Why the Hermione and Ron marriage would work - Feminism and asymmetric relationships

Champion/Commander - a perfect pairing!

(NSFW If you've wandered in here from google, be warned that this blog is mostly about kinky sex and Femdom.) 

So JK Rowling - a woman who married a younger, less famous man who we hope supports her career! - regrets pairing Hermione and Ron.

A proportion of fandom agrees with her: Harry and Hermione should have been together.

This is just plain wrong. Stable relationships don't tend to work like that.

(And there's a Feminist angle on this too, but we'll get to that.)

The only reason we can't readily see this is because Ginny Weasley doesn't get much screen - or page - time, so Harry Potter's romantic conclusion is a bit of a blank.

What would a Harry/Hermione marriage be be like? 

H: "How was your day, honey?"

H: "I did important stuff and now feel drained and grumpy."

H: "Me too."

H: "How are the kids?"

H: "I haven't seen them yet. I've been too busy."

H: "Me too. What were there names?"

H: "So shall we just brood separately this evening?"

H: "Sure."

A complete disaster!

"So shall we just brood
separately this evening?"

Ron on the other hand?

Ron Weasley is a pillar of strength and no wimp either. He's a regular hero, but he's a hero devoted to Hermione. Where she goes, he'll follow.

He'll also make her laugh, pop her serious bubble, and roughhouse with the kids. Where she has intellect, he has emotional intelligence.

Where she is sensible, he is playful.

Both are wise in their own way.

R: "How was your day, honey?"

H: "I did important stuff and now feel drained and grumpy."

R: "Well George and I came up with a new invisible delayed action fart bomb."

H: (Laughs) "How are the kids?"

R: "Making mud sculptures with their wands right now."

SFX: Sound of magic making mud splattering. Children giggle.

H: "I'll change then go take a look."

R: "So Friday night. Shall we go dancing?"

H: "Um. I'm tired but....(grins)... what the hell, you only live once."

How can they not be the perfect match?

...in the bedroom it can come
out as dominance and submission,
though it need not.

Most people sit on a spectrum between what I call Commanders and Champions.

Neither is weak or worthless, one tends to take control and the other to support.

Once has the vision, the other refines and embraces it.

Both have their roles to play: every King Arthur needs his Sir Lancelot.

Harry and Hermione are clearly both Commanders, and Ron is pretty clearly a Champion.

And all the stable marriages I've observed are Commander/Champion pairings (though these are relative positions within the relationship, not absolute.)

In terms or respect and worth, and negotiating position, these are equal marriages. In terms of leadership, they are asymmetric, and that asymmetry can go in either direction.

And of course, in the bedroom it can come out as dominance and submission, though it need not.

Despite a century or so of Feminism, we're still not surprised by a relationship that revolves around the male partner.

...one tends to take control
and the other to support. 

Male Led Relationships are still a cultural default. Female Led Relationships - even though they've always been with us - are still not regarded as a conscious and mature choice for a powerful woman... "Oh look she picked a weaker man", as if strength had anything to do with it.

Imagine if the genders were flipped?

Serious, powerful Herman married playful but fiercely supportive red-haired Rona? 

It would make perfect sense. We'd even talk affectionately about, "...bubbly Rona who always brings Herman out of his shell".

So let's praise the Harry Potter stories for being able to depict male-female friendship, and for not having Harry and Hermione drift into a weird stormy on-off relationship based on mutual admiration rather than compatibility.

And let's ditch the sexism and accept that it's OK for a commanding woman like Hermione to pick a life partner who will revolve around her, making both their lives better.

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Learn how to how to walk the same Femdom path with your partner! 

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3 crap things people say about sexual submission

For all that a lot of male subs are crap, it's not helped by the crap that people say about sexual submission. Here are three memes that bug me:

Ultimately, nothing happens
without the dominant

1. The submissive is really the one in control

This is an old one.

It's guaranteed to be off-putting for young dominants - guess what, you're a service provider! - and a poor guide to behaviour for subs.

I'm guessing it has its origins in the early BDSM world of pro-dommes, where it still makes approximate sense. Otherwise, it feels like a wilfully... twee misreading of the situation, desperately trying to make sadomasochism into something nice and affirming.

Of course, the sub has - must have - the ability to pull the plug at any moment. However, a veto is not the same thing as control.

Ultimately, nothing happens without the dominant, and the minimum requirement for D/s is a pro-active dominant and a consenting sub.

2. A submissive is just a strong person looking for somebody stronger

A strong submissive nurturing their
more vulnerable dominant.

This one is so toxic it's hard to untangle!

It paints the submissive as a tragic figure whose strength masks weakness: Look, I'm so strong that my strength is a burden.... I've gone on so long... To me that feels vaguely passive aggressive.

However, its worst sin is that it conflates relative emotional strength with relationship dominance. 

This is misinformation.

