House Natasha

Alright, I’ve wanted to write about this for some time now, but what’s the point of writing about something when you don’t have an outlet? Now, I’ve got this blog and I intend to use it to my best ability. I’ve also got part of a lunch hour, so let’s see how much I can actually accomplish :)

In SL as in RL, submissives refer to their Dominants by various titles such as Master, Mistress, Lord, Lady, and others. While it’s not my place to dictate anything, I see very often in SL people referring to their Dom/me in a sloppy manner, and it really irks me. Obviously SL is a bit different from RL. True, there are many forms of communication available in RL, from phone calls and email to actual face to face meetings. For the most part, in SL communication is primarily text based.

Now, I don’t want to sound like I’m picking on people with poor spelling or grammar, or who aren’t native speakers of a language, as truly that’s not my intent. I don’t know any other languages, so all I can speak about is what I’ve witnessed in English. I’m also not the best at grammar always, or even spelling.

Back to what irks me, and what I mean by referring to a Dom/me in a sloppy manner. When one refers to their Dominant as “miss so-and-so”, or as “Master so and so.” Does anyone spot the problem? Perhaps it’s only me but I sincerely think that one should always make sure and capitalize the title and name of their Dominant. Here’s my reasoning: it’s not that hard, and it’s little things like that which serve to show a level of respect one has for their Dominant. In face to face or verbal communication, one can understand things from body language, and inflections of voice. A Dominant can hear the love and respect their subs have for them. That’s a bit more difficult to convey at times in SL.

Along similar lines I’d also like to talk about respect for ones Dominant. Different Dominants choose to use different titles for reasons that suit them best. It’s not our place to question these titles, but if we respect the Dominant, then we must respect and honor the title as well. It really doesn’t matter if the title is something completely outlandish or not. In all honesty, I’ve not seen any title such as the one I’m about to speak of. It’s simply an example that I chose in my effort to convey my point. If a Dominant picks a title such as “Beat My Ass With A Paddle,” that title deserves the same respect as any other because it is what the Dominant has chosen and decided their subs would refer to them by.

A title is not just a word. It is an idea and it is important. When you speak or type that word in reference to your Dominant, honor them by feeling that idea inside. As I said before, in-person communication doesn’t suffer some of the problems that written forms do. If you referred to your Dominant with a sarcastic tone in RL, believe me they’d get that. If you said the same thing via text, it might not come across the same.

So, now tying these two ideas together and summarizing, written forms of communication can take more effort to convey the same level of detail as verbal in-person communication. When referring to your Dominant in SL, take the time to honor them by feeling their title inside and by using some capitalization.

As a bit of a possible example, when I refer to Lady Natasha I say “my Lady.” She’s never explicitly told me which portions of that should be capitalized, or what I should think of when I use that reference. I do not capitalize “my” and I do not because I am submissive to Her. The lowercase nature of “my” followed by the capitalized “Lady” serves to demonstrate Her dominance over me. At least that’s what I understand and feel on one level when I use that reference.