Quote Originally Posted by Eraser
The concept that the submissive retains the ‘power’ of the relationship after she gives it is like saying a person joining the military has the power over there commander because they have the right to exit the service.
Kudos on that analogy, Eraser, i like it very much and it's extremely thought provoking.

i'm not sure about this though...

Quote Originally Posted by Eraser
The concept that power is retained by the person giving it up is a contradiction in and of itself.
Whilst agreeing, surely if the person could take the power back, at any given time (with a safeword or whatever) then it remains with them....hmmm, but *thinks* (i'm thinking aloud here, feel free to ignore me), at the same time, i DO see what you mean when you say it's a complete contradiction to say the power is retained by the person giving it...*ponders*. i think the final conclusion, to me personally, and based on what i said much earlier on in this thread, is that the submissive is giving the dominant a huge element of autonomy and trust....in doing so, he/she is inherantly transferring a lot of 'ground level' power in terms of what the dominant can do with him/her on a physical and mental level...but some underlying power to continue giving up that power must logically lie with the submissive.

sl