BDSM is several different typically erotic techniques or roleplaying involving bondage, willpower, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, as well as other connected interpersonal dynamics. Provided the wide selection of procedures, a number of which may be engaged in by people that usually do not contemplate on their own to become practising BDSM, inclusion within the BDSM community or subculture normally is alleged to rely upon self-identification and shared practical experience.

The initialism BDSM is 1st recorded within a Usenet submit from 1991, and it 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 currently employed as a capture-all phrase masking an array of activities, varieties of interpersonal associations, and distinct subcultures. BDSM communities frequently welcome everyone using a non-normative streak who identifies Using the Group; this will likely contain cross-dressers, body modification lovers, animal roleplayers, rubber fetishists, and Many others.

Functions and relationships in BDSM will often be characterized by the members' taking on roles that happen to be complementary and include inequality of power; As a result, the idea of knowledgeable consent of both the companions is essential. The phrases submissive and dominant are often utilised to distinguish these roles: the dominant associate ("dom") takes psychological Management over the submissive ("sub"). The phrases major and bottom will also be used; the very best is definitely the instigator of an action when the bottom may 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 another individual, one example is, by being 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 have not necessarily switched roles.

The abbreviations sub and dom are regularly utilised in lieu of submissive and dominant. Sometimes the female-particular phrases mistress, domme, and dominatrix are utilised to explain a dominant girl, in place of the in some cases gender-neutral term dom. People who change in between best/dominant and bottom/submissive roles—no matter if from romance to marriage or inside of 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.