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BDSM is an overlapping abbreviation of bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadism and masochism. BDSM can just be part of your sex life – while some others carry it into day-to-day living.

There are two basic conflicting feminist views about BDSM. One is that BDSM is degrading towards women and it should be stopped. The other is we should allow women to make their own choices in their personal lives.

Typically, men are usually doms and women are usually subs. However, there are also female dommes and male subs – and in lesbian/gay relationships – a female domme and female sub or a male dom and male sub. For clarification, a dom or domme acts as the dominant one in the relationship and the sub acts as the submissive one.

Many of the specific practices in BDSM are those which, if performed in neutral or nonsexual contexts, are widely considered unpleasant, undesirable, or abusive. For example, pain, physical restraint and servitude are traditionally inflicted on persons against their will and to their detriment. In BDSM, however, these activities are engaged in with the mutual consent of the participants, and typically for mutual enjoyment. Emphasis placed on safety and informed consent is also known as SSC, which stands for safe, sane, and consensual.

(If anybody would like to add more clarification my brief explanation of BDSM, feel free to do so. First discussion topic, so this may be a bit scattered.)

Discuss
- is the practice of BDSM detrimental to feminism?
- can one practice BDSM or a BDSM lifestyle and still be a feminist?

Meh I don't see how a personal preference for what happens in the bedroom conflicts with feminism. Then again, my definition of feminism doesn't include matters in the bedroom.

Seeing as how it really is no ones buisness what goes on in one's bedroom, I'd say you certainly can be a feminist while practing that sort of thing.

Don't feminists support a woman's sexual freedom? And by a woman enjoying herself by practicing BDSM she'd be gaining sexual freedom.

I have conflicting views about BDSM. I see it as sort of like the porn issue for many feminists.

Personally, I think that you can be a feminist and be in a BDSM relationship, but based on observations and not statistics which I haven't found, those women and men tend to be rare.

I hear from people who participate in it that it is possible to have a fulfilling BDSM relationship, but it is also possible for things to go terribly wrong faster than in most other relationships.

I can also understand the dilemma some feminists face, because, whether the person likes it or not, they are technically being over-powered during sex, which in most feminist theories is a big hinderance to sexual liberation.

I don't know enough about BDSM, I know that it doesn't turn me on, but I am not canceling the idea that others can achieve a healthy and stable relationship through it. I know I would just watch out for any person who practices it, to make sure their relationships are the way they want them to be.

In a lot of BDSM relationships, though, the bottom is as in charge as the top. As long as you know what you're doing, trust your partner, and have a safe word, you can be physically over-powered without being mentally overpowered.

I don't think it should conflict with feminist concerns at all. It's your choice. Hell, if a woman has a rape fetish let her and her lover engage in a pretend "rape" while having sex. Some people get off to that. It doesn't mean she REALLY wants to be raped or enjoys being degraded by others. It's just a fetish or preference for sexual activities. I say, whatever.