Curious about kink in pop culture I decided to watch the CSI : Crime Scene Investigations episodes featuring a ProDomme who calls herself Lady Heather.
In the second episode in which she appears, Lady Heather's Box, it is asserted three or four times that the submissive person is the one in control. A baldly naïve statement popular among trolls and outsiders who feel they've arrived at some major insight.
Naturally in consensual sadomasochistic play those of us on the bottom retain the right to set limits and halt acts that frighten us or are unendurable. It is simpleminded to say that being able to say stop is being in control. An employee may demur at performing some particular task but that doesn't make him or her the boss.
BDSM is better understood as a dance, team sport or choose your own metaphor for an endeavor whereby more than one person works to create pleasure and excitement. A shared conspiracy to subvert the ordinary.
Surely I speak for the majority of submissive men and women in saying that control is the last thing we want and will do our honorable best to accept the dominant's will. Nobody wants to use his or her safeword.
Like many beginners I shied away from even having a safeword before I was being selfish and doing Alexandra no favor.
Limits aren't about power but a regrettable bit of risk aware realism.