Becoming A Slave by Jack Rinella Page B

this intentional y as that al ows me to add variety to my writing. Otherwise if I consistently used the same terms over and over again, I’d be damned for being too repetitious.

    In truth, these terms have more in common than separate them, though one can find clear lines of separation, as between Gay Leather men and Pansexual munch attendees.29 I wil try to define 29
    A munch is a public meeting of kinky folks, usually held at a restaurant as a safe way for on-line people to meet. The munches are a place to find play partners, learn about groups, and become part of a real-time and place community. Pansexual means open to all 3

    terms that seem to need definition, though I admit that is a value call on my part.

    Words as simple as master and slave confuse the discussion.
    After al , slavery, at least the pre-Civil War kind, is il egal nearly across the planet. What, then, is a slave? The words are found in our literature, our seminars, our classifieds, our films, and our emails ad nauseam .

    Experience has shown that few are slaves, even fewer masters, if we but look at the words as found in a dictionary.30 Rather than lump all dominants into a nice neat pile of masters and al submissives as slaves (and many are not) we had best see the terms modified by adjectives such as wannabe, trainee, applicant, apprenticed, or actual.

    The reason I modify the word slave is simple. Used alone, it defines a person who is in a relationship. Just as husband and wife are terms used for those who are actual y married so too does slave reflect a living relationship that is being lived in the current time. Wannabe husbands and wannabe wives are cal ed fiancés and fiancées; they may be engaged but they are not yet wed. Even on the day of their marriage, we name them bride and groom. Only after the official pronouncement is made are they husband and wife. Likewise divorced or widowed spouses are no longer cal ed husband or wife.

    I know that many of my readers wil protest my limited qualification of who is a slave. They real y believe they are slaves even though they haven’t found a master to serve. Stil I stand my ground on this issue.
    Be a slave applicant or a slave trainee or say you want to be a slave.
    The title slave wil be much more meaningful and real if you wait and use it when it’s truly appropriate.

    Let me take each combination of words individual y.
    Wannabes

    Though the word wannabe has certain unfavorable connotations,31
    we can simply say that a person with no connection to a master but who is considering slavery as a life option is a wannabe slave. For them slavery is an unrealized idea that reflects a potential. We al begin as wannabes, since wanting to be is the beginning of the process. It is first desire that leads us to explore slavery, eventual y leading us to become trainees, apprentices, applicants, and, hopeful y, slaves.
    genders and orientations. Gay Leathermen, on the other hand, generally meet in bars, at club functions or on line.
    30
    I use the dictionary in order to give some understanding to our use and misuse of terms. If, as is often the case, we each use the same word when it means different things to each person in the conversation, we have a serious communication problem.
    31
    I would prefer to use a different term, since wannabe has a somewhat negative connotation, but I can’t for the life of me come up with a better one. In fact the word is only a variation of “wants to be,” and there is nothing wrong with that.
    4

    Trainees

    So I choose to cal those studying or working with a mentor or potential partner a slave trainee. Trainees are those learning from a mentor, a person who is simply a casual teacher, or one who is preparing the other to enter into a relationship with them. Apprentices are similar, of course, but I would say that an apprentice is learning from one in order to be in a relationship with someone else. Thus one master may agree to take on another who wants to be