It wasn’t always fishnets; I have always loved underwear on a woman, even back as a kid when my Mum bought clothes in the 1970s from catalogues. There I would be, staring at Action Man or Tonka Toys until she left the room, and with an almost silent whump of bulk pages being transported from the back section (it’s where the toys always were) to the front second section (after ladies’ dresses it was sleepwear and then underwear).  There before me were ladies in Playtex girdles and Cross Your Heart bras, however, keep turning the pages and you found suspenders and stockings.  Even at the age of 10 this had appeal over Action Man, but only just.  It wasn’t what you could see, but what you couldn’t. To be honest, even if nipples and pubes were on show, I would have approached them with the same trepidation of attempting to understand religion; but when I became a man, I cast aside childish things.

Jump forward 40 years and my love of stockings remains. They are a mediator between my eye and soft skin.  The fishnet stocking effects a transition from the existing physical familiarity of Missy’s body that I usually see when she undresses after work or before bed, into the illusionistic realm of being somewhat unobtainable. Stockings, especially fishnets for me do not provide visual transportation graciously, they grab you by the balls and say, “Fuck me if you dare!”

The comedian Dara O’Brien’s sketch on the stocking is fantastic as it highlights his perceived ludicrousness from a stocking worn at thigh height as being in the ‘sexy zone’ to it dropping below the knee to a ‘passion killer’ pop-sock. He does recognise that in between you find the over knee Japanese school girl, however, he skirts around that at some speed.  He does not mention fishnets which is a real shame as I am sure there is some comedic value there if you trawl deep enough.

Fishnets for me take me back to the very early 1980s with MOD revival, Skinheads and Ska music all rolled into one fantastic hedonistic period of my life.  Female skinheads with cropped feather cuts, Fred Perry T-shirts, braces, miniskirts, fishnets and Dr. Martin Boots.  The fishnets just rocked my world, I mean I really had a thing about girls in them. Unfortunately, physically fulfilment was lost, for MODs and Skinheads never the twain shall meet.

In more recent times, a’ la last weekend at Eroticon, Missy tried on one of her two new body stockings in the confines of our hotel room.  Although not traditional diamond fishnets, I was met with many bubbles of beautiful circular white skin in this unusual design. It looked fantastic and warranted several angular poses to get the desired effect.  And so, we end back where I started, not with a Gratton’s catalogue underwear page, but more with the focus on framing a perfect image and allowing the eye to be confused by a fishnet pattern.  Diamonds or bubbles, Missy or Skinheads, they all scream, “Come and have go if you think your ‘ard enough!”

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Originally published 19.03.18 from www.thesafewordsclub.com as part of Mollysdailykiss Kink Of The Week event