Petra Steele 2018
Mistress Petra Steele was kind enough to join Head Journaliste Blue Ronsein in the Tea House Library for an interview on November 13, 2018.
What are the 2 or 3 things you like best about being a Mistress at Roissy Val d'Oise? Two things.....I share the responsibilities for organizing the Demoiselle initiations with Maitre Dom. I enjoy being part of this process as it allows me to get to know submisses and well as Dominants in our community and to work with them...The second may come under the heading of teaching or training but what I am referring to specificall are my mentoring and worksop facilitation.
Including the Story of O discussions? Oh yes very much so. I enjoy those and my Improv workshops very much. But it is also good to teach the standard required workshops as well. Again, they provide me with a great opportunity to meet memebers of the community and learn how they feel, think and take things in.
I am old enough here at Roissy to remember you as a sub. Talk about how you arrived here and why you switched? That is an oft asked question. I didn't "switch" so to speak, I am a Switch and was trained as such by my first Master too many moons ago to disclose *smiles.* When I first learned of Roissy there was no program for Switches nor for Dominant women so i decided, because something drew me here so strongly and I wanted to somehow be a part of it, I decided to enter the submissive Path....I was Initiated and earned the title of Demoiselle but left shortly thereafter as my hopes of feeliing like a part of the community didn't materialize to my satisfaction and much to my disappointment. I went to other BDSM sims but found none to equal the quality and, well, class of Roissy...and of course while I was gone the Dominant Path had been opened to females. When I learned of this I decided this was for me and applied. I think this path is a much better fit for me and I have felt none of the feelings of not belonging here that I did as a submissive... Maybe I'm just getting bossier with age.
*Laughing,* okay next question: We have so many cool places here on the sim to hang out. What are your favorite buildings or locations -- and why? Hmmm hard question somehow....I think I love the classroom best of all. I love how it feels when all are assembled there, so rich and alive, buzzing with vitality and everyone's veiws and takes on things. I love the old dungeon for much the same reason as we often assemble there as a group -- and the theater of course. *smiles*
Without probing into your privacy, tell us what you can about your hobbies, work, activities, or passions. Well as you may know, I am a retired psychoanalyst, and I have to say I don't miss doing that worrk as i did it for decades, and it was very demanding. But I still retaiin a passion for understanding and lerning about the human psyche ... specificially, at present, I am compelled to learn more about how this medium affects how we relate to one another; indeed how it is changing how we relate and what we place importance on in relationships. Athletically I have been a distance swimmer and I still love to swim but not for as long as I used to. I have a great passion for all the arits and in SL. That has lead me to owning venues for live music. Finally I am pasionate about beautiy in all its forms. I do believe I need it as much as I need air smiles
Truth is beauty, too... as the Grecian urn says. Indeed it is *smiles*
How is it being a Mistress in what Maitre René and Pauline Reagé both envision as a maledom? Well first let me say again that I feel like I have my place here ... but that by no means implies that it is perfect. I find for the most part that I am accepted and respected as a Dominant but there are some annoying excetions. I find that many of the girls don't feel they need to offer service ( I am not speaking of sexual service) or even feel they need to greet me as they do the male Dominant stanidiing next to me. I bristle at that, not so much from the feminist in me, but because it's bad manners, and I deplore bad manners. Also there are restrictions on us dancing withh male Dominants which I find infantalizing and unnecessary.
I noticed that "Valet Pierre" is one of the "roles" listed in our group. Should we -- in your opinion-- do anything else to be closer to the original "Story of O" book? Example-- the role of the Valet. Well, you have probably heard me assert that content based rp would be a good thing to engage in -- The story is the hub of all we do and why we are here, however different or updated or safer it is. We stand to gain a lot from delving into the origiinal narrative and including such characters as Pierre and Jacquilen, Natalie, and Anne Marie in our rp.
Have you ever pushed a sub to the point of Yellow or Red? Tell us about that. No, outside of a scene to do so for my Mistress log, I have not and don't plan to. I gain no pleasure in takiing control of a girl to the point that our play becomes unpleasant to her. That is not to say that I don't try to help or train a girl to reach whatever goals or potentials she desires for herself, but my acitivity, or rahter the magnitude and severity of it, will depend on her tolerance and her history.
Helping with Admin duties in initiations, you must get questions and suggestions every day. What are the most interesting ones? *laughing* I mostly hear complaints about not running them when they are easily convenient for the Dominants to attend. I have even been accused of holding some back from earning their logs because they have not been able to gain the role they need due to time constraints -- which is untrue and ridiculous.
But do you ever hear any constructive ideas or way to improve initiations? I hear many ideas but frankly, to date, none that I feel would be signigicant improvements. But I don't make those decisions. Let's just say that what I have worked on to improve based on feedback from submissives, is to make the pre-initation process more thorough by screening for current or past history of such issues as trauma and the ensuing disorders such as PTSD, dissociative disorder, major depression and bipollar disorder. I think that has been the most important change I have seen affected by feedback I've gotten. Also I we have done our best to respond to the complaint that they are too long, and I do believe we've improved on that as well.
I agree. Well, its a ritual and as a Jungian I'm kind of big on ritual. *smiles*
Finally, in your experience, what can Roissy do better, to keep and inspire its best people? I think steps are being taken to bring member closer together as in the addition of many more discussions on the schedule as well as many more members creating and presenting their own speciality workshops. It is my firm and abiding believe that in all areas of life and in the bdsm lifestyle in particular, self awareness and the capacity to have compassion for another's inner life are most important and i think that the more opportunities we have to interact and disclose something of ourselve to one another is what creates greater cohesion and sattisfacton in the group.
You are truly a gem here at VdO. I'm so glad you're here, Thanks for your time, Mistress. Thank you Blue that was delightful. I very much enjoyed it. *smiles*
