Shallow?

In a forum post a while ago a woman berated Code d' Odalisque in these terms. She said:

'Why use a [slave]... just for sexual kicks. What sort of man wants nothing but sex in life? Here is a complex, creative creature and you can only appreciate her on one level. How shallow...!' 

This involves a misunderstanding. Gentlemen who own odalisques do not "want nothing but sex in life." And no one ever said they do. All they want from an odalisque is sex - broadly defined, and including the visual enjoyment of her beauty, etc. - but it is not all they want from life.

Far from it. Slavekeepers are typically gentlemen who have lived and are living rich, full lives. They are successful men. A man purchases himself an odalisque in order to add an extra dimension to his life, to explore a particular aspect of life in depth, as an indulgence, and so he is looking to expand and enhance his experiences; he is looking to enrich and broaden his life. This doesn't mean that sex is the only thing he values. But he does value sex, and he is investing in an odalisque in order to enjoy sex to the full.

This doesn't prevent him from seeking other types of fulfilment in marriage or romance at other times of his life. But a man who takes an odalisque has decided to spend a portion of his life in the dedicated pursuit of sexual pleasure. He knows that this is not what having a wife or a girlfriend is all about. They are complex relationships about emotional needs, companionship and other important things. They are not primarily about sex. An odalisque is. She is a slave who is kept just to be used for sex. She is a specialist.

The same is true of prostitutes. A man goes to a prostitute for sex, not for a meaningful relationship. He seeks meaningfulness and emotional satisfaction elsewhere, but sometimes a man just wants sex - so he visits a brothel. If a man "just wants sex" on an extended, regular basis, purchasing an odalisque, as an adornment to his life, is a good option.

And isn't it true in any walk of life that when people are put to certain specialised tasks, we "only appreciate them on one level." When the plumber comes to fix my shower, he may well be a "complex, creative creature" but I am only interested in his abilities as a plumber. How shallow of me.

An important feature of odalisque slavery under the codifications of Code d' Odalisque is that the duration of the woman's service is necessarily finite. Sexual slavery is a specialised expression of submission, but we all realise that there are other things in life than sex. It is shallow to suppose otherwise. Life is big, broad and beautiful, in all its endless variety. There's food, art, nature, conversation, travel, spirituality, family. Much more than "just sex."

Slaves can only be odalisques for a maximum of six years, under the protocols of Code d' Odalisque. It is recommended that Slavekeepers keep slaves for a finite period too. There are other things in life that keeping a sex slave might prevent him from enjoying. The nature of odalisque slave play is that couples (a man and woman) decide to dedicate a period of their lives to deliberate hedonistic indulgence in the form of a Master/slave relationship. He is the Slavekeeper. She is the compliant sexual servant. He keeps her and uses her to explore sexual (phallic) pleasure. This quest can and should be intense. For how long? One month? Three months? A year? Two? Five?

This is negotiated, but in any case it should be regarded as an adventure. Eventually, adventures end. These days, anyway, people want much more from life. People live longer and their lives go through more phases. Odalisque slave play - intense, occluded phallic exploration with a willing slave - is a lovely phase to add to one's life, but most people want more. Slavekeepers - gentlemen - want to appreciate certain people as "complex, creative creatures"; their friends, parents, wives, lovers. But that's not what an odalisque, any more than a plumber, is for.

As it happens, we are acquainted with a lady who lived the odalisque lifestyle for eight months. Now she has a young daughter and is a doting mother for whom her wild days as odalisque seem centuries ago but she still regards it as an enriching experience (for a fem sub like her) at the time. We also know a gentleman who enjoyed keeping a woman as an odalisque for a while but then decided that he now needed more; he'd had enough sex, now he wanted companionship. People balance different roles and transitions in life. This is good.

The other thing this critic has overlooked is that, included under the broad category of "sex", an odalisque is to be cultured and refined by her training and experience. She's an object, but there are different orders of object. She's not a dead lump of meat. Its not "just sex." Code d' Ode is also about refinement, as the context for the sex. We are well aware that hedonism can be both shallow and ugly. It is important that the brute libidinous sexuality that odalisque slavery celebrates is kept in a civilised frame of refinement.