quote:

Dominant - The one holding the authority in a relationship that is focused in some way on an imbalance of power.

Submissive - The one giving up authority in a relationship is focused in some way on an imbalance of power.

Master - Same as above, but communicates some higher degree of imbalance of power. (I personally don't use Master in reference to myself out out of ego reasons, but use slave in it's absence to attempt to communicate the focus on a higher degree of imbalance of power).

Slave - Same as submissive, but communicates some higher degree of imbalance of power.

Top - The person performing some action that is sexual or sensual in nature.

Bottom - The person receiving some action that is sexual or sensual in nature.

D/S - A relationship with a focus on some degree of imbalance of power.

M/S - Same as D/S, but communicates a higher degree of imbalance of power.

BDSM - A label used to identify activities or relationships that fall under the umbrella of Bonda

quote:

ORIGINAL: MadRabbit

After baring witness to some one hundred definition threads here on Collarme.com over the last two years, I have come to learn one thing and one thing only....

There is no difference between a slave and submissive.
There is no difference between a Master and dominant.
There is no difference between M/S and D/S.
There is no difference between vanilla and BDSM.

I get that.

It's understood.

We're all just one big huge collection of organic molecules, living, breathing and holding hands with no universal differences or inequalities to fight over.

There is no need to rehash that here.

But...

Despite that fact, I still see people using these dichotomies in their writings on these boards to communicate what seems to be some ambiguously different concepts.

So given that, I think it's evident that, even though we cannot come to terms with an universal definition, we, as individuals, have noted or established some general differences in our personal experiences and have assigned those differences to these words.

If not, wouldn't it be more productive to just leave blank spaces in between the verbs in order to save on bandwidth and typing time?

Taking that a step further and asserting that these general and individual differences do exist (Don't freak out! Stay with me here!), wouldn't it be productive and beneficial if we had one thread where we attempted to share those differences without going to logical nihilism in order to better learn about the wide variety of philosophies and unique relationships out there? Imagine...a thread with some education value for newbies beyond simply "There is no difference. Your stupid for even thinking that."

Hell, if we make an effort to speak in terms of "In my lifestyle.." or "In my personal experiences..." or "According to my definitions..." and avoid taking offense simply because someone sees our chosen label differently then we do, we might be able to get through this without pixed blood being spilled on the Ethernet.

I think we can make it through one general definition thread without the Online Oracles of O and the Pixed Prefects of Perversion duking it out in a flame war over who has the "Twuest definition."

I have hope. I have faith.

So let me get us started....

These are the definitions I associate with the following words and am attempting to communicate when I write. They are also the assumption I make when other people use the words unless otherwise specified. (Note the bolded I's. Very important if your still having some inclination of ripping them apart for their unpolitically correctness.)

Dominant - The one holding the authority in a relationship that is focused in some way on an imbalance of power.

Submissive - The one giving up authority in a relationship is focused in some way on an imbalance of power.

Master - Same as above, but communicates some higher degree of imbalance of power. (I personally don't use Master in reference to myself out out of ego reasons, but use slave in it's absence to attempt to communicate the focus on a higher degree of imbalance of power).

Slave - Same as submissive, but communicates some higher degree of imbalance of power.

Top - The person performing some action that is sexual or sensual in nature.

Bottom - The person receiving some action that is sexual or sensual in nature.

D/S - A relationship with a focus on some degree of imbalance of power.

M/S - Same as D/S, but communicates a higher degree of imbalance of power.

BDSM - A label used to identify activities or relationships that fall under the umbrella of Bondage, Discipline, Dominance, Submission, Sadism, Masochism as well as a label used to identify people who identify with the alternative sexualities fringe community.
 
Vanilla - A label used to identify people who's lifestyles and relationships don't identify with the alternative sexuality fringe community and activities that fall outside the umbrella of BDSM.

I would love to hear about your definitions.

 

quote:

ORIGINAL: MadRabbit
Just asking for the benefit of discussion, what are the qualifications?

quote:

A dominatrix (from the Latin dominatrix, meaning a female ruler or Mistress; plural dominatrices or dominatrixes) or Mistress is a woman who takes the dominant role in bondage and discipline, dominance and submission or BDSM. The counterpart term for a male dominant is "Master". A common form of address for a submissive to a dominatrix is "Mistress", "Ma'am", "Domina" or "Maîtresse". Note that a dominatrix does not necessarily dominate a male partner; a dominatrix may well have female submissives.
The term "Domme" (pronounced /ˈdɒm/) is a coined pseudo-French female variation of the slang dom (short for dominant). It stems from the Latin words "dominus" = master, "domina" = mistress. The pronunciation is identical to the term "dom", by analogy to one-syllable French-derived words like femme or blonde.

quote:

ORIGINAL: dreamysubmale

To all who posted definitions, thank you.

I am a novice and found your definitions very helpful.

I have a question thought. Couple of posters described M/s as Master slave.
Now I understand that a slave could be a male or female. What about the word Master?

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ORIGINAL: candystripper

'Vanilla' is meaningless to anyone who isn't reasonably aquainted with BDSM;

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ORIGINAL: ranja
I read somewhere that Dominatrix, the pro type, need a special mention too as they are in a league of their own