BDSM is many different generally erotic techniques or roleplaying involving bondage, willpower, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and other associated interpersonal dynamics. Offered the wide range of practices, some of which can be engaged in by people who do not consider them selves to generally be practising BDSM, inclusion during the BDSM Local community or subculture generally is claimed to rely on self-identification and shared expertise.

The initialism BDSM is very first recorded inside 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 activities, varieties of interpersonal associations, and distinct subcultures. BDSM communities generally welcome everyone by using a non-normative streak who identifies Using the Group; this will likely contain cross-dressers, body modification lovers, animal roleplayers, rubber fetishists, and Other individuals.

Activities and associations in BDSM tend to be characterised through the contributors' taking up roles that are complementary and require inequality of energy; Consequently, the idea of educated consent of each the associates is crucial. The conditions submissive and dominant tend to be applied to distinguish these roles: the dominant lover ("dom") requires psychological Regulate over the submissive ("sub"). The phrases major and bottom also are used; the highest is definitely the instigator of an action though the bottom may be the receiver of your action. The two sets of phrases are subtly distinctive: as an example, another person may decide to work as base to a different individual, by way of example, by remaining whipped, purely recreationally, without any implication of getting psychologically dominated, and submissives can be purchased to massage their dominant partners. Although the bottom carries out the action and the highest gets it, they may have not essentially switched roles.

The abbreviations sub and dom are often employed in place of submissive and dominant. In some cases the female-particular terms mistress, domme, and dominatrix are employed to describe a dominant lady, as an alternative to the from time to time gender-neutral time period dom. People who improve between leading/dominant and bottom/submissive roles—regardless of whether from romantic relationship to romance or in just a supplied marriage—are termed switches. The specific definition of roles and self-identification is a standard subject matter of discussion amid BDSM individuals.