beeble
Posts: 799
Joined: 5/25/2005 From: UK Status: offline
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quote:
topcat wrote: http://www.okcupid.com/tests/4764356011516330637/Master beeble wrote: Questions 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, 15 and 23 don't test how dominant a person is; they just test how much, for want of a better term, BDSM general knowledge/trivia they know. topcat wrote: I take it, from your statement above, that you feel mastery/dominance/whatever to be an inborn trait, requiring no efforts of improvement or study. Not at all. In my limited experience, it does seem to be an `inborn' trait but it absolutely requires effort to improve and study, at the very least in order to be safe. It's one thing to think `Yeah, it'd be hot to whip somebody' but quite another to be able to do that safely; doing it safely requires study so that you know what areas of the body can be safely whipped, and practice, so that you're able to reliably hit them and reliably miss the other bits. However, I'd argue that a submissive needs that study, too. If somebody's going to whip me, I'd better know what's safe and what isn't or I'm putting myself in danger. Both dominants and submissives ought to know the answers to 6, 8, 12 and 15, assuming they wish to engage in any of the activities described. So these questions don't test dominance at all -- they test whether somebody plays safely. So 6, 8, 12 and 15 are bad tests of dominance because, essentially, everybody should know the answers to them. On the other hand, 2, 3 and 4 are bad tests of dominance because nobody needs to know the answer to them. Question 2 is a history/grammar question; it has nothing to do with dominance. I know the answer and I'm a sub. I've no idea what the most widely-recognized BDSM group in the USA is for the same reason that I don't know the most widely-recognized BDSM groups in France, Germany or Australia. It's not because I'm not dominant; it's because I'm not American. Question four tests whether somebody is interested in single-tails and has visited a reasonable number of American BDSM clubs; again, this is totally independent of whether they are dominant. Saying that somebody is a bad dominant because they don't know the answer to these questions is like saying they're a bad sportsman because they don't know who won the world championship in 1962. 9 and 23 just aren't anything to do with dominance. I know what violet wands and Wartenberg wheels but I'm submissive. Saying that somebody isn't dominant because they don't know what a Wartenberg wheel is no more accurate than saying that they're not dominant because they don't know how to spell `Wartenberg'. And no, that isn't a dig at your spelling: your spelling mistake doesn't make you less dominant; somebody's not knowing what a pinwheel is doesn't make them less dominant. quote:
My point being that someone who doesn't know (or seek to know) what your are calling trivia isn't a Master/Mistress/whatever. They're just pushy. I agree absolutely on the questions about safety, assuming the person is interested in those activities. (Somebody who isn't interested in whipping doesn't need to know about whip safety.) I disagree for questions 2, 3 and 4 and, to some extent on 9 and 23. Gosh, that got rather long. I suppose the point is that your test is not designed to answer the question `Are you dominant or submissive?' but the question `If you were a dominant, would you be safe and competent?' So it's not a `problem' that I scored 88 and 86 and most of my objections (except to 2, 3 and 4) are largely moot.
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