The Nine Degrees Of Submission

The out­right non-submissive masochist or kinky sensualist

Not into servi­tude, humil­i­a­tion or giv­ing up of con­trol; just pain and/or spiced-up sen­su­al­ity, on the masochist’s own terms for the masochist’s own plea­sure (ie: being turned on solely or mainly by one’s own bod­ily sen­sa­tions, rather than being turned on by being “used” to grat­ify one’s partner’s sadism).

Pseudo-submissive non-slave

Not into even play­ing “slave”, but into other “sub­mis­sive” role-playing, e.g.: school­teacher scenes, infan­til­ism, “forced” trans­vestism. Usu­ally into humil­i­a­tion, but NOT into servi­tude, even in play. Dic­tates the scene to a large degree.

Pseudo-submissive PLAY slave

Likes to play at being slave. Likes to *feel* sub­servient; may in some cases like to *feel* that one is being “used” to grat­ify one’s partner’s sadism; and may even really serve the dom­i­nant in some ways, but only on the “slave’s” own terms. Dic­tates the scene to a large degree; often fetishis­tic (e.g. foot worshippers).

True sub­mis­sive non-slave

Really gives up con­trol (though only tem­porar­ily and within agreed upon lim­its), but gets his/her main sat­is­fac­tion from aspects of sub­mis­sion *other than* serv­ing or being used by the dom­i­nant. Usu­ally turned on by sus­pense, vul­ner­a­bil­ity, and/or giv­ing up of respon­si­bil­ity. Doesn’t dic­tate the scene except in very gen­eral terms, but still seeks mainly her/his own *direct* plea­sure (rather than get­ting one’s plea­sure mainly from pleas­ing the dominant).

True sub­mis­sive PLAY slave

Really gives up con­trol (though only tem­porar­ily; only dur­ing brief “scenes” and within lim­its) and gets his/her main sat­is­fac­tion from serv­ing and being used by the dom­i­nant — but only for FUN pur­poses, usu­ally erotic. (May or may not be into pain, but if so, is turned on by pain *indi­rectly*, ie: enjoys being the objects of one’s partner’s sadism, on which the sub­mis­sive places few require­ments or restrictions.)

Uncom­mit­ted short-term but more-than-play semi-slave

Really gives up con­trol (though usu­ally within lim­its); wants to serve and be used by the dom­i­nant; wants to pro­vide practical/non-erotic as well as fun/ erotic ser­vices; but only when the “slave” is in the mood. May even act as a full-time slave for, say, sev­eral days at a time, but is free to quit at any time (or at the end of the agreed upon sev­eral days). May or may not have a long-term rela­tion­ship with one’s Mistress/Master, but, either way, the “slave” has the final say over when he or she will serve.

Part-time con­sen­sual but REAL slave

Has ongo­ing com­mit­ment to an owner/slave rela­tion­ship, and regards one­self as the Mistress’/Master’s “prop­erty” at all times. Wants to obey and please her/him in all aspects of life — practical/non-erotic as well as fun/erotic. Devotes most of one’s time to other com­mit­ments (eg: job) but the Mistress/Master has first pick of the slave’s free time.

Full-time live-in con­sen­sual slave

Within no more than a few broad limits/requirements, the slave regards herself/ him­self as exist­ing solely for the Mistress’/Master’s use, plea­sure and well– being. The slave in turn expects to be regarded as a prized pos­ses­sion. Not much dif­fer­ent from the sit­u­a­tion of the tra­di­tional house­wife, except that within the S/M world the slave’s posi­tion is more likely to be fully con­sen­sual, espe­cially if the slave is male (since men cer­tainly aren’t socially pres­sured into this kind of lifestyle). Within the S/M world, a full-time “slave” arrange­ment is entered into with an explicit aware­ness of the mag­ni­tude of power that is being given up, and hence is usu­ally entered into much more care­fully, with more aware­ness of the pos­si­ble dan­gers, and with much clearer and more spe­cific agree­ments than usu­ally pre­cede the tra­di­tional marriage.

Con­sen­sual total slave with no limits

A com­mon fan­tasy ideal which prob­a­bly doesn’t exist in real life (except in author­i­tar­ian reli­gious cults and other sit­u­a­tions where the “con­sent” is induced by brain­wash­ing and/or social or eco­nomic pres­sures, and hence isn’t fully con­sen­sual). A few S/M purists will insist that you aren’t really a slave unless you’re will­ing to do absolutely *any­thing* for your Mistress/ Mas­ter, with no lim­its at all. There are a few who claim to be no-limits slaves, but in all cases it would be rea­son­able to doubt the claim.

copy­right 1984, 1988 by Mis­tress Diane Vera as reprinted in

Pat Cal­i­fia, ed. The Les­bian S/M Safety Man­ual (Boston: Lace / Alyson) pp. 69–71

www.westom.com/leather � 1997–2003 by Offi­cer Wes