Chapter Three
Some General Issues
First Meeting
These days, many D/s relationships begin online. Developing a long-distance, online relationship is a bit like a Victorian courtship. You can write letters (email). You can talk (phone). You can even see the beloved (exchange photos, use webcams). But though online there is no chaperone, there might as well be, since you can’t touch. Eventually the dynamic of the relationship dictates that you plan a meeting. There may be lengthy D/s encounters online which never blossom into an actual face-to-face meeting, through sheer logistical difficulties. But I find it hard to envisage that a meeting is possible yet the couple prefers not to bring it about. I don’t see the net as a substitute for real life, merely a facilitator of it.
The eventual
