The ‘Retweet Slaves’ Who Worship Their Dommes on Twitter

Back in early September when I wrote about two dominatrixes who conduct educational Periscope broadcasts, I immediately tweeted a link to the article, as one does. Almost as immediately, I noticed a series of accounts reposting it, with display names like RTSucker, RetweeterSub, RTTheDommes, rtjackass and RETWEET FINDOM. Some of them are obviously no longer around, but they’re all “retweet slaves,” or accounts dedicated to elevating the presence of dominatrixes on Twitter in order to increase the dommes’ popularity, earn the dommes more money and make their submissive selves just a bit more worthy of the dommes they spend their days worshipping.

Dollar Collar is one such slave. Though he started his account to chronicle submissive thoughts he felt embarrassed sharing more publicly, he began steadily interacting with Twitter’s thriving community of dominatrixes, sending financial “tributes” to people he “clicked with” and even meeting a domme he went on to have in-person sessions with. She now “owns” him — i.e., he serves her exclusively by giving her money and doing whatever else she asks of him.

“Visible, paying subs tend to amass followers, and things naturally progressed into me retweeting content that I enjoyed seeing,” he explains. Two thousand followers later, his goal is “to be useful,” retweeting posts for several hours almost every day. He focuses on boosting the content of dommes of color (he’s worked in diversity and inclusion departments before) and dommes who have had their account suspended.

The other retweet slaves’ content is typically a mix of titillation and updates that double as ads for a domme’s services: feet pictures; selfies with captions about draining wallets; Venmo and Cash App usernames; IRL kink events; screenshots of financial tributes in the hundreds or thousands; and sometimes porn scenes that occasionally include pegging.

There are also “retweet games,” which focus on “draining” a sub’s money. A small sum is generated with every like, retweet and comment on a post announcing the game. A domme and her sub agree on the terms, such as how long the game will last and how much money each engagement earns, and then they’re off. When time’s up, the sub pays up. These games are usually reposted by both dommes and retweet accounts to boost visibility, and of course, earn more money for the domme who initiated the game.

“Some dommes think it’s easy work, but for the real hard-working ones, it’s very hard and draining BUT worth it,” says Alex, who runs a promo account for domme and fetish content with more than 35,000 followers. Being “limited” on money, retweeting was a way to show devotion to dommes in a non-financial way.

For his part, Tom started retweeting dommes when his owner, a “hypno-domme” he met on Twitter, made a promo account for him to use. “I was motivated to help grow her empire, and the empires of her associates,” he explains. (He asks his domme for permission before retweeting anyone specific, and even had to get permission to talk to me.)

“Being an effective promo account is more than just clicking retweet,” explains Dollar Collar. “It requires you to network and build relationships so that others are retweeting the content that you share.”

Promo groups such as Elite Femdom Promoters (#EFDP) and Women of Color Promo (#WoCP) facilitate more concerted efforts to boost certain accounts. They also come with standards; for example, the promo group The ODD Squad only invites accounts with more than 1,000 followers.

Dommes occasionally pay for promotion, too. @underdeskloser2 offers “premium promo service” starting at $20 per month (the money goes to him and his domme). He explains most of his posts are paid, but he does give free retweets to a select group of “community influencers” (he reposted my aforementioned earlier article). None of the dommes I spoke with said they’d paid for promo, but both dommes and retweet accounts noted that it was common.

While Dollar Collar says most dommes are “generally welcoming toward retweet accounts,” not everyone is necessarily thrilled to be spending their precious time interacting with subs online. “There are people who just want to reach out in our DMs all the time, [saying], ‘Can I be your slave, can I be your slave?’ They just want free attention at that point, and they’re meaningless. I just delete those,” says Mistress Lucy Sweetkill, one-half of dominatrix duo La Maison Du Rouge.

“I don’t think that it’s worth my time to interact with RT subs,” says dominatrix Mistress Blunt. “I’ve tried it out in the past, and it just seems like a waste of time for not a lot of exposure.”

“They want the luxury of content without paying for it, and often ask dommes to be of use in exchange for promo, which I always reject,” adds Goddess Chaylah, a financial dominatrix who finds clients on Twitter. “No slave gets special privileges from me.” Still, she often tags these accounts in her posts. She says they’re a mix of “supportive and kind” retweet accounts she’s friendly with, accounts run by dommes and accounts who ask to be tagged. “RT pages are useful to every domme,” she notes. “The bigger the audience, the bigger the profit.”

Devotional retweets aren’t the only way the dom/sub dynamic plays out on social media either. La Maison Du Rouge’s Sweetkill and Dia Dynasty say Twitter also can be a useful way to keep track of all the things they ask their various subs and slaves to complete. Case in point: Sweetkill asks some of her subs to maintain a healthy diet and post about it. “There are certain things [people] don’t realize is possible in the realm of their interactions with a dominatrix,” such as being made to eat healthier, Sweetkill explains. “So for newbies, [social media is] a good way of them not only seeing these other aspects of kink and BDSM, but a good way of them connecting to you through knowing what your methodology is.”

Mistress Blunt adds some people follow her on social media for “months or years before building up the courage to see [her].” As a domme who has feminine-identifying clients, which can be less common in the industry, she says broadcasting interactions with her “femme-sub” on Twitter has led other femme clients to feel more comfortable reaching out to her.

After all, despite the many transactional interactions, social media is ultimately (or at least aspirationally) a platform for socializing. As such, Mistress Blunt says she’s supportive of her subs using social media, “but primarily in order for them to find community and share their experiences, pose questions and get feedback.”

This community — dommes, findoms, paying subs, retweet slaves and more — also stands together in light of the frequent “shadowbanning” and account suspensions that happen to sex workers online, using their retweets to amplify the voices of those struggling to get their content seen. Some dommes even run their own retweet accounts to help out friends and colleagues.

“Face-to-face isn’t the only way anymore that people serve, [technology and social media] has made pro-domming and BDSM expansive,” explains Sweetkill. These digital forms of worship, she says, makes subs “feel their devotion and service to you can be even deeper.”

That’s certainly the case for retweet slave Alex. Or as he says, “When you can get your domme a lot of exposure, you feel satisfied and proud.”

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Cassidy Dawn Graves

Cassidy Dawn Graves is a Brooklyn-based freelance writer, comedic musician, and variety show producer, using all of the above to engage with unconventional sexuality, the internet, marginalized creators, and art of all types.