Yes!! Getting so sick of these performative posts by “doms” that are so clearly AI-generated and people in the comments eating it up like it’s so profound to them. I completely agree. I honestly was so glad to find /r/softmaledom because I was relieved to know that there was a dynamic for what I have always practiced, and it felt like finding my people, but then to see how much of it had nothing to do with the fundamentals of that dynamic kind of turned me off from it. A true dom doesn’t need to assert himself in this performative way for the approval of others. It’s a quiet power that he exercises with restraint and care, maybe even ONLY for that one person. Since we’re exchanging quotes, I always loved Charles Dance in Game of Thrones as Tywin Lannister — “Any man who must say ‘I am the King,’ is no true king.” Same goes for subs. If you have to perform to be a brat, you’re not a brat. If you have to perform at all, you’re not your performance. I don’t want a performance. I want someone real, unvarnished, stripped down to their essence, who is as I see them.