The acronym BDSM includes three fundamental contents in the realm of kinky sexual play:
- B/D – Bondage & Discipline
- D/S – Dominance & Submission
- S/M – Sadism & Masochism
- Dominance & Submission: In dominance and submission, one person is engineered to be obedient while the other should be more aggressive. The common abbreviation for these roles is simply Dom (for women, some prefer domme) and sub. A person who enjoys taking on either role at different times would be known as a Switch.
- Bondage & Discipline: Bondage is that one restrains the other with either rope, cuffs, belts, velcro, neckties, etc. Discipline involves the element of punishment. That is to say, dom sets rules and guidelines for what the sub has to, or cannot, say and do.
- Sadism & Masochism: Sadism and masochism are two orientations in deriving sexual pleasure from pain, suffering, and humiliation. A sadist is someone who gets off on inflicting another person, whereas a masochist gets off on receiving the "punishment". In BDSM terms, masochists are also often referred to as pain sluts.