Spanking Site Review: Bars and Stripes

Photos, Rants, Raves and Reviews, Spanking Websites — By Adele on 21 March, 2006 10:56 am

(As promised a couple of week’s ago, here is a full review of “Bars and Stripes”: a new, hot spanking site with a vision.)

“Bars and Stripes” is a fairly new player on the spanking market, but they have a strong, original voice – and content to match. On our snoop around the premises (thanks for the pass, Governor Mike) we have found user-friendly design, hundreds of high-resolution photos, hours of video footage – and heaps of attitude, on the basis of which we can predict a bright future and a place among the big players on the spanking market for this website.

The reviewer cannot claim expertise in the technical side of the production, but we know a clear picture with vibrant colours when we see them. Each video can be viewed online or downloaded for future use. The videos are accompanied by galleries of large, high-quality stills. They are shot using two cameras, and edited to give a facial and a rear view. (Full facial footage is available as a bonus with some videos.)

The site has several features that make it stand out sharply among the others.

Theme – All the materials on B&S revolve around a women’s prison with a particularly strict regime. There are established rules and routines for the prisoners to follow, and severe consequences for their breaking. What spanko hasn’t watched prison flicks like “The Shawshank Redemption” or “Fortress”, fantasizing about remaking it with girls and whippings? Well, “Bars and Stripes” is it: a prison-fantasy paradise. There are also some clips set in the prisoners’ past, which is a nice touch and a welcome diversion.

Storylines – The best feature of B&S is that it’s structured much like a TV-show: there is an overall plot with many subplots weaved around it, involving a number of distinctive characters, both prisoners and staff. At the centre of the plot there is one Leia-Ann Woods (who is also a creative force behind the production), serving a term for masterminding her criminal husband’s Charlie’s shady activities. It’s Leia-Ann’s task to survive without bowing down to the regime, while the guards need to get evidence that would fuel the case against Charlie himself. Members’ section includes Leia-Ann’s prison diary, updated every few weeks. The subplots revolve around the adventures of the other prisoners. Our favourite stories so far have involved Dublin O’Brien, a prisoner on a mission, and the general mayhem resulting from Leia-Ann’s seduction of young Rhiannon. For people with an attention span of more than five minutes, the presence of these storylines is a blessing. Folks who care for nothing but pure action should be happy too: in every clip the action starts right-away, with lengthy build-up only when it also involves some eye candy (Michele’s bath, Leia and Rhiannon’s kissing and groping, Zena’s masturbation session.)

Characters – each model plays only one character throughout; this concerns both prisoners and staff. The girls have personal pages with mug shots, biographies and links to all of the videos and photosets they are in. They have their stories, and act accordingly: are some bold, some timid, and all of them in for more than they’d bargained for. The star among the staff is the prison’s Matron (Lucy McLean): a vicious, venomous demon of a woman who revels in bossing the girls around. Even the staff bow to her authority. (“I will throw you to Matron” threatens the Governor (Michael Stamp) when Mrs. Woods gives him cheek: a threat to make even the reviewer quake.) The Governor himself appears in fewer clips than his officers, remaining a sinister behind-the-scenes menace, but he is responsible for the day-to-day running of the establishment and communicating with site members. Our favourite officers are Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Lewis; we hope to see more of both evil bastards gentlemen.

Attention to Detail – “Bars and Stripes” is clearly a labour of love; the quality of spanking material is enhanced with great costumes and sets. Attentive viewers will notice a carefully labelled filing cabinet in the intake office, which blew the reviewer away. More visible details are just as impressive: specially produced prisoners’ outfits (short red shifts worn with white socks and black shoes); guards’ uniforms (which make for rather dashing guards); the impressive metal bunk bed in the cell set; laminated staff ID cards – all these are the things the producers *could have* got away without acquiring, but their presence makes the final product this much better. A mood-enhancing, gloomy theme tune complements all the action, and has been known to haunt the reviewer after the credits had rolled.

There are several nice touches in the members’ section, such as the Governor’s weekly letter to the site members, a “suggestion box” for you to drop your ideas in, an address for you to write to the inmates, Matron or the Gov. The material can be sorted by type (such as “intake”, “solitary”, “life before prison” etc), or by the girl. If we were to express any wishes, it would be that the guards get their own pages as well, for the benefit of female fans; as it is, Matron is the only member of staff whose videos are accessible from one page. (There is probably a good reason for that; undoubtedly, Matron is the most popular of them all.)

The site is not without a flaw, namely, that some of the materials are posted out of sequence: for example, stills can be posted before the video they belong to, or some of the character’s photos or videos come up before her intake footage does. We are prepared to be forgiving of this while the site is finding its feet and working out what form of presentation works best.

All in all, we are in love with “Bars and Stripes”, particularly because it so clearly works both for men and women. The punishments are firm, but not excessively severe, and there is a nice variety of action and situations. Our favourite videos are “Jailbirds”, “Coup de Grass”, the Dublin storyline – plus anything with Matron in it.

(And yes, the reviewer is hoping to end up in that prison in the near future.)