RE: Is Mistress the feminine form of Master?

RE: Is Mistress the feminine form of Master? (Full Version)

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coookie -> RE: Is Mistress the feminine form of Master? (5/16/2011 8:12:13 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: LadyPact No, I don't happen to agree much with the "I'm a brand new Master" kind of thing. Really, if you're brand new and you're not in a dynamic with a slave, you really haven't "mastered" anything. There's a difference between wanting to be a pilot and actually being one. Otherwise, you're just somebody who is hoping to craft that kind of dynamic, if you ever find one. On the other hand, if you've got somebody calling you "Master" in your world, I don't have any reason to step into that. (I may not think much of you as a Master, but that's another thread entirely.) What happens often is there is a significant gender bias on the matter. More often, it's that the general populace is just so glad that someone with interest in being a female Dominant shows up, that they aren't going to challenge her. The bar is set quite a bit lower. There aren't nearly the concerns that she's competent or any other thing that males go through around here. Not that she isn't in the position to screw somebody just as much as a male in being so. No. She's got tits, that's good enough. (Snipped) This was a perfect answer to my question Lady Pact (not that the rest of you did not have interesting thoughts and contributions but this response answers my question perfectly).

strangedesire -> RE: Is Mistress the feminine form of Master? (5/16/2011 8:12:18 AM)
Likewise, there seems to be a crew of submissive men who refer to all dominant women as "Mistress." This doesn't make them popular with the ladies nearly as often as they seem to hope.

mech1nomics -> RE: Is Mistress the feminine form of Master? (5/16/2011 8:34:39 AM)
The majority in this case are correct. MY personal opinion is a person cannot be a Mistress or Master until they have property (ie a driver is a person who drives a car or a chef is someone who cooks). We can go into a tirade over how commercial the lifestyle is and anyone with half a brain, nutsack, or boob can call themselves whatever they want.

paulmcuk -> RE: Is Mistress the feminine form of Master? (5/16/2011 10:00:10 AM)
I view it as a (self-adopted) title, not a profession. It reflects the thinking/attitute of the person, not their level of skill or experience.

LadyConstanze -> RE: Is Mistress the feminine form of Master? (5/16/2011 10:18:26 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: mech1nomics The majority in this case are correct. MY personal opinion is a person cannot be a Mistress or Master until they have property (ie a driver is a person who drives a car or a chef is someone who cooks). We can go into a tirade over how commercial the lifestyle is and anyone with half a brain, nutsack, or boob can call themselves whatever they want. Your personal opinion might have some logic flaws, some of us might not have property right now, we might just integrate BDSM into our lives without being 24/7, or some of us might be very picky and after having parted with somebody (for whatever reasons) they haven't found somebody they feel compatible with, they wouldn't be a Master or a Mistress for you, but Master or Mistress Clueless who collar subbie desperate_will_take_anything would be? That doesn't make a lot of sense, you a cook will be a cook even if he or she is on maternity or paternity leave or currently unemployed, you don't have to wield pots and pans all the time to be a cook... As for the driver, now if they reach the destination and have a walk there, he wouldn't be driving, or somebody else could take the drive back - will that mean he loses his ability to drive?

xssve -> RE: Is Mistress the feminine form of Master? (5/16/2011 10:36:56 AM)
It is the feminine form of master, with roughly the same meaning, "master", in most European culture may refer to a number of different things, but usually involves "mastery"over something, whether it's a household, or a particular skill: metallurgy, building, art, philosophy, etc., it's why they call it a Masters degree, and a woman with a Masters degree is indeed a master in her profession. Mistress is the female equivalent, archaically, its the title of a wife, the head of household, who may well be responsible for slaves or servants. "Mrs.", usually pronounced, "Missus", is actually a contraction of Mistress, as Mr. is a contraction of "Master", i.e., the head of household, but this usage fell out of vogue at some point, and "mistress" more commonly refers to "the other woman". So any married woman is technically a Mistress, an unmarried woman was usually distinguished with the term "maiden" or "maid" - which is not necessarily synonomous with "virgin" as popular opinion often has it, but for discretionary purposes, it is often assumed for the sake of argument.[sm=modxiiswatching.gif] I had an English teacher once for whom the misuse of the word Mistress was a huge peeve. [8\|]

