BDSM is a range of normally erotic tactics or roleplaying involving bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, along with other relevant interpersonal dynamics. Supplied the wide selection of procedures, a number of which may be engaged in by people that usually do not take into account on their own for being practising BDSM, inclusion within the BDSM community or subculture often is alleged to rely upon self-identification and shared working experience.

The initialism BDSM is to start with recorded in a very Usenet article 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 is currently employed like a capture-all phrase masking a wide array of routines, forms of interpersonal interactions, and unique subcultures. BDSM communities generally welcome any one by using a non-normative streak who identifies With all the community; this will likely incorporate cross-dressers, physique modification fans, animal roleplayers, rubber fetishists, and Other folks.

Actions and interactions in BDSM are often characterised from the members' taking on roles which have been complementary and entail inequality of power; As a result, the idea of knowledgeable consent of each the companions is essential. The phrases submissive and dominant are often applied to distinguish these roles: the dominant associate ("dom") takes psychological Management over the submissive ("sub"). The phrases major and bottom also are used; the very best is definitely the instigator of an action though the bottom would be the receiver of your action. The two sets of phrases are subtly distinctive: as an example, another person may elect 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 ordered to massage their dominant partners. Although the bottom carries out the action and the highest gets it, they may have not necessarily switched roles.

The abbreviations sub and dom are often employed in place of submissive and dominant. Sometimes the female-particular terms mistress, domme, and dominatrix are employed to describe a dominant girl, in place of the in some cases gender-neutral time period dom. People who change in between leading/dominant and bottom/submissive roles—no matter if from romance to marriage or inside of a specified relationship—are called switches. The specific definition of roles and self-identification is a standard issue of discussion between BDSM members.