BDSM is several different frequently erotic methods or roleplaying involving bondage, self-control, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and various related interpersonal dynamics. Given the big selection of tactics, many of which can be engaged in by folks who never take into consideration by themselves to get practising BDSM, inclusion while in the BDSM Neighborhood or subculture usually is said to depend on self-identification and shared 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 Discipline), D/s (Dominance and submission), and S/M (Sadism and Masochism). BDSM has become utilised like a catch-all phrase masking a wide array of routines, forms of interpersonal interactions, and unique subcultures. BDSM communities usually welcome any one that has 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 frequently characterised with the participants' taking up roles which are complementary and contain inequality of electrical power; thus, the concept of educated consent of equally the partners is important. The conditions submissive and dominant are sometimes 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 base are also employed; the best will be the instigator of the 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, for example, by getting whipped, purely recreationally, with no implication of remaining psychologically dominated, and submissives might be requested to massage their dominant associates. Even though the bottom carries out the action and the very best receives it, they've got not automatically switched roles.

The abbreviations sub and dom are routinely used as opposed to submissive and dominant. Often the feminine-precise conditions mistress, domme, and dominatrix are used to describe a dominant woman, rather than the at times gender-neutral phrase dom. Individuals who adjust involving top rated/dominant and base/submissive roles—whether from partnership to partnership or inside a offered connection—are referred to as switches. The precise definition of roles and self-identification is a common topic of debate among BDSM contributors.