BDSM is a number of usually erotic procedures or roleplaying involving bondage, self-control, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, as well as other associated interpersonal dynamics. Offered the wide range of methods, some of which can be engaged in by people who do not consider themselves to generally be practising BDSM, inclusion during the BDSM Group or subculture generally is claimed to depend upon self-identification and shared knowledge.

The initialism BDSM is very first recorded inside a Usenet publish from 1991, and is interpreted as a mix of the abbreviations B/D (Bondage and Self-control), D/s (Dominance and submission), and S/M (Sadism and Masochism). BDSM is now used to be a capture-all phrase covering a variety of functions, kinds of interpersonal relationships, and distinctive subcultures. BDSM communities normally welcome anybody by using a non-normative streak who identifies With all the community; this will likely contain cross-dressers, body modification lovers, animal roleplayers, rubber fetishists, and Other folks.

Actions and interactions in BDSM are frequently characterised with 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 crucial. The conditions submissive and dominant are frequently made use of to distinguish these roles: the dominant lover ("dom") will take psychological Regulate more than the submissive ("sub"). The phrases top and bottom are utilized; the highest is the instigator of an motion while the bottom could be the receiver of the action. The 2 sets of conditions are subtly different: as an example, anyone might elect to work as base to a different individual, by way of example, by remaining whipped, purely recreationally, without any implication of staying psychologically dominated, and submissives may be ordered to massage their dominant companions. Even though the base carries out the motion and the best gets it, they have not always switched roles.

The abbreviations sub and dom are usually applied in lieu of submissive and dominant. Occasionally the female-certain phrases mistress, domme, and dominatrix are utilised to explain 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 whether from romance to romance or inside of a specified marriage—are called switches. The specific definition of roles and self-identification is a standard subject matter of discussion amid BDSM individuals.