Bobkgin
Posts: 1335
Joined: 7/28/2007 From: Kawarthas, Ontario, Canada Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: hisannabelle greetings bobgkin, while your arguments have merit to some extent, exactly how are they applicable to bdsm? there are certain socially recognized areas in which one has to possess certain qualifications to be labeled a certain thing. there are other socially recognized areas in which some labels are applied incorrectly or haphazardly and that's encouraged and the problematics of it are ignored. there are other areas where self-labeling and social labeling coexist in certain ways. in general, most people's identities are a mix of the ways in which they have internalized or reacted to social labeling, and the labels which they have chosen to apply to themselves. labels are fluid and dynamic things, and the ways in which human beings apply them (to self and to each other) are also fluid and dynamic, and very much depend on all sorts of variables that are usually in flux, such as social convention, law, commonly accepted definitions, personal experiences, etc. so while i think your argument has some merit in regards, to, say, labeling someone (or self-labeling) as a pediatrician, let's face it...labeling in bdsm (for the most part) is much more relaxed and not contingent on a certain set of qualifications. i personally find equating the two to be somewhat ignorant of context and of what it means to label people, to have an identity, or to belong to a particular profession or hobby (to say the least). respectfully, annabelle. Annabelle, the point I am making is that without commonly-shared definitions, there is no clarity and thus no communication. We use labels for ourselves despite the fact there is no commonly-shared definition. Yet, for some reason, we assume that when we say "slave" or "master" everyone will know what we are talking about. This is a recipe for misunderstandings and miscommunication. I agree that words like "doctor" and "pediatrician" (not to mention all the examples I've cited) have social sigificance and should not be re-defined at whim. But this is true of any word used in public discourse, including discussions in a BDSM forum. If the purpose of communication is to be understood, does it make sense to inject words that have been re-defined to suit the whimsy of the speaker? Who else will know of the unique definition assigned by the speaker, unless the speaker defines such words using other words with commonly-understood definitions? Yet we never see these explanation when people speak of "slave" or "master". It is assumed by the speaker that everyone will implicitly understand the speaker's unique definition for these words. And if the meaning of words like "slave" and "master" are subject to personal whimsy in public discourse, why not other words like "honest", "trustworthy", or "disease-free"? Once you accept the concept that anyone can redefine labels to suit their personal whimsy, you open up the door for people to redefine -any- label to suit themselves. By accepting that personal whimsy should be used to define words when speaking to others, you are justifying the arguments that permit people to turn "deceitful" into "honest", and "AIDs-infected" into "disease-free". This is why I reject that sort of reasoning. The demands of communication do not change, even for BDSM. Communication still requires commonly-understood definitions for the words used in order for communication to occur. It is widely (almost universally) accepted that words like "slave" and "master" have no commonly-understood definitions. Thus, any use of these words instantly translates into misunderstanding and mis-communication. Consider how that impacts any BDSM discussion using those words.
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When all is said and done, what will you regret? That you never really lived? Or there was so much living left to do? For those interested: pics and poetry have been added to my profile.
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