PairOfDimes -> RE: Being put at ease so you can communicate easier? (9/10/2007 7:06:41 PM)
|
I ask questions, and try to ask specific, narrow questions using short and precise words, so that I can get the kinds of answers I'm looking for. If a person is having difficulty giving me a general description of what he or she wants in a BDSM relationship, I'll ask, "Would you want a relationship focused more on service or on SM playtime?" If a person doesn't understand the question, I'll rephrase. I don't like to give examples of possible answers, because it leads the person being questioned, but I will if I must. As for making you feel comfortable talking about intimate things, I feel like it's not my responsibility to set or to modify the boundaries of people with whom I'm not in a relationship. That is, if you're not okay telling me, say, your tastes in painful stimulation, then you need to say so, and then I have two choices. I can accept that and continue to talk with you about other subjects, and possibly ask you why you're not okay and what would make you okay with it so we could return to the topic later. Or, I can accept that and say that our conversation can't really progress until you relate that information, because it's important to ascertaining compatibility and I'm not interested in wasting your time or mine. In both instances, you and I are each setting our own boundaries, which seems most fair. If you're not willing to discuss something, it's not my responsibility to make you willing to do so--it's my responsibility to decide whether I'm willing to talk with you if that subject is off limits, and to behave accordingly.
|
|
|
|