What is it Like to Be a BDSM Player? The Role of Sexuality and Erotization of Power in the BDSM Experience

Research with individuals who practice consensual Bondage, Discipline, Domination, Submission, Sadism, and Masochism (BDSM) has shed light on a complex and multi-faceted phenomenon. How much this experience relates to sexuality and sexual pleasure is a controversial topic in the literature. This review offers a critical re-conceptualization of the sexual component, comparing BDSM and non-BDSM sexual experiences, and highlighting the importance of the erotic construction of power as a source of pleasure. It also discusses whether the erotic power exchange experience (EPE) reveals a sexual or an erotic orientation. The variety of terms and acronyms used to designate the experience of eroticization of power (BDSM, EPE, S&M sadism and masochism, D/S or sadomasochism, Fetish, kink and kinky sex) reflects the many perspectives that have been taken in observing the phenomenon. Generalizing BDSM as an eminently sexual experience has obscured a more nuanced understanding of the specific meanings relating to the activities promoted by the communities and simplified a variegated geography of experiences. These experiences are difficult to summarize in terms of typifications and can be better described as “finite provinces of meanings”.