BDSM
Enable an agent to recognise and describe BDSM activities and arrangements, assess what is agreed or unresolved, and determine which actions participants have authorised.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
recalled by Codex without web access - no source was read
Researched by: Codex
Purpose and description
Enable an agent to recognise and describe BDSM activities and arrangements, assess what is agreed or unresolved, and determine which actions participants have authorised.
BDSM is an umbrella term for consensual practices, interests and relationship arrangements involving bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, or sadism and masochism, which participants may experience as erotic, relational or recreational.
It can be Describe an instance using its actual components and participant meanings rather than stereotypes attached to BDSM.; Compare proposed activities with each participant's current permissions, limits and prerequisites.; Identify missing negotiation details or conflicting accounts that prevent treating an activity as authorised.; Represent changes to roles, authority and boundaries without carrying earlier permission forward automatically.; Support pausing or ending an encounter when consent is withdrawn or communication becomes unresolved.; Record participant-specific follow-up needs and revise future agreements without rewriting what was agreed previously..
Distinguishing features
Record whether an instance involves a BDSM-associated activity or negotiated dynamic and whose definition places it within BDSM; unusual sexual activity alone does not establish inclusion.
Separate bondage, discipline, dominance, submission, sadism and masochism instead of assuming every instance combines them.
Distinguish an enacted power role from unrestricted authority: identify the people, activities, duration and contexts covered by an agreement.
Assess consent independently of labels, roles, arousal, compliance or an existing relationship; none should be treated as sufficient evidence of permission.
Allow sexual, nonsexual and mixed participant meanings rather than making sexual contact a required identifying feature.
Scope
+ Competing participant and research definitions of BDSM and their criteria for inclusion
+ Specific activities, encounters and continuing arrangements identified as BDSM
+ Negotiation, consent, limits, withdrawal and the practical ability to stop
+ Agreed power roles and the scope of delegated authority
+ Activity-specific constraints, participant responses and follow-up
- Sexuality and sexual orientation generally
- Clinical diagnosis or treatment of sexual interests or mental health conditions
- Abuse and coercive control as independent phenomena, while retaining their distinction from consensual BDSM
- Technical specifications or operating instructions for restraint and other equipment
- Jurisdiction-specific legal determinations
- Comprehensive models of relationships, communities or organisations
Characteristics
- Definition and attribution
- Definition linked to its participant, community or research source and inclusion criteria An agent must preserve disagreements about what counts as BDSM.
- Components present
- Bondage; discipline; dominance; submission; sadism; masochism; other participant-described component; unresolved The umbrella label does not identify the actual activity or dynamic.
- Participant meaning
- Sexual; nonsexual; mixed; differently understood by participants; undisclosed Meaning affects classification without determining consent or permission.
- Arrangement extent
- Single activity; bounded encounter; recurring practice; continuing arrangement; unspecified An encounter agreement and a continuing role arrangement require different temporal boundaries.
- Consent status
- For each participant and proposed activity: explicitly agreed; conditional; unclear; declined; withdrawn; not currently assessable Consent must remain attributable, specific and changeable rather than becoming a permanent property of the relationship.
- Authority scope
- Participant granting authority linked to recipient, permitted decisions, exclusions, context and expiry or review conditions A dominance or submission role does not specify its own permissions.
- Limits and prerequisites
- Activity linked to exclusions, conditional permissions, prerequisites and the participant setting each condition Interest in an activity must be distinguished from authorisation under present conditions.
- Stop-channel availability
- Available and mutually understood; impaired; unavailable; unverified Restraint, roleplay or communication constraints can affect how a participant withdraws consent.
- Encounter status
- Proposed; negotiating; agreed; underway; paused; stopped; completed; follow-up pending What an agent may support depends on the present stage and unresolved conditions.
- Participant-reported outcome
- Each participant linked to their own account of satisfaction, discomfort, distress, boundary concerns and requested follow-up Different experiences must not be collapsed into a single judgement of success.
Also called
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 16 findings · 26 questions.
Meaning and membership Establish which sense of BDSM is being used and why an activity or arrangement belongs under it.
BDSM is an umbrella whose practical boundaries cannot be inferred from a single behaviour or a single settled definition.
Definitions and inclusion
Keep definitions attributable and distinguish self-description from external classification.
Attributed inclusion criteria
Record the definition being applied, who supplies it and which features of the instance satisfy it.
- Which participant or research definition places this instance within BDSM, and what does that definition require? definition
- Where do participant self-description and external classification disagree? boundary
Components and meanings
Describe the particular BDSM components and the meanings participants assign to them.
Component-specific description
Represent components separately and allow participants to assign different sexual, relational or other meanings to the same encounter.
- Which of bondage, discipline, dominance, submission, sadism or masochism are actually present or proposed? definition
- How does each participant describe the meaning of those components, including whether they are sexual or nonsexual? provenance
Consent and boundaries Represent permission at the level of participants, activities and conditions, including withdrawal.
A BDSM label or relationship role cannot establish whether a particular action is currently authorised.
Specific agreements
Distinguish interests, proposals and prior experience from current permission.
Permission with conditions
Record what each participant has agreed to, under which conditions, and what remains excluded or unresolved.
- What has each participant explicitly agreed to for this encounter, and which activities remain declined, conditional or undecided? action
- What supports treating the agreement as voluntary and informed, and what uncertainties remain about the ability to give or refuse consent? boundary
Withdrawal and communication
Track how agreement can change and whether stopping remains practically possible.
