[HPforGrownups] BDSM - House Elves

[Sharon Hayes]

No: HPFGUIDX 181088


Kemper:
Slave: The bottom or sub (submissive) in a BDSM relationship.

For those of you only ever licking vanilla, there are another 30
flavors. BDSM stands for
Bondage/Discipline,Dominate/Submissive,Sado/Masochism.

In the BDSM community, there is what's known as a 'slave contract'.
The long and short of it is that the slave has veto power for certain
demands/commands of the master.

Unfortunately, the House Elves didn't think this up and so their
psychological need for being bound and submissive was abused by
unscrupulous masters.

House Elves are bottoms who need to be topped. They want to be bound
(collared) to a master. But not just any master, a master who is
compassionate. This is evident by Kreacher's reversal from HBP's
denial/refusal of Master Harry in the Dursley living room to DH's laud
of his Master as he led the charge of House Elf brigade.

House Elves are slaves, but they want to be slaves under safe and sane
conditions: kind of like, but exactly like, slaves in the BDSM
community.

Sharon:
It seems this topic won't die a natural death :-)  That's an interesting theory. Certainly house elves are willingly submissive, but is that becuase they've been socialised that way?  Would they be so willingly submissive if they were born free? Also there is no evidence that they get any sexual satisfaction from being submissive or being beaten, although it does appear they get SOME kind of satisfaction. So the parallel is clearly there, at least in some form. And a 'slave contract" would indeed seem to be what they would want, given that they always respond best to a compassionate master. Kreacher hated the trio until harry started to show some compassion and respect for him. Before that kreacher betrayed Sirius becuase Cissy was nice to him.  Dobby will do anything for Harry becuase Harry helped him get away from his abusive master. Etc., etc. So yes, I agree that House elves want to be submissive, to be collared to a master, but also treated with kindness. The fact that BDSM has sexual connotations, though, somehow makes me stop just short of agreeing completely to the comparison.

Sharon, who now has an alarming image of a house elf  with a studded collar, tied to a bedpost. Eek!
Thanks for that Kemper!