Submissiveness

Submission

I saw and voted in the “submission” opinion poll a while back. And being what I consider submissive due to my Christian “And the meek shall inherit the earth” mantra still residing in my daily life. As a naturalist, I see this behavior in nature. Submission is all around us, especially in groups of apes/monkeys, (which happen to be our closest relatives in nature), but also in mating rituals in all degrees of behavior, in almost all of the creatures on earth. At first glance, the word submits seemed to lend its own definition to compassion, compliance, and organizational hierarchy. But as the research went on, submission is actually a functional part of everyday life. It is as important as water or air for even the most rudimentary functions such as procreation in almost all life on earth. It begs the question when we say or hear this word, “How are other people actually defining it”.

Religious (Spiritual)

If you drive a car, you submit to the other cars around you. If you walk in the city, you allow others to go before you, you may hold the door for others, or move to the side to let them by. Point is, submission is part of life in community with others or simply put, a physical act to become or remain productive. People who submit are humble people. Our world is brought into order through submission in this realm. Through humility.  It reflects on us as being good people.

Relationships

In the past, if the man was to be the head of the household, it was done in collaboration with his wife; to be clear, there is a difference between submitting and obeying, utilizing and incorporating her strengths for the benefit of all the family members. A marriage is a partnership, where both members operate from their strengths and defer to each other when necessary. Due to changing times and same-sex marriage, the proverbial line of authority/submission can get grey and perceived differently.

Sexually

In human sexuality, Service-oriented is a term used in the BDSM community to refer to a relationship dynamic where the focus is on how the submissive can contribute resources to the dominant partner and provide for some of their needs or advance their goals. Being Vanilla/Conventional sex/intimacy. According to Wikipedia, a vanilla relationship is intimate behavior that is within the range of normality for a culture or subculture, and typically involves intimacy that does not include elements of BDSM, kink, or fetishism. It allows for submission on both individuals. Respect begets respect. Want more respect in your intimate encounter? Give more of it, period. If a relationship is based on love, a choice must be part of it. If there is no choice, it’s manipulation. It’s controlling. There has to be a way out of the relationship for there to be any presence of love. If there’s no way out, there’s no love. But even in a one-night stand, there is almost always mutual respect or submission by both individuals.

Business Submission

A legal agreement to submit to the decision of arbitrators. An act of submitting something (for consideration or inspection) also, something submitted (such as a manuscript). The condition of being submissive, humble, or compliant. An act of submitting to the authority or control of another. In business, “I submit” means to yield, submit, capitulate, succumb, relent, defer, to give way to someone or something that one can no longer resist.

Socialistic Submission

I realize this all sounds a bit complicated.!! But in layman’s terms, if everyone in this world would, or could submit to the reasoning of either one another, or a group of individuals, it would be a very different world to live in. But we humans allow the status quo of society to perpetuate the building of our social status begetting a trade friendship for status and respect. It happens all of the time and is acknowledged as compliance of the leader, and/or obedience by the subordinates.

Peer pressure plays a large part in the submission process. If there were no bullies, we wouldn’t be forced to choose, and authority would be had by all, right? Wrong, submission has its place in our lives, but few take the time to observe the behavior of those in this process before joining in to become part of it. If they did, they’d know how to stop or detour any physical or psychological pain that seems to make up this status quo that most participate in. But by dissecting the hierarchy to discover weaknesses in the group, they often-times become the leader. Go figure.

We actually live our lives in the moral majority as many, and the strong-willed leaders are few. Why then do the masses allow this type of hierarchy? After all, the masses could easily overpower the few authoritative individuals. WHY?  Because it’s needed.!

Selective Submission

Could it be that it’s in our nature that we see it as an easier way to live while saving their own reputation? We all see positives and negatives in our own governmental hierarchy and yet we still vote for what we deem as “the best one” knowing well that the person has some flaws. Just less and more benign than the person that lost the vote in this process. We even submit to the winner even though it isn’t whom they/we voted for. We respect the larger crowds’ opinion and its win. If this sounds complicated, you’re correct in thinking this way because it’s where idealism and public rhetoric play their part in the process of everything mentioned above.  Even loaners that don’t vote for change have a hierarchy within themselves. But in my research for this article, I found that these individuals are often the ones setting themselves up for things to go downhill. Too much hierarchy and social status have caused the lower forms of submission to decline, causing tempers to flair, and people to snap. Being reclusive is different and seems to be a much more benign way to live this way. But where is the line drawn between the two?

Family/Friend Submission

This seems to be where most Transgender individuals have the most problem. To face their friends, siblings, children, or spouse with a truth they have deeply hidden from them. Many TG individuals assume that is will be a mistake and search endlessly to find their way to introduce this other person they never knew about when they started dating or becoming friends. This even applies to employers as well. They submit to stay in the shadows and be content to be “in the closet” until they are either caught or come out. The simple answer seems to simply become aggressive, take charge of who they are and go, right? “Wrong.” The dynamics of the transgender individual’s life are as diverse as grains of sand on a beach.

Children, friends, siblings, bosses, co-workers, even our favorite counter people at the various stores we frequent, play a part in this choice to define their future. We hope, and even assume they will submit to our choice, even though we all deceived them for years, even decades. It all comes down to either moving up in the hierarchy of your own life or staying put. Some use baby steps, some, (like me) got it over with in one day, even posting my intentions on Facebook. Your own submissiveness determines your choices to either contribute to or take away from your personal status.

Summary

The word “protagonist” was eventually coined, and the masses all followed the definition for decades until the internet opened up Pandora’s box, and we now have what we have. If we all just took the time to reason and submit our thoughts with an open ear for reasoning, this world would/could get back to the calm we once had. But control is as infectious as money. And this is why the two seem to go hand in hand. In short, greed, and vanity changes us, so we forget to be kind and considerate to one another. It affects the other types of submission we seem to require for harmony in mankind. To submit to others is part of our way of life. This perpetual decay is our future way of life if we don’t show a little kindness to the opinion of others.    “And the meek shall inherit the earth”

Huggz Tia

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