Thanks for your comments, TomOfSweden. I also don't think the idea of "man as boss, woman as servant" is particularly "natural" or necessitated by any real "need." Your observations seemed to me to be on the mark.

(I mean, how could we make sense of the widespread (one might even say "normal") existence of fantasies by men of being dominated by females? Why isn't this this just as natural or instinctive?)

Regarding something else you said, though, I'm not sure I'd say most people have a purely submissive nature. In my experience, everybody's got both, and everybody's got different attitudes towards their posession of each. Different outlets for the expression of each. We try to be masters in some contexts, slaves in others, and we do a weird sort of jumble of both in a lot of contexts. Well, anyway, I've discovered this is true of myself, and it makes sense of a lot of things I see.

Thanks again

(Lest others accuse me of "debating" in this post, to be clear, my intention here is simply to articulate my view. If it issues in a disagreement, discussion can ensue, or it can be forestalled. I'm happy either way. Articulation is what I'm after. It helps (me) work through perplexity.

mumei