Marilyn and Rio
Get to Know Us
Marilyn is a fierce femme top, in the leather community since 1986. She won the 2016 Jim Remer Award from the San Francisco Bay Area Leather Alliance for her community volunteer work. Rio is a butch leatherdyke, in the community since 2006. She serves as Secretary of the San Francisco Bay Area Leather Alliance, and was Ms. San Francisco Sober Leather 2016. After being play partners in an D/s dynamic for years, their relationship underwent a transformative change after their first trip together, and their M/s journey began.
Marilyn was a charter member of the Exiles, where she and Rio served as officers for many years. They are also very active in MAsT San Francisco, where Marilyn is the Director. Rio was on the Planning Committee for the Northwest Leather Celebration for four years, managing the silent auction. She has used her skills in this area to organize raffles and auctions for several organizations in the Bay Area. Marilyn has twice been a mentor in the Queer Sphere Mentoring Program, and frequently mentors informally. Separately and together they have presented at many venues, including Black Rose, Southwest Master/slave Contest, International Ms Leather/Ms Bootblack, Leather Leadership Conference, Northwest Leather Celebration, Southeast Leatherfest, The Group In Fresno, Queer Leather Association of Sacramento, and many more.
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Marilyn works in the computer industry, is active at her synagogue, and has two adult gender-variant children. Rio is retired from working in the book industry, and is a published author and an award-winning painter.
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They believe that authority-based relationships are exciting, and deeply fulfilling for both people, and are passionate about sharing what they learn with others. The principles which guide them are Respect, Trust, Passion, and Transparency. They have developed several classes and workshops to help others learn about the Master/slave dynamic, and techniques to improve their M/s relationships.
Our Leather Journeys
Marilyn
While, in retrospect, Marilyn showed kinky proclivities at an early age, her introduction to the leather community came in the early 1980's when there was a presentation about knife play at the LGBT discussion group at UCSB. Shortly thereafter she found out two friends of her were kinky, and they took her under their wing and showed her the ropes, so the speak. The following year she met a wonderful, sexy, experienced, masochist, butch bottom, who gave her very personal lessons on how to top. She joined the Exiles shortly thereafter.
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Marilyn spent the next several years growing into her BDSM self, and exercising her poly nature. Although primarily a top, she spent 6 years in a relationship where she bottomed on a regular basis. Since then she has pretty much lived in top space, although occasionally visits the dark (bottom) side for fun.
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In the mid/late 90's, Marilyn took a hiatus from the leather community to settle down a bit and have 2 children. She came back into the community in 2001, and was then an Exiles officer for over 20 years. Marilyn loves to teach, and has taught many classes in venues far and wide.
Rio
Rio was raised in a family where service was important and giving back was expected. Even in her vanilla relationships she was always the helping hand, and without knowing terms like ‘dominance’ and ‘submission,’ tended to fall into relationships with strong women where she served the other.
Curious about BDSM, Rio attended the Exiles’ Carnal Carnival in 2006, and when Madame Butterfly wove a full-body rope harness on her, she had an epiphany. She refused to take the harness off, wore it home, and even tried (unsuccessfully) to sleep in it. From then on Rio attended every class she could find, mostly at the SF Citadel.
Rio got to know people in the community, but was still fairly inexperienced when she met Marilyn, who was teaching an Exiles program called ‘Teasing and Torturing.' .
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Rio believes in the principles of Integrity and Honor which fuel the leather community, She still loves to volunteer and help out.
Marilyn and Rio Together
Marilyn and Rio finally met when Rio saw Marilyn on a panel at the Exiles' “Novice Night” in 2007. Marilyn said that she liked playing with newcomers, so Rio shyly approached her afterwards and handed her a paper with her name and number. Marilyn was amused, called her, and they had dinner together, where Marilyn shamelessly teased Rio, and Rio was equally terrified and turned on. They started playing a few months later, their BDSM play deeply rooted in Dominance and submission.
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Over time they developed a steady play relationship, a friendship, and became colleagues and officers in the Exiles. In 2013, their involvement moved beyond just play partners into a serious relationship. In 2014 they delved deeper into M/s, and Rio became Marilyn's collared slave on April 27, 2015. They now have a 24/7 M/s relationship with an open-ended contract, and are continuing to explore their Mastery and slavery together.
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Marilyn and Rio were honored to be awarded the title of Northwest Master and slave 2023.
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About M/s Relationships
IF you want more information about how our M/s relationship works, and about M/s relationships in general, please reference this page.
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