BDSM is a number of usually erotic techniques or roleplaying involving bondage, self-control, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, as well as other connected interpersonal dynamics. Offered the wide range of practices, some of which can be engaged in by individuals that do not consider them selves to generally be practising BDSM, inclusion during the BDSM Local community or subculture typically is claimed to rely on self-identification and shared encounter.

The initialism BDSM is initial recorded in a Usenet post from 1991, and is particularly interpreted as a mix of the abbreviations B/D (Bondage and Self-discipline), D/s (Dominance and submission), and S/M (Sadism and Masochism). BDSM is now made use of for a catch-all phrase covering a variety of pursuits, kinds of interpersonal relationships, and distinctive subcultures. BDSM communities normally welcome any person with a non-normative streak who identifies Using the community; this will likely contain cross-dressers, body modification fans, animal roleplayers, rubber fetishists, and Other individuals.

Actions and interactions in BDSM are frequently characterised with the participants' taking up roles which are complementary and require inequality of electrical power; So, the concept of educated consent of the two the associates is important. The conditions submissive and dominant are frequently made use of to tell apart these roles: the dominant husband or wife ("dom") will take psychological Command more than the submissive ("sub"). The phrases top and bottom are utilized; the highest will be the instigator of an motion while the bottom could be the receiver from the action. The 2 sets of conditions are subtly various: by way of example, someone could opt to work as bottom to another particular person, such as, by becoming whipped, purely recreationally, with no implication of currently being psychologically dominated, and submissives may very well be requested to therapeutic massage their dominant associates. Even though the base carries out the motion and the top receives it, they've not automatically switched roles.

The abbreviations sub and dom are commonly made use of rather than submissive and dominant. Often the feminine-precise conditions mistress, domme, and dominatrix are made use of to explain a dominant female, instead of the occasionally gender-neutral phrase dom. Individuals who modify amongst prime/dominant and base/submissive roles—whether from partnership to connection or inside a provided connection—are named switches. The exact definition of roles and self-identification is a typical topic of debate among BDSM participants.