Is it Sadomasochism, Abuse or Self Harm?

One of the stigmas the BDSM community faces is the public confusion over where our lines of consent fall and at what point things are healthy versus unhealthy. To some extent, even as kinksters we have a hard time defining these things through our own eager urges for sadomasochistic acts. When we ourselves have difficulties…

Looking Deeper into Why BDSM May Benefit Our Mental Health

A significant piece of academic research, published in 2013 by Wismeijer and van Assen, suggests that individuals involved in BDSM subcultures or self-identified as “kinkster” may be prone to have better mental health than the average population. Psychologists and researchers from the Netherlands carried out a qualitative study with a total of 1300 questionaires sent…

Illustrated Guide – Enemas: How To Clean Your Ass!

This illustration was created by BlindJaw, and you can download it as a PDF here. We have a saying around our house… “shit happens”. But, some people are squicky about mess, especially scatalogical mess, and that’s totally understandable. An enema is basically the injection of liquid into the anus (and hopefully quite deep into the…

Hurt Me Plenty – A Gameplay Review

If you are someone who practices SSC (Safe, Sane and Consensual), do you sometimes have a hard time explaining what consent means to you? Here’s a game that not only drills that, but is fun to play too. Robert Yang, both an Artist and indie game designer has created a VR game in simulation of…

Compersion in Polyamory

Compersion is a term used to describe a certain experience in polyamorous relationships. It is that moment of relational empathy, where the feelings of love and shared pleasure with one’s partner with another person over-rides any feelings of jealousy. Feelings are just feelings, and we should own up to them without labelling them as positive…

The Feelz versus the Mind

“Being a slave is the hottest thing I have ever (ever!) experienced. And it definitely FEELS totally right to me.” “But, being a slave sometimes counters my inner beliefs…” The path down the transgressive route of Domination/submission or Master/slave isn’t a smooth rainbow ride. Many of us underwent quite immense amounts of self-doubt and reflection…

One Person’s Perversion is Another’s Normality

What is perversion? Whether we’re talking about sexual perversion or behavioural perversion, the question doesn’t lead to a rigid medical definition. What does “perversion” actually mean? Like many terms that we use in our daily lives, it poses a great entry for some interesting philosophical, psychoanalytical creative thinking. “You are such a pervert!” If spoken…

BDSM Traffic Light Safewords – How Do They Work (and Not Work)?

Most of us are aware of the traffic light safewords system as a safety measurement/communication during a scene. Basically, a Dominant checks in by asking “how do you feel?”, and the submissive uses “green”, “orange”, “red” to indicate the subjective intensity the submissive is experiencing. Generally, “green” means everything is good, and please proceed in…