of a masculine Domina seems taboo.

I found the use of "us girls" language to be interesting in a book about female dominance, since "girl" tends to be perceived as a more adolescent term. Certainly if another dominant woman referred to me as a "girl" I would correct her, especially in a play setting.

That being said there are many good points about this book. The section regarding safe words and the instruction in the bondage part were helpful, especially for someone moving from curiosity to implementation. The bondage section really does have a good primer for rope play, more than I've learned from rope workshops.

I was not a fan of the term "he-she" in the section on cross-dressers. I've always thought of that term as a derogatory word. Used in humiliation play I would understand, but using the term when referring to cross-dressers just seemed odd to me.

The discipline section is interesting and useful for those Domina who only play with male submissives. There was no complimentary section for those of us who may wish to play with female submissives as well.

With all my critiques, there is a ton of substance to this book. I believe it's a great starter for female dominant individuals. There are examples of play sessions, tips for humiliation, edge play, objectivity, and more.

I list my complaints to warn individuals who may be looking for a more gender fluid style of dominance. But putting those issues aside, this book is still useful for those who do not have male submissives.

I believe that I will refer to this book in the future, especially when considering an agenda for play sessions.