BDSM is a preference and sometimes form of personal relationship centering around activities that are erotic but may not be sexual, and which may include the consensual use of restraint, intense sensory stimulation, and fantasy power role play.

Practitioners of BDSM vary hugely in their perception of what activities are integral to BDSM, and some borderline activities ( light bondage, hot wax, blindfolds ) may be practiced by people identifying as " vanilla " ( i. e., not into BDSM ) – so inclusion in the community is usually dependent on self-proclaimed identification with the community.

Although there are many people who identify as being into BDSM who don't share the experience with anyone besides play-or sexual partners, " BDSM " is also used to denote a subculture of people interested in BDSM who may socialize together, educate each other, and throw " play parties " at which BDSM activities are welcome.

Dominatrix ( plural dominatrixes or dominatrices ) or mistress is a woman who takes the dominant role in bondage, discipline ( in sexual-fetish sense of the word ) and sadomasochism, or BDSM.

The term dominatrix is sometimes used to describe a professional dominant ( or " pro-domme ") who is paid to engage in BDSM with a submissive.

It should be noted that the term " lifestyle " to signify BDSM is occasionally a contention topic in the BDSM community and that some dominatrices may dislike the term.

" You can look but you can't touch " is the mechanism of this operation, which plays upon the BDSM practice known as " tease and denial ".

The domestic discipline scenario is commonly invoked in erotic spanking, but with a bare bottom or totally nude, with bondage and less direct physical contact being a feature of BDSM.

In BDSM, a top or dominant is the partner in a BDSM relationship or in a BDSM scene who takes the active or controlling role over that of the bottom or submissive partner ( s ).

The top is the actor within the BDSM context who applies to the bottom partner ( s ) the techniques of a sexual, sensual, and psychological activity: flogging, bondage, servitude, or humiliation.

While it is possible that a dominant would not act as a top and thus have no expression of his or her control through kink-or fetish-based activities, it may be argued that such a relationship, lacking any erotic aspect to the exercise of control, would fall outside of the BDSM context.

The acceptance of a bottom or submissive role in a BDSM relationship, is seldom absolute, often operating within a set of defined limits.

Often, it is interpreted as sex which does not involve such elements as BDSM, kink, or fetish activities.

This belief is partly based on certain things often found in the parades, such as public nudity, BDSM paraphernalia, and other sexualized features.

BDSM is also a big part of the Sex Industry known as a fetish model which has become a big market.

In 2008, The San Francisco-based BDSM studio Kink. com hired Darkholme, where he currently directs gay pornography with an emphasis on bondage and wrestling.

In BDSM, it's not uncommon for ice play to be used more elaborately ; ice is frequently used as an insertable ( for the vagina, anus, and occasionally for the male urethra ), part or whole of the body may be shortly immersed in ice or ice water, or ice may be used to provide contrast in a scene that also involves warm or hot stimuli.

Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission ( UNMOVIC ), as well as being a frequently recognized regional leader for BDSM advocacy and education.

The series is frequently cited by BDSM aficionados as one of the most realistic portrayals of a fictional slave-training community, with conscious effort by the author to create a real sense of the economics of the structure while setting the Marketplace within the contemporary real world.

The book has been the source of various terms that are used in the BDSM subculture such as Samois, the name of the estate belonging to the character Anne-Marie, who brands O.

It can also be used to describe insertive sex without any element of BDSM or any fetish.

* Crop ( implement ), a modified whip used in horseback riding or disciplining humans ( as punishment or in BDSM )

The magazine Anything That Moves coined the acronym FABGLITTER ( from Fetish such as the BDSM lifestyle community, Allies or poly-Amorous as in Polyamorous couples became more used, Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Intersexed, Transgender, Transsexual Engendering Revolution or inter-Racial attraction ), although this term has not made its way into common usage.

Watersports may also be used in a BDSM scene as a form of humiliation, sometimes involving desperation until incontinence or infantilization, sometimes physical humiliation associated with being urinated on or pressured to consume urine.

A safeword is a code word or series of code words that are sometimes used in BDSM for a submissive ( or " bottom ") to unambiguously communicate their physical or emotional state to a dominant ( or " top "), typically when approaching, or crossing, a physical, emotional, or moral boundary.

Safewords are generally used by those whose practice of BDSM falls under the guiding philosophy of safe, sane and consensual.

* Bottom ( sex ), a term used by gay, BDSM, and some straight couples

A rigger consults with his model prior to exhibitionSafe, sane and consensual ( SSC ) is one of several phrases used by a large section of the BDSM and sexual bondage communities to describe themselves and their philosophies who regard SSC to be a watchword for safety.

The term squick is most often used as a warning to refer to a reader's possible negative reaction to scenes in the text ( often sexual ) that some might find offensive or distressing, such as those including incest, BDSM, rape, " MPreg " ( male pregnancy ), gender swapping, and torture.

It may also be used as a part of sex or in conjunction with other BDSM activities.

Aside from fashion and medical uses, corsets are also used in sexual fetishism, most notably in BDSM activities.

The allusion is to the use of hemp rope for restraining prisoners, as a symbol of power, in the same way that stocks or manacles are used in a Western BDSM context.

Police handcuffs are sometimes used in sexual bondage and BDSM activities.

Risk-aware consensual kink ( RACK, also risk-accepted consensual kink ) is an acronym used by some of the BDSM community to describe a philosophical view that is generally permissive of certain risky sexual behaviors, as long as the participants are fully aware of the risks.

In human sexuality, Service-oriented is a term used in the BDSM community to refer relationship dynamic.

** Cage ( BDSM ), an enclosure used to confine a submissive in BDSM

It is also used in BDSM activities especially on female submissives most commonly as a part of tease and denial.

Old Guard now usually refers to high protocol groups, particularly gay leather BDSM groups ; people who use this phrase may be romanticizing a perception of leather history: see Old Guard leather.

Other work includes homoerotic and BDSM acts ( including coprophagia ), and classical nudes.

This includes the freedom to take part in sexual activities which were previously considered unacceptable or even criminalized, such as BDSM, fetishes, and homosexuality.

This especially includes BDSM elements commonly practiced by " vanilla " couples.