Kaliko
Posts: 3381
Joined: 9/25/2010 Status: offline
|
I'm really having trouble answering this question. My gut reaction is that my values don't affect my relationships; that's it's more about our compatible personalities and how easily we handle any different value systems we have. For example, I was dating an avid hunter when I was a struggling vegan. It wasn't a problem. However, his strict religious beliefs versus my more laid back notion of spirituality did cause conflict. It's not a checklist of values that I would or wouldn't give up for a relationship; it's how we handle our differences together which comes down to simple compatibility. I don't need matchy-matchy all the way down the line. In fact, some great conversations are the result of different values. And so, yes, how we handle our different values in a D/s relationship is different than how they've been handled in vanilla relationships (for me, anyway). Obedience, ownership, behavior modification, etc...Tinkering with my behavior and responses is bound to lead to maybe not changes in my intrinsic values, but how much importance I place on those values and how much attention I give them. I devote as much energy to them as he tells me to. That obedience wouldn't exist in my former vanilla relationships. Maybe being able to handle different values with compatibility is, itself, a value that I wouldn't want to give up. I suppose I could look at it that way.
|