xssve -> RE: Is Mistress the feminine form of Master? (5/16/2011 11:43:04 AM)
I'm not entirely sure, but Madam and Madame (Fr.: Mademoiselle; contraction: Ma'am) is a title of respect that does not allude to marital status, the masculine equivalent is "Sir", or "Lord", whereas Master and Mistress allude specifically to marital status, though a woman can be a Mistress and also a Madam or a Madame. Since usage varies widly, don't quote me on that, but it is one way of sorting it out. In English Madame with an e is sometime used to denote the Mistress of a house of prostitution, but also used to address the wives of foreign heads of state. A female English Magistrate, however, is a Madam, not a Madame, so watch it, lol. Wikipedia: Madam

xssve -> RE: Is Mistress the feminine form of Master? (5/16/2011 11:52:05 AM)
The upshot is, I don't know that there are any hard and fast rules here, some prefer Mistress, others, Madame some prefer "Goddess", others, "My Queen", while still others answer readily to "Bitch". [:D]

LadyPact -> RE: Is Mistress the feminine form of Master? (5/16/2011 11:52:16 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: coookie (Snipped) This was a perfect answer to my question Lady Pact (not that the rest of you did not have interesting thoughts and contributions but this response answers my question perfectly). I'm glad that it worked for you, cookie. My thanks to RS for his bit in there, too. (I'm also kind of glad it didn't turn out as long as I thought it was going to be. [;)])

leadership527 -> RE: Is Mistress the feminine form of Master? (5/16/2011 11:56:05 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: SimplyMichael So because you were awarded your title/cover by a bunch of nitwits doesn't make it any better than some 23 year old who calls himself master. Sometimes that 23 actually makes his partners happy and they still think fondly of him years later, a feat quite a few "leather" people have yet to "master". This is certainly true and you know that I'm totally in agreement in terms of focusing on actual reality and proven success. That being said, I think it's a bit unfair to dismiss leather symbolism just because in some cases it is abused. The same could be said of any symbol. I place a strong emotional meaning on wedding rings (my own and others) and that symbol gets pretty heavily abused. In the generic sense, I'm an optimist. The symbol generically represents the best of what it could be to me. As is always true with me, I will reserve my judgements for my own self. But the fact that some group of people somewhere thought a person was deserving wouldn't be ignored by me either. In my own head, it's something to think about as I make my personal assessments.

LaTigresse -> RE: Is Mistress the feminine form of Master? (5/16/2011 12:02:29 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: SimplyMichael As for leather, remember that all too many leather families and even groups are made up of co-dependent dysfunctional people no better/worse than any average group of people from CM. So because you were awarded your title/cover by a bunch of nitwits doesn't make it any better than some 23 year old who calls himself master. Sometimes that 23 actually makes his partners happy and they still think fondly of him years later, a feat quite a few "leather" people have yet to "master". Michael, it is posts like this that always give me reason to wonder just why exactly you are so insecure that you constantly have to attempt to ridicule and tear down things that do not fit your idea of perfection. All while trying to build up your own experiences as being the perfection everyone else should strive for. I am not leather, gorean, a believer of female supremacy, or submissive, but I can appreciate it, in and how, it works for others. Obviously leather is working quite well for LadyPact.

