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BDSM Dictionary : Dominant: history
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This entry is part of the BDSM Dictionary hosted by Informed Consent.
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As an adjective,
"being" dominant is about exercising influence or control.
Governing matters; being in charge. Predisposed to taking over and
wanting to maintain power.Noun
In BDSM, "a" dominant is a person who takes the dominant role for the duration of a scene or is a dominant partner within a power exchange relationship.
This term can be associated with being on the giving or controlling end of bondage, discipline or sadism but a dominant's activities might not include any of these.
A dominant need not be a sexual top; for example, a female dominant may command her submissive to penetrate her.
The term dominant as a noun is mostly synonymous with Dom but some people use it more widely to denote anyone disposed to be dominant and would therefore say that a dominant might be a Top, a Dom or a Master.
Note that some partners like to switch roles from one encounter to the
other, or even during a single encounter, depending on mood and
preference. See switch.Dominant behaviour
A dominant person enjoys being in control of a submissive person. Reasons for this are said to include demonstrating skill and power, having ownership of another person, and being the object of affection and devotion. Domination may be the way in which the dominant feels most comfortable expressing and/or receiving affection. Service oriented dominants would add that it is obviously useful to have the resources and abilities of another human at their disposal.
There may be other motives, including pleasure taken not only in sheer
power but in the suffering of others, thrill
seeking in taking risks and outright self destructiveness. That is why
many in the BDSM community are concerned with establishing the
motivations of those involved in an encounter and
advise caution in making BDSM connections.See also
(This entry in the BDSM Dictionary incorporates text from the Dominant article in Wipipedia.)
This entry is published under the terms of the GFDL. People with profiles on Informed Consent can improve this entry: see the BDSM Dictionary help page for details.
