ShadeDiva
Posts: 999
Joined: 3/31/2004 From: Sacramento, California Status: offline
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I let people define themselves. I don't try to come up with labels to apply to them - rather I allow them to tell me what they feel they are. If they define themselves as slave - but it isn'y what *I* consider to be a slave - I don't care. Unless I am considering playing or sceneing or developing a relationship with that particular person - I don't give a damn what they term or define themselves as or what their partner calls them. That's their deal. I might ask questions or clarify what they mean or why they use a term differently than I might apply it - but that is more about me understanding a bit how others view things, and why they view them in that manner that they do. If I am interested in developing something with someone, or plan on scening them for an extended period of time, then it's important for me to consider compatablity issues, and seeing where things lie between us - which calls for matching definitions and basic philsophies and schools of thought and general goals. But on the whole, I don't care one way or other if a bossy SAM that runs over their owner left and right walks around and claims they are a slave. <shrug> *I* might not see them that way, but just because they and their owner sees themself that way doesn't mean I need to or even feel a need to correct them, question, or otherwise challenge their right to use and choose whatever words, terms, or definitions they between themselves or in regard to themselves. Way I see it - words in and of themselves can be powerful triggers. We all know this on some level. We all know people that REALLLLLLLLLLY *love* being called a slut or whore, pervert or sicko - male and female alike. It most often isn't being voiced by someone that really thinks of them as such - or if they do, don't mean it in a bad judgment way as they enjoy that quality oin that person. Well it's so easy when it comes to humiliation for some reason to understand that sometimes negative words are used to produce positive results in a person that enjoys that, right? I mean even some hard-core and steadfast anti-kink vanilla folks can see that as being viable and valid, and basically okay. Well, what *I* don't get is why it seems to be *so blasted difficult* to apply that to a positive term or phrase being used. Slave is a very powerful word. It might not be accurate. It might not even be remotely true. They could be as far from a slave as you could possibly get in reality or maybe just only in *your* personal POV. Maybe, just maybe, because that word is so powerful and inherently charged with a flavour, a nuance, an atmosphere, a mindset, when it is being invoked ot used between people or applied to the person you don't think is remotely like a slave, that word is or becomes their trigger? Maybe that's a word that touches them deep in their core and psyche, hitting a trigger that gets a desired response - I just can't see that as a *bad* thing or something that *needs* to be either challenged or corrected. So yanno maybe *your* definition doesn't match with theirs - but the word produces a result that is desired, or even needed to the people that use it. Personally, I just think .. RIGHT ON! MORE POWER TO THEM! lol I don't understand why people want language to be so set and static - it never will be that way and it never has been. Definitions are added and changed ALL the time. They always HAVE been - language is a continuously evolving thing - it's never going to sit down and go well you know - it can ONLY mean blah blah blah - cuz yanno it's really only a matter of time before it means something else. Who am I to challenge someone's right to use a trigger that has meaning and purpose and they feel is needed or wanted? If their trigger includes or is part of using the term *slave* in a manner I wouldn't in *my* personal life - so be it - if it works for them and they are happy with it, I couldn't give a shit about it one way or the other as that is their relationship, their business, and THEIR call to make - not mine. So I guess I'm saying that if someone wants to use the term slave - then as far as I'm concerned they are a slave in their lives. When it comes to interacting with me on a level where we might develop into something other than friends, we can cross that bridge and see where the other is standing. In some ways I'm willing to allow a redefining of the way I mean a term, phrase or word, with a particular person when I am using it in regard to them or to them when it is a casual setting. It's no sweat off my back. <shrug> ~ShadeDiva
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