33 Facts About BDSM

BDSM is a variety of often erotic practices or roleplaying involving bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and other related interpersonal dynamics.

BDSM is used as a catch-all phrase covering a wide range of activities, forms of interpersonal relationships, and distinct subcultures.

Activities and relationships in BDSM are often characterized by the participants' taking on roles that are complementary and involve inequality of power; thus, the idea of informed consent of both the partners is essential.

BDSM is an umbrella term for certain kinds of erotic behavior between consenting adults, encompassing various subcultures.

Fundamental principles for the exercise of BDSM require that it be performed with the informed consent of all parties.

Related searches

Some BDSM practitioners prefer a code of behavior that differs from SSC.

BDSM play is usually structured such that it is possible for the consenting partner to withdraw his or her consent at any point during a scene; for example, by using a safeword that was agreed on in advance.

In general, as compared to conventional relationships, BDSM participants go to greater lengths to negotiate the important aspects of their relationships in advance, and to contribute significant effort toward learning about and following safe practices.

Sadomasochism refers to the aspects of BDSM surrounding the exchange of physical or emotional pain.

BDSM is solely based on consensual activities, and based on its system and laws.

BDSM activists argue that it is illogical to attribute human behavioural phenomena as complex as sadism and masochism to the "inventions" of two historic individuals.

Rather than pain, BDSM practitioners are primarily concerned with power, humiliation, and pleasure.

Many BDSM activities involve no pain or humiliation, but just the exchange of power and control.

Couples engaging in consensual BDSM tend to show hormonal changes that indicate decreases in stress and increases in emotional bonding.

BDSM participants are expected to understand practical safety aspects, such as the potential for harm to body parts.

The author of the study stressed that successful long-term BDSM relationships came after "early and thorough disclosure" from both parties of their BDSM interests.

Many of those engaged in long-term BDSM relationships learned their skills from larger BDSM organizations and communities.

The physical place where a BDSM activity takes place is usually called a dungeon, though some prefer less dramatic terms, including playspace or club.

At these parties, BDSM can be publicly performed on a stage, or more privately in separate "dungeons".

Today BDSM parties are taking place in most of the larger cities in the Western world.

Freud and others have assumed that a preference for BDSM is a consequence of childhood abuse.

The spectrum ranges from couples with no connections to the subculture outside of their bedrooms or homes, without any awareness of the concept of BDSM, playing "tie-me-up-games", to public scenes on St Andrew's crosses at large events such as the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco.

Some elements of BDSM have been popularized through increased media coverage since the middle 1990s.

Some people who are interested in or curious about BDSM decide to come out of the closet, although many sadomasochists remain closeted.

The wish to remove BDSM preferences is another possible reason for psychological problems since it is not possible in most cases.

Related searches

The BDSM males reported higher levels of psychological well-being than the controls.

Brandy Lin Simula, on the other hand, argues that BDSM actively resists gender-conforming and identified three different types of BDSM bisexuality: gender-switching, gender-based styles, and rejection of gender .

Practices of BDSM survive from some of the oldest textual records in the world, associated with rituals to the goddess Inanna .

The artists Helmut Newton and Robert Mapplethorpe are the most prominent examples of the increasing use of BDSM-related motives in modern photography and the public discussions still resulting from this.

University BDSM clubs are found in the U K, Canada, Belgium, and Taiwan.

One of the most commonly used symbols of the BDSM community is a derivation of a triskelion shape within a circle.

Various forms of triskele have had many uses and many meanings in many cultures; its BDSM usage derives from the Ring of O in the classic book Story of O The BDSM Emblem Project claims copyright over one particular specified form of the triskelion symbol; other variants of the triskelion are free from such copyright claims.

Central work in modern BDSM literature is undoubtedly Story of O by Anne Desclos under the pseudonym Pauline Reage.