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leadership527 -> RE: Sire, What is the difference (7/21/2008 7:43:49 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: The Dark
I would have to disagree with this completely. When people identify as a switch, they do so (generalisation) as an orientation, like people do as dominant and submissive. Topping and bottoming ae actions and have noting to do with the orientation of a person, which you may actively change between, but does not maketh a 'switch'. Submissives/slaves can top as well as bottom, depending on the requirements of the dominant(as an example). Well, personally, I agree with you. I would've aligned switch with d/s not t/b. But an awful lot of people (off the cuff, 3/4 or more) don't even differentiate between those two things and even for those that do, I've seen switch conversations along both vectors. So in the end, just like every other word in the BDSM lexicon, "switch" is undefined and I've seen it used in any way you can imagine to indicate someone who plays both sides of one or more streets. In fact, not a single word in your (or my) entire post is supportable... we both used words like "top", "bottom", "dominant", "submissive", etc. and I doubt you could provide a commonly accepted working definition for any of those words.
To the OP:
To my knowledge, there is no way to have a symantec discussion about BDSM. Remember, that we're talking about a community that cannot even agree on what it's own name, a 4 letter acronym, means. In fact, it's not really a community at all. At best, "the scene" is more like a ton of very small little cliques scattered across the globe with almost zero communication between them and frequently a ton of politics separating them. These little pockets of people who vaguely share an interest in pain (not d/s, pain -- hitting and being hit) exist in societies which are just now deciding maybe they don't need to be thrown in jail. BDSM appears to be moving into the suburbs in a big way as a result of the internet. Possibly in the next decade or two, an actual community will form wherein some commonly accepted terminology can develop.
Take heed of this conversation. Remember that there is no approval bodies, governing bodies, licensing bodies... no "community" in any real sense.. just a bunch of people who have a kink around hitting or being hit and sometimes talk to each other. Working out your own definitions is a useful process, but it's the process which is useful, not the definitions you end up with (since nobody else but you will share them). Since you're a new female sub, I'll toss this in. When the inevitable doms start showing up and touting their credentials (I've received a 12 degree black flogger from the old european house of Ni and have studied under [insert names here]), just remember that while all of what that person has said is interesting, none of it really means anything unless you also study the "old european house of ni" and decide that's a clique you'd be interested in.
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