By Peter Berton

YNOT – The aptly named dominatrix Mz. Scream is a study in contradictions. Even garbed in her most fearsome attire, the woman has the soulful eyes, pouty lips and cherubic cheeks of a Raphaelite Madonna. But perhaps that’s part of her charm. Reportedly, she came by her nom de guerre honestly, so evidently she’s no slouch when it comes to meting out pain and humiliation to clients who pay for the privilege of her attention.

The proud new owner of sex worker community The Naked Truth took time between sessions to enlighten YNOT.com about exactly what it means to be a dominatrix.

YNOT.com: How did you get into this career, and why?
Mz. Scream: Professionally, I started “adult” entertainment when I was a model in a fetish show. I then had someone who owned a webcam company come up to me and offer me a job. I didn’t take the job at the time, but it sowed the seed in my mind. I had recently divorced, needed more money, and was starting to get more sexually liberated after breaking free from the old ball ‘n chain.

So, I applied to work in adult films and was provided many gigs. I then moved into the other areas in adult entertainment as I became more diverse in my skill set. I have worked in the professional BDSM and fetish, adult film and photo, webcam and phone sex industries, and also spent a number of years performing live pussy squirting shows at private parties.

I have also worked for many organizations that support and advocate for sex trade workers’ rights.

Broadly speaking, who are your clients?
Lawyers and the odd psychiatrist. [laugh]

Actually, my clients come from all age groups, all nationalities and all tax brackets.

Why does a person derive satisfaction from being dominated?
The answer is different for each person. I think often [the desire for domination] starts in childhood. If a boy punishes himself for getting a boner by hitting it — due to shame from religion, perhaps — then he trains his cock to like a punishing until it squirts. Boners are naturally supposed to pleasurable, and kids can hard-wire themselves and train themselves into liking cock and ball torture without even knowing it by beating on their own dick for years.

I had a few clients who were raised back in the day when they got the strap in school. Some of them probably had the hots for their teacher and would grow a boner when she whipped them. They unconsciously trained themselves to get a good strapping while they beat themselves off.

A foot fetish client told me he remembers crawling as a toddler, and he couldn’t get enough of the women’s feet. He loved his mom’s feet — there are glands in feet that let off an odor — and his love of feet just never went away. Now he wants feet all over his body, especially on his face where he can sniff them.

Another guy got a boner at a family function as a child, and all the older women started laughing at him. He went and got himself off in his room and fell in love with the idea of being publicly humiliated.

So, it’s different for everyone.

What are the good and bad aspects of your job?
Good ones include being your own boss, making a great wage, fun costumes and glamour makeup, being creative, getting to work in a dungeon environment.

Bad ones? When business gets slow, assholes who waste my time on the phone or in emails, health and safety concerns.

Does your work as a domme bleed into your private life?
No. My work life is quite separate from my personal life. I only get together with partners who have been involved within the adult entertainment industry themselves.

For more about Vancouver-based Mz. Scream, visit her official website or find her and on Facebook.