Dominance and submission

A 1921 illustration of female submission. The male is clothed while the female is naked and waiting on corporal punishment being administered on her. The art is by Georges Topfer from his work Le rêve d’un flagellant ("The Dream of a Flagellant").

Dominance and submission (D/s) is a set of behaviors, customs, and rituals involving the submission of one person to another in an erotic episode or lifestyle. It is a subset of BDSM. This form of sexual contact and pleasure has been shown to please a minority of people.[1]

Physical contact is not necessary, and D/s can be conducted anonymously over the telephone, email, or other messaging systems. In other cases, it can be intensely physical, sometimes crossing into sadomasochism. In D/s, both parties take pleasure or erotic enjoyment from either dominating or being dominated. Those who take the superior position are called dominantsDoms (regardless of gender) or Dommes (female)—while those who take the subordinate position are called submissive, or subs. A switch is an individual who plays either role. Two switches together may negotiate and exchange roles several times in a session. The term dominatrix usually refers to a female sex worker who dominates others for pay[2] while the term maledom is used for a sexually dominant male in BDSM practices.[3][4][5][6]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Fedoroff, Paul J. (2008). "Sadism, Sadomasochism, Sex, and Violence". Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 53 (10): 637–646. doi:10.1177/070674370805301003. PMID 18940032.:"Sexual arousal from consensual interactions that include domination should be distinguished from non consensual sex acts."
  3. ^ "Maledom Definition & Meaning | YourDictionary". www.yourdictionary.com. Retrieved 2023-07-15.
  4. ^ "maledom - Dictionary of sexual terms". www.sex-lexis.com. Retrieved 2023-07-15.
  5. ^ "maledom — definition, examples, related words and more at Wordnik". Wordnik.com. Retrieved 2023-07-15.
  6. ^ "What does maledom mean?". www.definitions.net. Retrieved 2023-07-15.