Am I a good rule?
Am I a good rule?
People will attribute masculine and feminine gender to ‘master’ and ‘mistress’ respectively, but I think master would be the ‘neutral’ pick here.
Or you can shuck the dynamic with: owner, divine, ruler, royal, liege, or any number of ranks with which you attribute subservience! :3
I’m not seeing the problem with ‘mistress’. Wiktionary cites the very first meaning as: “A woman, specifically one with great control, authority or ownership”, and provides an example sentence: “She was the mistress of the estate-mansion, and owned the horses.” You know, the same way as ‘master’ was used.
Apparently I’ve read more than my necessary share of US literature about the slavery times (considering I’ve never been to the US), because I have no trouble imagining a matron commanding the slaves.
Moreover, further down Wiktionary explicitly cites ‘dominatrix’ as another meaning of ‘mistress’.
You aren’t your dogs mistress
I’ll grant that it sounds a bit archaic, but “mistress” is technically correct there.
But yes, agreed that “master” can be used in a gender-neutral way.