Aswad
Posts: 9374
Joined: 4/4/2007 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: OrionTheWolf In many dynamics there are things that the dominant/controlling personality does to influence the submissive type personality. At what point is their ability to make a free choice inhibited? Can they actually give consent at this point? Where is the line in your opinion? Should that line apply to all? It's sand. Some people like to draw a line in it. But in the end, it's just people interacting. Sometimes, someone objects to the interaction and intervenes. As the saying in the Gorean section goes, the steel of others will set your limits. You're on the record as having set that limit for another man in the past. We're both on the record as having gone beyond where many would like to set the limits, but haven't, whether for lack of will, steel or reach. I don't feel the need to try to draw a line for you. I doubt you feel the need to draw a line for me. To be honest, I don't have a good answer for you, beyond the simple fact that, for the most part, wherever the line goes, if it even exists, it usually won't be drawn by the person with the submissive type personality. The ability to make a free choice diminishes with the onset of interaction, and the ability to consent as seperate from the ability to agree is a very poorly defined and arbitrary distinction that seems to primarily exist to draw a line between adults and children, insane people and those under the influence of drugs (incl. alcohol). In the end, it's me deciding whether to claim someone, and potentially people trying to oppose that claim. For myself, making a decision like that normally requires talking to this person and getting an impression of what they're thinking, and figuring out if I see that as being a good place to start. And that's kind of at the heart of it, anyway, whether to start or not, because it can go anywhere from there, for anyone. I don't know if tomorrow is going to bring a massive stroke that leaves me with a vegetable. I just try to be me, evaluate our direction regularly, make sure I'm reasonably certain I can stand where I place my feet, and muddle on as best as possible. «He who thinks he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely foolish or extremely wise; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder.» — Qanuc proverb; Memory, Sorrow and Thorn (Tad Williams). Really, what is consent but trust and an intention to start a journey together? And if someone starts walking alongside us, how is that different? I've no idea. I prefer the simple option: I do what I am. IWYW, — Aswad.
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"If God saw what any of us did that night, he didn't seem to mind. From then on I knew: God doesn't make the world this way. We do." -- Rorschack, Watchmen.
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