BDSM is several different normally erotic practices or roleplaying involving bondage, self-discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and also other linked interpersonal dynamics. Supplied the big selection of techniques, several of which may be engaged in by those who will not look at by themselves to get practising BDSM, inclusion while in the BDSM Neighborhood or subculture frequently is said to count on self-identification and shared working experience.

The initialism BDSM is to start with recorded in a very Usenet put up from 1991, and is also interpreted as a combination of the abbreviations B/D (Bondage and Willpower), D/s (Dominance and submission), and S/M (Sadism and Masochism). BDSM has become utilised as being a capture-all phrase masking an array of actions, 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 are frequently characterised through the participants' taking up roles that 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 above the submissive ("sub"). The conditions leading and bottom are utilized; the highest is the instigator of an motion while the bottom could be the receiver from the action. The 2 sets of conditions are subtly various: one example is, someone may possibly prefer to act as bottom to another man or woman, such as, by becoming whipped, purely recreationally, with no implication of staying psychologically dominated, and submissives may 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 girl, as an alternative to the in some cases gender-neutral time period dom. People who change between leading/dominant and bottom/submissive roles—no matter if from marriage to relationship or within a given relationship—are known as switches. The precise definition of roles and self-identification is a common subject of discussion among the BDSM contributors.