Amaros -> RE: So what's wrong with playing to one's strengths (or weaknesses)? (9/19/2008 3:26:07 PM)
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ORIGINAL: NuevaVida It seems a lot of dominants want a submissive to be capable of being a dominant, yet who chose to submit, instead. Apples to oranges, indeed. I guess my notion of dominance is colored by my military training - one is expected to display leadership at all levels of the chain of command with respect to duty - which typically requires clear communication of what exactly ones duty is, what to, and what is required to fulfill it. Just off the top of my head, if the house catches fire, I'd expect submissive to have enough presence of mind to do whatever needs doing, but if I have specific ideas on how to do that, it's my duty as her, uh, commanding officer, to make sure she knows what that is and train her to do it - if I'm not there, somebody has to take charge. This is a simplistic example, and it's complicated world - the power exchange dynamic evolved in an era of very clear cut gender roles and expectations: now two income households are the norm, not the exception, and we are often required to adapt to radically different situations. The military thing is one model, civilians don't always seem to understand how a person can obey orders unhesitatingly in one situation, and give them (to the same people) in another - they tend to get confused, because it's all a big dominance game most of the time, and they're confused as to what their duty is or who to, and in this case most people default to compulsively protecting their status. As your average submissive has no military training or experience, and to provide it pretty much constitutes a fetish all on it's own, one I don't actually suffer from particularly, so I've been toying with the idea of personae, sort of a managed MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder), where you actually forge seperate identities adapted to specific circumstances, which can start as a form of roleplaying. I'm not sure it addresses the topic in the OP, and I've been thinking of starting a thread on the subject, although it does apply to where it's been headed - for some it's easy apparently, they can completely identify with the role of submissve to the point that it becomes their sole identity ("it's what I am") others have to struggle with the identity of submissive while simultaneously having to play other roles: mother, employee, boss, and a myriad of other social identities. It's a question that's occupied me of late, I really hate to use the word "fake", it seems to me that it's more often a matter of not being able to draw the lines in a satisfactory way, i.e., to claim you want to be a slave when you really mean you want to play at being a slave when it's convenient, and there is nothing wrong with that, it's a complicated world, it's just nice to know what one is getting into to avoid the problem of conflicting expectations. So, more to the OP, I don't see submisivness as "weak", in any dyad, the partners tend to compensate and adjust to each others strengths and weaknesses, and my problem is more that I'm probobly a little passive for a dom, I like a sexually aggressive submissive, and I'm more drawn to stronger women, your "self directed servant", but I seem to draw the sort of take charge types that get offended when I reign them in, i.e, they end up feeling unappreciated, and I end up feeling like situation is slipping through my fingers. In this case, I'm very much concerned with the whole dynamic involved with the delegation of authority, i.e., I'm not a micromanager, and independence doesn't scare me, but if it concerns me, I want to know what is going on and I fully expect to have a say, if not the say in it, no matter how distracted I might seem - i.e., it's my decision on whether I decide to let you run with it or not, so you'd better run it past me, it's really a communication thing. On the other hand, I can really bowl over extremely passive types, as I'm more accustomed to dealing with people at least as, if not more, aggressive than I am - which is not always a good thing either, and I tend to worry about people prone to passive withdrawl - I then have to resist the temptation to talk at you instead of to you - thus personae theory.
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