subbibear
Posts: 46
Joined: 3/2/2014 Status: offline
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Since 1997-ish I've played on and off the public scene mainly on the gay side of the equation. In that time I've had my consent violated once. In that circumstance I made a series of monumentally bad decisions that put me in a position where I could not stop the Dominant who decided not to respect my revocation of consent. In that time frame, outside of that traumatic event, I have never had to go past yellow in my preferred safe word scheme of green/yellow/red. I have had scenes where I felt bad a few days later and realized I had not negotiated to the best of my ability or I had not been vocal enough at the time about my state of mind/being/pain. But I have never thought of those situations as consent violations because the Dominant involved did not cross any negotiated boundary nor did they fail to check in with me regularly. They did everything right. I just felt bad later for some reason and had to process that information and come to grips with it each time as new boundaries I had discovered or some sort of issue with my mood/state of mind at the time. I certainly never fathomed the idea that I could retroactively revoke consent days or weeks after the event. So my question lies in that netherworld of retroactive consent revocation. I offer as a given that any clear consent violation is just that. It could leave a submissive in shock and unable to protest immediately, I get that. That is not the situation I am discussing. I am asking about the scene where the Dominant didn't cross a negotiated boundary, did everything right by globally accepted standards- check-ins etc.- and the submissive did not revoke consent in real time, walked away in their right mind, everyone seemed happy. But then days later, the submissive chooses to revoke consent? How does this play out in the public scene? How do we balance the need to create a safe space for a submissive who feels violated vs a safe space for a Dominant who appears to have done nothing wrong? As submissive people have you been in this position? Are you willing to share about it? What steps, if any, did those around you take that made things better for you? Did the Dominant involved address the issue directly with you? If so, did that help or make the situation worse? I am asking for opinions, experiences and discussion. I hope to avoid some intellectual laziness. For instance, If someone uses the phrase personal responsibility it would be great if they are not attacked as a victim blamer. It would also be nice if we do not assume gender roles here. Though if your opinion or input necessitates a specific gender role definition, by all means define it clearly. And of course I am well aware that no one has to listen to anything in this paragraph at all. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Open can of worms here)My opinions I am, what is the best word, concerned? Regarding a concept that grabbed a lot of support recently. The idea put forth was that every Dominant who plays puts themselves at risk as a consent violator every time they play on the basis of the notion that any submissive who feels violated, be it days or weeks after a scene ends, is violated. Ipso facto the Dominant must hang their head in public shame, apologize and do what they can to make it right by the submissive. If it is a consent violation, that is, the Dominant violated a negotiated limit, failed to follow globally accepted standards, or otherwise behaved outside of the negotiated scene, coerced or intimidated, intoxicated or mentally disabled the submissive- yes yes a thousand times yes, break out the pitchforks and torches. It is clearly on the Dominant to straighten out the mess and they well may face legal repercussions. But if we start to assume that every scene we enter into has a open ended limit on consent revocation, doesn't that tear apart the very fabric of our culture of consent/assent to start with? I came into this scene in 1997-ish, and I still consider myself a youngster by comparison to so many of the people I know. People who have worked diligently for some 40 years now to achieve some minimum of legal recognition of what it is that we do. That recognition is based entirely on consent/assent/revocation. Am I missing something? Please fill me in here, seriously I want to know? Doesn't this concept of open ended revocation mean that it simply isn't safe for a Dominant to play outside of a very select group of people they already know and trust? I have PTSD. I can potentially dissociate when I am in bondage and being dominated. If I get into a scene where that presents a risk to my safety, if it means I can't safe word out, then it is on me to make sure the Dominant knows every freaking detail about it, how to spot it and when to stop the scene on their own before it goes to far. If I fail to tell them about it, that is my fault. I can hope that they are informed enough to see the signs. But I damn sure can't go screaming about a consent violation three days later because I suddenly realized I had dropped out for 30 minutes that night.
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