BDSM is many different generally erotic tactics or roleplaying involving bondage, willpower, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, along with other relevant interpersonal dynamics. Presented 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 initially 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 is currently employed 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 interactions in BDSM are frequently characterised with the participants' taking up roles which are complementary and require inequality of electrical power; thus, the concept of educated consent of equally 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 employed; the best will be the instigator of the motion whilst the bottom is definitely the receiver from the motion. The 2 sets of conditions are subtly distinct: one example is, somebody may possibly prefer to act as bottom to another man or woman, for 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 necessarily switched roles.

The abbreviations sub and dom are often employed in place of submissive and dominant. In some cases the feminine-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 change in between leading/dominant and bottom/submissive roles—no matter whether from romantic relationship to romance or inside of a specified marriage—are called switches. The specific definition of roles and self-identification is a standard issue of discussion between BDSM members.