A slave is someone who defines their pleasure through pleasing their master.

It would be hard to find a submissive who would say they were not a slave, in this context.


if not rules that a competent Dom should follow? How is a submissive to expect that she will be treated fairly, be kept safe while giving up power through trust, if her Dom's principles are not a hard and fast set of rules to which he holds himself accountable, and is held to account by his peers as well?

That I agree with. But... there are two checks. One is the submissive, who ALWAYS has a choice about who to enter into a relationship with. One is the dominant, who (we all must hope) is not a worm.

The rest of us... Unless we are actually speaking of developing a system of vigilantism, all we can do is try to set a better example. (Which is all this board is, in the first place.)