The great continuum con

As human beings we love nothing more... well other than a good bit of gossip... than a good way to explain human behaviour. Over the years there have been lots of models, but the great favourite seems to be the spectrum or continuum. Slot a person along its length from left to right and let them slide. Rather like a hare on a race track whizzing along.

Now sometimes these continuums are useful things... explaining human sexuality is one of those as an example. Other times they aren't so crash hot. Trying to deconstruct submissives and slaves is one of those spectacular failures. It's not quite up there with the nine levels of submission twaddle that someone went to so much trouble to try and categorise... and it sure as shit isn't as funny as the 128 rules of submission. But one digresses... back to the continuum and why it has "issues".

Let us overlook for a minute that it implies that submission is a state of being rather than a personality trait. Something that one doesn't think is the case at all, but then one is a pedant who thinks that the word submissive wasn't intended to be a noun. It does however, open up a wealth of problems in that it assumes that we have submissive at one end and slave at the other and they are some sort of progression along that line. It's a bit like the enlightenment theory... onwards and ever upwards.

One of the problems with viewing submission and slavery as a progression is that it sets people up to be competitive and just as you will always find some arsehole who will go that extra mile to win, you will find someone else who doesn't think that competing was enough of an inclusive experience... they wanted to place higher than last. The thing is, if all this competitive behaviour wasn't enough of an issue in its self, that behaviour is gloriously exploitable in the right hands. This brings us to the con part of this...

There are certain types of dominants who use the word slave as a weapon to leverage compliance out of a person. It's usually wrapped up in terms like not slave enough, a real slave... It works 'cos some people are competitive enough to want to aspire higher. They see being a submissive as somehow lesser than being a slave and slave is what they aspire to. Though gods know why 'cos it ain't glamorous people... ask any of us... in fact some of us blog about it incessantly J

Then we come to us... as our own worst enemy. It seems reading around those blogs there are those of us who are just only too happy to beat ourselves up over not being slavey enough. Those who read others posts and blogs in the light of they make me feel lesser than them. And those of us who are just that competitive that we can't simply be our master's slave and accepting that their views are the only ones that should count.

All of these issues could be removed by the whole concept of the submissive/ slave continuum just disappearing quietly to whence it came from. Of course that won't happen 'cos rather like a good bit of gossip it has taken on a life all of its own. And like all good cons it has grown, had wrinkles added to it and is happily applied by a certain type...

Maybe we could at least stop beating ourselves up with it... that would be a start J