BDSM Role Fluidity: A Mixed-Methods Approach to Investigating Switches Within Dominant/Submissive Binaries
BDSM roles can change across partners, settings, and time. Gender patterns appeared in the sample, but switch and queer experiences did not fit a simple two-role system.
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About this source
Labels such as top, dominant, bottom, submissive, and switch describe different parts of identity and practice. This study supports asking what a role means to a person instead of treating labels as fixed personality types.
Why it matters: This source demonstrates that kink is shaped by learnable community practices, negotiation, and wide variation. That helps readers separate consensual BDSM from abuse and replace stereotypes with better questions.
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Purpose and scope
Examine BDSM role identities, how often roles are used, and how roles change across time, partners, and settings.
202 online survey participants and 25 semi-structured interview participants involved in BDSM.
Findings or central themes
Role patterns often reflected gendered dominant/submissive expectations, but women and queer or pansexual participants also disrupted those patterns through switch identities and role changes.
Strengths
Combines survey patterns with interviews that add context about identity and changing roles.
Limitations
Self-selected participants and gender-group patterns cannot predict any individual's identity, role, or behavior.
Do not use this source to claim: Predicting a person's role from gender or sexuality, or treating community labels as fixed clinical categories
Citation and access
Katherine Martinez (2018). BDSM Role Fluidity: A Mixed-Methods Approach to Investigating Switches Within Dominant/Submissive Binaries. Journal of Homosexuality DOI: 10.1080/00918369.2017.1374062
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