Power

Have you ever wondered why so many people have fantasies of domination? Men and women both... You know: the busty, commanding, leather-clad dominatrix. The dark, mysterious, out-of-control rapist. Little else gets so many people, so many kinds of people, going. It would seem to go against everything we were ever taught about humanity—our instinct is to seek freedom, our very nature is to fight for independence, and yet in our private minds we can only think of it all being taken away. Violence isn’t always a factor, but elements of it are: hickies mark one’s territory, nails and teeth force us to give in to pain, a truly passionate embrace leaves you so tangled up you couldn’t possibly move, even if you wanted to…

I have a friend heavily involved in the BDSM community. I once asked her how she could justify being a staunch loud-and-proud feminist and, at the same time, a submissive partner. She told me that the dynamic in the submissive-dominant relationship is, in reality, the complete opposite of popular belief. The dom may be acting like he or she has the power—leather whips, silver spikes, brute force—but it’s just that: acting. The sub, she said with a wink, now that’s where the real power lies. You see, she smiled, we whimper, we look up in fear, we say “yes, master” and we do as they say—but the instant that safety word of ours comes out of my mouth, all play stops. No ifs, ands, or buts. No nonsense. Everything stops. Nothing the dom can say or do can change that. It’s done. And, in the end, isn’t the ultimate power—not just in lovemaking, or sex, or fucking, or whatever you call it, but in everything—
                    isn’t the ultimate power the ability to make
                                                                                                    time
                                                                                                                   stop?

And I realized—the transfer of power, the surrender of free will, the desire to suspend all that bare instinct commands us to work for, it’s really just a ploy to gain more power. We humans strive for and thrive on power, and those who think enough to realize it can play with it like a child’s toy, twist it around so far until it comes full circle.

And here I thought that maybe, just maybe, on some minute hidden level, we weren’t all power-hungry monsters. But really, I’m just as silly as the rest of us.

This must be why religion works. We submit to a higher power, we bow in awe and tremble in fear, but as soon as we say “no,” that’s it. No more play. Life just… goes on. Like kinetic energy, the choice to submit is kinetic power: we have the potential power to say no.
                    We have the potential power to make it all
                                                                                                    go
                                                                                                                   away.

Info:
Editing status: unedited
Composed: 11 February 2007
Submissions: None
Inspiration: Unsure. It just... came to me.