xssve -> RE: Is Mistress the feminine form of Master? (5/16/2011 1:34:13 PM)
To be sure, and more to the point, I don't mind being called dominant, but Master makes me a trifle uneasy - seems to me it's the subs who insist on it, my current prospective does unbidden, whereas I don't mind being called simply by my name, I prefer it in fact since I can just be myself, instead of sitting there second guessing myself, thinking "now what would a master do in this situation"?, lol. In the Nav, if you make the mistake of calling a Chief "sir", he will promptly remind you that he's no Sir, he works for a living, in no uncertain terms. Being a bit of a hands on guy myself, I tend to think of myself more as general purpose, garden variety pervert, but I suppose the whole business harks back to the days when every home was a castle, and ever man the master of his castle - so I don't mind it as a fetish, and I accept it as a gesture of respect, I'm not really happy unless I'm gettin' my way, but I'm not really that old fashioned, I'm much more likely to call you bay-beee. I never call woman a bitch unless I'm pretty damn sure she ain't gonna kill me in my sleep. Anyway, it's usually not a title one bestows on oneself, that's what make it a title of respect, rather than evidence of conceit, but the whole idea of women masters is only pretty recently out of the closet: it's only been acceptable for women to assume dominant roles as a matter of course for less than 50 years, with only a few, very few notable exceptions, so to some extent, the Dommes, or Domina's, or Mistress's or whatever are pioneers, there is just a general absence of precedents. And in fact that applies to the whole business of BDSM, to some degree, we're making it up as we go, Old Guard were just people who made it as they went, back in their day - you're not going to find any of it in Miss Manners is what I'm trying to say, it's always been underground, there is no formal mainstream recognition of it, no rules, it's strictly roleplay w/regard to society at large.

NocturnalStalker -> RE: Is Mistress the feminine form of Master? (5/16/2011 2:13:05 PM)
I prefer Lord.

TheCabal -> RE: Is Mistress the feminine form of Master? (5/16/2011 3:55:24 PM)
quote: Anyway, it's usually not a title one bestows on oneself, that's what make it a title of respect, rather than evidence of conceit... Wonderfully put. "Master" or "Mistress," like beauty, is entirely in the eyes of the beholder. It actually bothers me when someone addresses me that way with very little knowledge of who I am - it cheapens the term when it is thrown around without feeling or as a simple affectation.

LadyPact -> RE: Is Mistress the feminine form of Master? (5/16/2011 9:30:45 PM)
Michael and I will never settle the debate on the matter. I think we are the eternal Romans and Christians on the subject. I can not give up the fact that I have met good leather people. He can not give up that he has met bad ones. Neither of us is wrong. It's entirely a matter of perception.

theRose4U -> RE: Is Mistress the feminine form of Master? (5/17/2011 4:30:57 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: coookie I kind of think that if Jane down the street wants to throw Mistress in front of her name, who am I to tell her she can't? I do not think that in my interactions with people that the specific title makes them more learned personally. I trust Bob as much as Master Oftheuniverse to wield a bullwhip which is not very much initially. If Oftheuniverse insisted I call him Master we could have issues. You're thinking on what I would call the right track...the catch is a Mistress is less likely to say "I"m mistress bitch of the universe kneel and do as I say now and obey all without question, even though we've never met"...Master Wankers on the other hand, it's common. In my opinion, respectfully enforcing your own value is the way to find someone with whom you're a good fit instead of falling for an online only wanker looking to have fun messing with your head.

Aylee -> RE: Is Mistress the feminine form of Master? (5/17/2011 5:31:57 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: ResidentSadist Yes, Mistress is the feminine form of Master. BTW, women cannot be Masters, only men can be Master's . . . except in the lesbian gay community where it refers to women in a man's role. I disagree with this. In the English language, the male gender form is often used to describe both males and females. When I got my graduate degree is was a "Masters" not a "Mistresses" degree. The same with the term doctor but no doctoress. The male gender form is the unmarked one and so it serves for both (all) genders. The female gender form is marked and is ONLY used in reference to females. So while you can have female masters, you cannot have male mistresses.

MistressRage -> RE: Is Mistress the feminine form of Master? (5/19/2011 8:39:36 PM)
Fuck all that "you have to earn it" shit. There is no governing body of BDSM.

Arpig -> RE: Is Mistress the feminine form of Master? (5/21/2011 11:05:41 AM)
quote: I trust Bob as much as Master Oftheuniverse to wield a bullwhip which is not very much initially. Hey!!! I'm much better than Oftheuniverse...he's a total wannabe.

coookie -> RE: Is Mistress the feminine form of Master? (5/21/2011 11:07:01 AM)
lol i will take that into account

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