Masters, Mistresses, and slaves
What Is A Master/Mistress?
In an M/s BDSM dynamic, a Master or Mistress is the Dominant partner. The term Master can also be an honorary title in the Leather kink community for someone who has achieved mastery over a particular skill.
The term Master has two common uses in the kink subculture. In the first case, Masters tend to be focused primarily on training and ownership of their “property”, the slave. It’s common for M/s dynamics to be focused around 24/7 total power exchange (TPE), where the dynamic is always at play. The female counterpart to the Master is the Mistress, or female dominant.
A Master within the Leather community isn’t tied to a power dynamic, though it can be. Many Leather communities celebrate the longevity of skill or service through the presentation of “Leathers” or “Covers,” where a member receives the title of Master. Representation of other genders as Masters has been slowly on the rise - such as with the International Ms Leather competition - but by and large the male honorific continues to be the dominant narrative (no pun intended).
What Is A Slave?
A slave is the submissive partner within a Master/slave or Mistress/slave dynamic.
Types of activities that slaves perform include acts of service, such as ensuring their Master/Mistress has a clean house and cooked meal upon returning home, becoming adept at cigar service, or acting as human furniture to name just a few.
Slaves may also be interested in being “trained” to suit their Master’s needs, and in some stricter cases may not be seen as a person at all by their Master/Mistress. In fact, some slaves will refer to themselves in third person to emphasize the power their Master/Mistress has in the dynamic. For example, instead of saying, “I’m happy” or “I had a good time last night”, a slave might say, “Slave is happy” or “Slave enjoyed last night”.
Slaves are diverse, and the degree of control they offer a Master/Mistress is completely up to them. Whilst it may appear they are losing their autonomy, many slaves continue a “vanilla” life outside of their dynamic.
If you’re looking to interact with an owned slave, approach them respectfully, and be considerate that they may have an established dynamic that requests you reach out via their Master or Mistress first.
Misconceptions of M/s BDSM Dynamics
As with all power dynamics, M/s is grounded in consent. A slave is free to leave their Master/Mistress when or if they no longer wish to be in the dynamic and vice-versa.
This is important to remember, as some predators in the kink world will use a slave’s inexperience to their advantage, insisting that the slave has no right to stop the dynamic or to leave the relationship. This is not true.
As M/s dynamics are commonly associated with 24/7 TPE, anyone who is predisposed to codependency should keep an eye out for symptoms or behaviours that may come about as a result of this relationship style.
Likewise, the mental aspects of power dynamics - especially where training is concerned - should be approached with caution, as deprogramming is just as crucial to the wellbeing of the s-type as the initial fun of programming was. Broken dynamics are difficult to heal from, but the mental aspects can and do make the healing process even more complex
Lastly, if either of these roles speaks to you, remember that there’s no steadfast rules around what a Master/Mistress or slave can or can’t be. As with every BDSM and kink role, these can be jumping-off points for exploration of all your kinks.
