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Slavese

December 3rd, 2003

I am sitting here in absolute shock and blinking my eyes repeatedly praying that this isn’t a dream. I have just happened upon an article that I mostly agree with! The funny thing is, I added the site to my favorites ages ago because I liked their version of the rose ceremony and never got around to reading the rest of the site. And now here I sit enthralled by every article I choose to read.

The article I just finished reading is written by Jack Rinella and is an answer to a question he received from someone else. The question asked is basically what’s with third person speech, capitalizing doms’ names, lower casing submissives’ names, the whole O/our thing online? Why do people use it? Is it Old Guard?

His answer basically says: No, it isn’t Old Guard. No, it isn’t mandatory. And people who use it are following a protocol that has been more recently developed than Old Guard. He refers to this type of speak as slavese. He goes on to talk about how slavese isn’t required and doesn’t make a slave “good” or “bad.” He also says that the slave should act according to his/her owners wishes, and if they’re not owned, according to what they think is right or the type of dom they wish to attract. I like that. Not too many abide by that anymore.

I think my favorite quote from this article is:

“That’s not to say that a master can’t determine his or her own slave protocols, though calling them rules is probably much more appropriate. They can and in fact they should. What is unacceptable is the wholesale demand that every submissive, no matter how slightly so, should act like a slave and that every master, no matter how inexperienced or unattached, should be treated as if he or she were everyone’s owner. Terms such as “Sir,” Master,” “Ma’am” and “Lord” ought to be earned and should not be appropriated by someone for their own self-aggrandizement.”

He goes on to say that his slave belongs to him and him alone and that his slave will defer to no one except him. This is how Master feels as well. I am his. No one else’s. I am only to defer to him unless he states otherwise.

As far as capping him, he, his, master, sir, etc., I do this mostly out of respect but also because this is how he likes it. I only capitalize them in reference to him, unless it’s the beginning of a sentence (or I get shift happy and do it by mistake), never other dominants.

And as you can see I never cap anything in reference to myself.1 I’m not sure why I do that. Perhaps it is his preference as well. Perhaps it was part of teaching myself that I am property and he has control, to think of him first. I can’t remember why I started, only that as lazy as I am when it comes to my typing it was difficult to remember to drop the “I” into lowercase. And now it’s difficult to remember to cap it when I’m not speaking of myself.

I was confused about the use of third person speech and decided to ask a “Gorean master” why he demanded that his slave use it. He said that third person speech is to teach the slave that she is nothing. I balked at this. I have very serious pride issues that I am trying to work through so when he said she was nothing, that was just over the top for me.

The article I’m speaking of stresses that slaves are NOT inferior. Because they choose to be owned and mastered doesn’t make them less of a person. They’re still living, breathing creatures that feel and love and hurt. Granted they should never view themselves as equals to their owner, for this is not the case. The owner demands and the slave obeys. But neither are any better or worse than the other. They just have different stations in life.

Master chooses that I not use third person speech because he says it’s annoying.2 He says that if I were to do something I wasn’t allowed to do and told him about it (“Master, this girl broke a rule, Sir.”), it would sound like I was saying some other girl did something wrong and thus she should be punished, not me. I agree. And I was relieved. Heh. I think about how long it took me to remember not to open doors for myself without permission (a way to remove my over-the-top feminist attitudes and adjust my pride) and can’t imagine how long it would take me to learn not to say I, me, my, etc.

I’ve read some of the Gor novels. Okay, even some is an exaggeration. I read two. And I see where in a culture such as theirs calling every free person master/mistress would not only be common practice and acceptable, but it would be suitable. But the culture on that fictitious planet is much different from our own. In most places we’re forced into hiding with our beliefs because allowing someone to master you is unthinkable. Could you imagine going to the store and calling everyone master/mistress? I certainly couldn’t.

So that opens up the argument of “Well, not everyone is into the lifestyle, so of course you wouldn’t.” Yeah well not everyone practices Gor either, but some of you still defer to every dominant that wanders into a chat room.

I love to watch “Gorean” serves. Master and I share a few beliefs with Gorean culture. The books aren’t too bad of a read, though so far the one I’m attempting to read starts out a bit dry. But here on Earth, in reality, most of their beliefs just aren’t practical. Not everyone deserves to be called master. Of course, for me, no one besides my master deserves to be called Master. Because no one else could ever master me.

1. Obviously, I no longer cap pronouns when referring to Master, and I cap my own name as is grammatically correct. This is mostly because it became an issue when I was freelancing. added on 10/15/2018
2. We actually went through a strict Gorean training period when I was required to speak in third person. I hated it. It didn’t last long but I don’t really remember why it ended. added on 10/15/2018

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