Theory

Use of the passive voice is to be discouraged. But passivity becomes conscious in                    Submission (n.): The act of submitting; the action of allowing herself
(in this story she is always female) to be dominated. He takes the primary position,
at the head of the sentence: he controls her desire; he demands her submission;                                       he requires her obedience. And she is driven by him,                                                                                      she is brought alive by him. She gives in.

All this disapproval of the passive voice –
is the object, the body acted upon,
any less powerful than the one who acts?
Her skin’s willingness to bruise is the reward of a firm hand.

Practice 

Submission is not female, but submission is

being herself. Her body conscious
always of his demands.

Less than passivity, less than the actor,
is the action in this story. In domination,

the bruised object,
the creature to be acted upon, is primary.

To be taken by the sentence requires

her skin to surrender, to receive
his disapproval,

firmly taking all that comes.
Obedience ties down her wrists, wraps his hands around her throat.