Let's just agree that there are no rules. What ever works for the people involved is great. I've had slaves for 14 years now. I may not have been the best Master with every slave but I did pick up a few skills. One of those was to read a slave, to see if she's enjoying herself. I don't need a safeword any longer. There was times I needed it, but at that time I didn't know I did. Which sucks. My point is that I think we should be careful condemning anybody who don't follow the golden rules of BDSM.

If you do have a safeword with your slave and she uses it, and you don't respect it...then...well. Then it isn't a safeword. Safewords are symbols. We can load symbols up with anything we please. Safewords that aren't respected are just wind blowing. If your slave says the safeword and you don't respect it, I'd say you've spent any trust you might have built up. And if the slave sticks around in spite of this, she's just really foolish. About as foolish a Master might be who ignores spoken safewords.