I've just begun looking at how to get my currently 4 year old son into boy scouts and had a long discussion with my ex-husband about his homophobia and the scout troops. This brought up quite a train of thought for me. Despite the fact that this man married me and lived with me for three years and fathered my two children, he seems to constantly overlook the fact that I'm bisexual and polyamorous. I'm not even mentioning the fact that I'm kinky on top of all that. It's not like I ever hid any of that from him and at one time he led me to believe that he found this aspect of my being something desirable. It’s this extreme contrast between persons inexplicably terrified of opening their minds and hearts and those that have, even if slowly and privately, embraced all the possibilities that being truly yourself can offer that is causing such conflict.
Being bisexual and living in the southern United States is a scary thing, especially when you have children. Being polyamorous and living in the southern United States on top of that can be downright terrifying.
In my experience, being forced to accept that you will never be accepted by your family, by many of your friends, and also by your surrounding community really screws with one’s perception of themselves. If I was totally open about my relationship preferences, some of the consequences I would face might include losing my children, or at the very least a custody battle. My ex-husband, being the homophobic paranoid man that he his, has threatened repeatedly to attempt to take custody of our children because my preferences are not “right” and that my influence on the kids might cause them to be gay or bi or “deviant” should I act on the desires that my preferences engender. Losing my job. I work for a Baptist church that I’ve attended since I was 7 or 8 years old… I think this one is fairly self explanatory, but it also falls into being rejected by my community. My parents and the rest of my family would also likely reject me, despite the fact that I have two cousins who are openly gay. Being bisexual and polyamorous is a whole different matter. That’s just being “shameful and greedy.” (a direct quote from one of those cousins).
The strides being made to open groups like the boy scouts to gay members and, hopefully... eventually, gay leaders give me hope that maybe, one day, at least my children won’t have to feel so oppressed. Maybe my struggles with accepting myself, despite the lack of acceptance from others in my life, will help them to see that a person is a person is a person, no matter the color of their skin, their age, their sex, their gender, their sexual preference or how many people they can honestly tell “I love you.”
Very often the stereotype of submission is that the submissive person loses the ability to have an opinion. While that clearly isn’t true except in the absolute rarest of occasions, how does communication factor into your submission and how do you communicate your desires and needs?
When I have an opinion, I state it. Otherwise, I’ve always had difficulty making decisions. I prefer for the choices to be made for me, if I have an issue with the choice that is made, then I will make it known… Right now, not always in the most respectful manner, but I’m getting better with that.
E and I have both noted that communication seems to just come so easily with us. It’s easy for me to be utterly me with him and I would hope the same is true of him with me. It’s easier for me to let him know what I want and need but so often I don’t need to… So very often it’s instinctive.
So, communication, for us, isn’t always verbal, or if it is, it isn’t always lingual, but it seems to get the point across wonderfully. Without it, we wouldn’t be what we are.
How socially connected is your submission? Do you look for others to talk to about your submission for support or networking? Do you go to events or connect through another sort of social grouping either in person or online?
It varies. There are some that I seek out to talk to when I need another point of view. I love Fetlife for its connectedness and its interest groups. I am a member of a couple of ‘kink’ groups in my area, if that’s what you want to call them. But I rarely get to attend events thanks to my family and my ‘nilla obligations.
I’m not a super social person, and that follows through with my submission. I’m a homebody, I tend to want to stay at home and have others come to me… That being said, I have no qualms about having a damn good dinner or other form of get together at what I consider my home (where E lives.. where I live right now is just a house, not my home, but that’s another post) but I’m infinitely more comfortable in familiar surroundings with familiar expectations than I am going somewhere where I don’t know where anything is, have to ask what’s where and what I can or can’t use, and all that… with people I don’t know and well… I’m much more comfortable at home. Lol
I stick closer to my “happy place” at E’s knee when I’m not comfortable with my surroundings. Granted, I’m there whenever I can be anyway, but it’s more needed rather than wanted when I am not at ease. The first time I went to an event for The Red Chair, I had a panic attack in the car before going in. I’d fought it the entire way there, and when I put the car in park I just broke down. I wasn’t with E then in any form… I don’t remember if I’d even met him at that point, but I had some other friends that were supposed to be there a few minutes later. If it hadn’t been for them and my Xanax I would never have made it out of my car that night.
I’m very grateful that I did, as I love my TRC family, even if I don’t get to see them very often, but I’m still stepping outside of my comfort zone with every event I attend. It’s a process and it’s getting better, but, suffice it to say, my submission is vaguely socially connected when it can be.
