Functional Dynamics
July 2, 2010
At first I thought there two kinds of ‘female led’ relationship but then I realized it was because I had picked only two variables and ignored the spectrum between them. (See here and 1, 2, 3 and also here.) However, my mental space seems to have grown fond of these usual love symbol suspects, often thinking of them in an abstract short hand manner:
submission is to force
(demanded, enforced, semi-sadomasochistic obedience & power dynamic)
as
uxory is to passion
(free chosen, optional, semi-traditional free will & love dynamic)
But of course despite my efforts to nail them down better, this large scale grouping of tendencies is only functionally accurate so long as they remain inadequate, amorphous abstractions – there’s a large dose of useless inapplicability here.
And of course, useless for one purpose is helpful for another – for in realizing there are so many options, combinations and points in a spectrum as only these two ideas alone afford (and also in reading a recent forum thread) has made me ever more certain that which set of symbols and which kind of dynamic a couple negotiates for use in their relationship is less important than whether those symbols are adequately emotionally functional for both of them.
