Using slaves as furniture

10.38. - Slaves shall not be used as furniture

An odalisque shall not be used as an item of furniture or made to serve the functions of furniture.

Slave play is intrinsically about objectification. The slave is treated as an object. The slave is depersonalized and reduced to the status of an object. In the case of an odalisque, the slave is reduced to a sex object, a toy to be used and enjoyed in sexual fantasy.

There are some limits to this, however. One of them is that the articles of Code d’ Odalisque prevent an odalisque being used as an item of furniture. It is not uncommon in BDSM slave play for a submissive to be used as furniture. For example, the slave will be made to kneel on all fours and have his or her back used as a coffee table. Or the slave will act as a foot stool for his or her Master. This is a form of Dom/sub slave play.

Code d’ Ode, however, prohibits using an odalisque in this way. A memlook – a low slave – can be used as furniture, but not an odalisque. An odalisque is above being used in this way. It is too much like making her work. An odalisque does not work. She is spared from toil and used for her beauty and her sex. She can be used as an ornament. She can be used such that her naked form decorates the life of her Keeper, but she cannot be used as furniture.

To use an odalisque as furniture is to treat her as a memlook, which is an insult to her status and the institution of odalisque. This prohibition is about the distinction between odalisque and memlook. A memlook - a common work slave - can be used as furniture, but an odalisque is saved for a more noble purpose (sexual debauchery).