O&P threads on Possession

Posted by Tanos on Thu 5 Nov 09, 10:34 PM

Tags: o_and_p

This week I've started threads about Possession itself on the O&P groups on Informed Consent, on The Slave Register, and on Fetlife.

For reference, here is the first post of those threads:

Tanos wrote:
Possession is the only really new concept in the O&P Manifesto, and approximately represents the "D/s" half of O&P.
"O&P" itself is partly intended as a single name that includes almost all M/s and many D/s relationships. A name like "M/s+D/s" for this would be both clumsy and inaccurate, since some D/s takes the form of things like roleplay. There's also the issue of people using the name "D/s" to mean the whole of BDSM, which further confuses discussions about these subjects.
What kind of D/s is "possession" talking about? It's helpful to read it as "being in possession of" rather than "a possession", since it's not meant to be another word for "property" or "slave". Fundamentally it's about the dominant being in control and the submissive being there for the dominant's purposes.
One useful analogy is with renting a house. You sign for the keys and then you are in possession of the house. You don't own it, but it's yours to do with as you please within reason while you have the keys. You can certainly rearrange the furniture and have parties whenever you want in a way you can't do in a hotel. Even if you have to behave responsibly or lose possession of the house (eg because it burns down), the house is fundamentally there for you and not vice versa.
One of the aims in spelling all this out with O&P is to create a space within D/s where it is ok to say that these dominants and submissives are not equals. That these dominants are the superiors of their submissives, just as an employer is their servant's superior. These ideas are commonplace in M/s - the Ownership half of O&P if you like - but less so in much of D/s and BD/SM. "Possession" is a deliberately asymmetric word with which to signpost spaces and relationships where these attitudes are ok in D/s too.

Edited Fri 6 Nov 09, 12:24 PM by Tanos

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