It discounts the possibility of a strong submissive championing and nurturing their more vulnerable dominant. Its implied advice for emotionally strong submissives is about as useful as telling a tall woman to look for an even taller man. It also obscures the risk of being drawn into vanilla submission to a weaker but emotionally person. Finally, it paints the D/s relationship as vaguely paternal/maternal (how patronising and unattractive for many dominants ) and implies that a proper dominant must be strong all the time.

The truth is, dominance and submission are relationship orientations or preferences. If there is a correlation with relative emotional strength, it is only a weak one.

3. It takes strength to submit

 It takes strength not to submit.

No it doesn't. It takes strength not to submit.

OK, at first it takes strength to transgress gender roles and vanilla norms. And perhaps some submissive acts require emotional or physical bravery (though that line of argument seems disingenuous, since many of us enjoy being scared).

However, people with a strong submissive streak spend most of our lives submitting one way or another, while seeking out actual kinky dynamics.

We drift into orbiting other individuals, sometimes appropriately, often not. It's where devoted PAs and doormat spouses come from. It's what drives unrequited love and maintains the friend zone. Understanding and embracing erotic submission often comes as a relief since it actually provides a safer outlet for such urges.

If we don't have a dominant partner, we put vast effort into trying to find or make one, even surreptitiously through stealth submission.

Perhaps submission makes us stronger. Having our needs met plugs a chink in our armour. Weathering all sorts of BDSM experiences and coming out whole can make us feel social indestructible  - once you've licked cum off a boot, there's not much in the vanilla world that can truly embarrass us.

Even so, it really doesn't require strength to submit.

---

Learn how to how to walk the same Femdom path with your partner! 

GET THE "FOR HIM" MANUAL RIGHT NOW!
GET THE "FOR HER" MANUAL RIGHT NOW!

CLICK HERE to download my Femdom Erotica (all written while chaste!)

(For ebook format, 

Lulu or iTunes.)

Thoughts on Feminism and Femdom for International Women's Day

Vanilla culture treats dominant
women as alluring but daunting.

Dominant women are sexy in a primal way.

Vanilla culture treats dominant women as alluring but daunting, flames attracting orbiting moths.

Unfortunately, vanilla culture doesn't know what to do with dominant women.

...to be tamed, defeated, or shown
their place...

In movies, they still exist to be tamed, defeated, tragically slain, or shown their place... which is odd since the ending always destroys the very thing that the makes them sexy.

In Notting Hill, for example, Julie Roberts's movie star spends the story trying to submit to Hugh Grant's mild mannered bookseller. (Wouldn't it have been better if, at the end, she'd said: "You know the problem? I'm a Hollywood star. I really need a supportive wife." And he'd said, "OK. I can do that.")

...good for an onscreen tumble

These days, dominant women are good for an onscreen tumble, but - with honourable exceptions like Castle -  screenwriters have difficulty imagining what an actual (implicit) female led relationship would look like.

However, the nice thing about vanilla culture is that it treats a woman's dominance as an innate attribute, one that can be dialled up or down, but one that is still innate.

Ironically, BDSM culture, which does know what to do with dominant women, often seems to do everything it can to avoid admitting that the dominance is real.

No latex comfort blanket.

In much of BDSM culture (as it appears online), dominance is fetishwear mantle a woman can put on at the request of her lover. It's a performance that she can learn at workshops. Or it's the result of her ability to manipulate through sex.  Or it's a scripted simulation based on detailed negotiation.

That candle and moth scenario?

There's no flame. The moths are circling the sexy lampshade. Or, yes, they are circling a flame, but only because the moths are tied to a thread with just the right knots, or because the flame is flickering just right, or because it's in the script.

It's easy to see why. 

Femdom transgresses traditional gender roles. Put bluntly, she gets to be bad, he gets to be a wimp. It must often be psychologically - culturally! - easier on both parties to pretend the action is for his benefit, and that there is no real power exchange. 

It's a shame though. 

It would be nice if Femdom culture could lead the way: shed the latex comfort blanket and embrace the idea of a dominant woman being sexually dominant and still being herself, and that being OK. 

Fellow male subs. Let go! You have
nothing to lose but your
self entitlement...

Femdom isn't automatically feminist, or good for Feminism. However, as I've argued elsewhere, this kind of authentic or "hard" Femdom is empowering for the women involved - my wife would certainly tell you this if she weren't too busy being an executive - and also expands the range of culturally acceptable behaviour out in the vanilla world.

That doesn't mean that male hard submissives like me deserve a medal "for heroic self-sacrifice to the Feminist cause". Our reward is simply better, more intense, Femdom.

Fellow male subs. Let go! You have nothing to lose but your self entitlement...

---

Learn how to how to walk the same Femdom path with your partner! 

GET THE "FOR HIM" MANUAL RIGHT NOW!
GET THE "FOR HER" MANUAL RIGHT NOW!

CLICK HERE to download my Femdom Erotica (all written while chaste!)

(For ebook format, 

Lulu or iTunes.)