Usable withdrawal
Represent agreed stop signals, ordinary communication and uncertainty without treating silence or role-consistent behaviour as permission.
- How can each participant communicate pause or withdrawal if speech or movement is constrained? action
- What response is required when a stop signal occurs, communication fails or consent becomes unclear? action
Roles and delegated authority Describe who performs activities and who may make which decisions within an agreement.
BDSM can involve negotiated asymmetry, but role names alone do not identify decision rights or their limits.
Role interpretation
Separate participant identity, encounter roles and activity performance.
Roles without assumed permissions
Record participants' own role meanings without equating performing an activity with holding authority.
- What do terms such as dominant, submissive, top, bottom or switch mean to these participants in this instance? definition
- Which roles describe activity performance, which describe decision authority, and which are identities extending beyond this encounter? boundary
Authority limits
Bound delegated decisions by subject, context, duration and revocability.
Bounded power exchange
Record the exact scope of agreed authority, including continuing arrangements, without interpreting broad role language as unlimited permission.
- Which decisions may one participant make for another, and what activities, contexts and periods are excluded? boundary
- How can each participant revise or end the authority arrangement, and what practical obstacles could impede doing so? action
Activity conditions and responses Connect the proposed BDSM activity to its prerequisites, communication constraints and participant-specific responses.
The umbrella category is too broad to support a single judgement about intensity, readiness or risk.
Activity-specific prerequisites
Make the conditions for the particular activity visible without supplying procedural instructions.
Readiness for the proposal
Record dependencies and unresolved concerns specific to restraint, sensation, power exchange or other proposed components.
- Which participant, setting, communication or equipment conditions must be satisfied before this particular activity is authorised? action
- Which uncertainties require changing, deferring or declining the proposed activity? boundary
Intensity and observed response
Keep intended sensations, participant reports and observed concerns distinct.
Participant-relative intensity
Represent intensity through an explicitly agreed reporting method rather than assuming that one participant's scale transfers to another.
- How will each participant report intensity, comfort or distress, and what do the chosen terms or scale points mean to them? measurement
- Which changes or observations require a check-in, pause or stop even when they could appear consistent with the enacted role? action
Encounter continuity and accountability Track an encounter through closure and follow-up while preserving individual accounts and information boundaries.
A completed activity does not by itself settle its effects, the interpretation of a boundary concern or permission for future encounters.
Closure and follow-up
Represent requested support and later reassessment as participant-specific agreements.
Individual follow-up needs
Record whether participants want aftercare or later contact, what that means to them and which requests remain unmet.
- What immediate support, space or later check-in has each participant requested or agreed to? action
- What later feedback changes future boundaries or identifies an unresolved concern about this encounter? boundary
Accounts and disclosure
Preserve the origin of claims and distinguish activity permission from permission to record or share.
Separate experience and disclosure permissions
Keep each participant's account attributable and record separate boundaries for retaining or disclosing sensitive encounter information.
- Whose account supports each statement about agreement, experience or a boundary concern, and where do accounts conflict? provenance
- What information, images or recordings may be created, retained or shared, with whom and under whose permission? action
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Check these first
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- This describes the practice-and-relationship sense appropriate to ACT.ACT; BDSM can also denote an identity or subculture.
- The categories overlap, and definitions differ over whether erotic motivation, particular activities or participant self-identification establish membership.
- No sources were consulted; community frameworks such as SSC and RACK are informal ethical approaches rather than universally issued standards.
- Which of these check these first hold for the sense of BDSM this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Kinds and varieties
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Bondage and discipline
- Dominance and submission
- Sadism and masochism
- Time-bounded scenes or role-play
- Ongoing negotiated power-exchange relationships
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of BDSM this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Consensual erotic expression and exploration
- Negotiated role-play and recreational sensation
- Relationship arrangements involving agreed authority and responsibility
- Community education, social gatherings and identity formation
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of BDSM this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Coercion or violations of consent, including treating a role or prior agreement as continuing permission
- Physical injury associated with restraint, impact or other intense activities
- Emotional distress or breaches of negotiated boundaries
- Communication failures or inability to communicate withdrawal of consent
- Privacy breaches, unwanted disclosure and stigma
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of BDSM this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Terminology, visibility and community organisation vary across languages and cultural settings.
- Social acceptance and legal treatment vary by jurisdiction; participant consent does not settle every legal question.
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of BDSM this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Kink - Kink is a broader and culturally variable category of unconventional erotic interests; many forms do not involve BDSM.
- Fetishism - An erotic focus on particular objects, materials or body parts may overlap with BDSM but does not require its practices or power dynamics.
- Abuse - BDSM requires voluntary, ongoing and withdrawable consent; coercive or nonconsensual conduct is not made consensual by a BDSM label.
- Sadism - Sadism can describe interests or conduct outside consensual settings; BDSM concerns negotiated participation and does not require sadism.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of BDSM this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
What the second pass must settle
- Which participant, community and research definitions should anchor inclusion, especially for nonsexual practice, fantasy without enactment and continuing power arrangements?
- How should the model represent negotiated resistance roleplay while keeping actual withdrawal unambiguous and avoiding any inference that apparent resistance proves consent?
- Which research-supported measures can describe intensity and participant outcomes without treating different BDSM practices or personal reporting scales as interchangeable?
- What evidence best distinguishes freely negotiated authority from pressure or coercive control in continuing arrangements, particularly when participant accounts conflict?
- Which minimum encounter records would support accountable agent decisions while respecting participants' privacy and preferences against retaining sensitive details?