BDSM Demographics (8)

What i do mean is things like "what percentage of the community is made up of bi female subs?"... but for everyone... so you could clasify people by:

gender (male, female), sexuality (heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual), role (dom, switch, sub)

im making a few simplifications here... e.g. im lumping bottoms with subs

(and sorry to the TV/TG/etcs out there, i really never got to grips with the various ways in which you class yourselves (ie do you just pick one gender or another or do you class yourselves seperately?), so to keep myself from ignorantly dropping myself in it, i just left it out. BUT all thats not to say im uninterested in the demographics of TV/TG/etc people)

As i understand it, there are far more submissives than dominants (am i right or wrong?). but are there more male or female submissives? Are there more male or female dominants... so which of the maledom/femsub or femdom/malesub groupings is larger? Much of it is hard to tell from forums etc, as there are only a few really vocal individuals.

Anyone have any idea what the numbers are like?

Best domly quote ever (IMHO): "I already know that you will do whatever I want, but what is it that you want for me to want you to do?"

No. But I'm female, switch with a strong Dominant side and a hedonist - i.e. not quite bi, but willing to have fun with the same sex.

Some would say that I am just trying to have my cake and eat it and they would be right!

Does that help?

Ms VL1 x

If you don't live life on the edge, you're taking up too much space!

Not really, but it's nice to have a reply anyway, thanks!

Best domly quote ever (IMHO): "I already know that you will do whatever I want, but what is it that you want for me to want you to do?"

Females first

Sub 1155 = 60%

Switch 369 19%

Dom 390 20%

The ratios of sub/dom/switch are the same through the three sexual orientations.

Male

Sub 1737 = 30%

Switch 1556 27%

Dom 2430 42%

Interestingly bi men and gay men have the same ratio of sub/dom/switch, but straight dom men are as common as sub and switch straights put together. The preponderence of straight doms online does not match the reality of people that turn up to things. Doms of both genders are in the minority. the conclusion that may be reached is that a lot of online dom males see BDSM as an easy way of getting a shag.

thanks for the info - great method!

That last bit was especially interesting.

I was also wondering whether bi/gay orientations were better represented in the BDSM population than in society in general. Will have to take a look myself tomorrow.

Best domly quote ever (IMHO): "I already know that you will do whatever I want, but what is it that you want for me to want you to do?"

Edited 9 Sep 05, 12:33 AM by slow_shark

Your wish is my command

Female straight 53% bi 44% gay 2.5%

Male straight 87% bi 12% gay 0.75%

The male figures may be indicative that gay male society tends to avoid heterosexual web sites and have their own social contact systems.

Thanks again bohnanza!

I did a little of that searching myself... but i went one step further (and it took 7 times longer)... I split everyone into age bands 18-23, 24-28, 29-33, 34-38, 39-43, 44-49, 50+. And by gender, role and sexuality (thats 147 seperate searches)... plugged it all into excel and had a little look... don't know if anyone is interested in the results, but here goes anyway.

btw if anyone wants the raw figures without having to spend an hour clicking at stupid boxes, just memo me... the results are for the UK only, so the sample size was only 7817 (including TV/TG/etc as defined by b.com... but their numbers were too low to draw many conclusions as were those for gays and lesbians (on the whole... see below for some exceptions))

I will (atm some point) try to do a worldwide version using b.com... but they have this nasty habbit of only allowing 500 results to any search... i will have to reduce the age ranges or do it one year at a time or something to get around it, but it will take ages

1) The Straight Dom Males: It seems that the desire for an easy shag increases with age... Dom males in the 18-23 range account for just 18% of the male population... by the time they are over 50, they account for more than 58%. It's a gradual increase over that time, and the similarity in declining proportions for switches and subs probably means that they would (if the percentage were not skewed by the doms) remain the similar (within 10%... like all of the female results) regardless of age (doesn't really make sense maybe, but it's the feeling i get when i look at the graph).

2) Females Sexuality with Age: OK... i'm going to ignore lesbians, they simply aren't well enough represented in the sample. Bis are a completely different matter though. Get this... of those females aged 18-23 on b.com (in the UK) a whopping 62% of them are bi, whilst only 34% are straight! a gradual shift over ages takes the proportions in the 29-33 age band to be 50% bi, 47% straight, whilst by the time we reach the 50+ band the proportions are 26% bi, 71% straight.

The possible reasons are many, but amoungst those i think are the largest contributing factors are:

a) It has become less of a social stigma, and is often even percieved as a plus for a female to be bi (in a male's opinion - possibility of 3some maybe?). So it might be for some a way to make themselves seem more desireable.

b) Bisexuals have already questioned their sexuality and therefore might be more open minded about BDSM at a younger age. Those straight women might need more time to question what other things there might be out there (or possibly more time for some stimulus to go looking to come along).

3) Dominance Develops Later in Life: This is very difficult to analyse amoungst males due to point (1). It is a flimsy enough point anyway, but there does seem to be some evidence for it... (i'm going to say now though that i really need to take a larger sample to say anything with any authority here).

So here we go... basically female dominants make a gradual increase of form 13% to 23% of the female population from the 18-23 age group to the 39-43 one (and there after a tiny dip down to 20%... but that might be due to inaccuracy due to low numbers in the higher age bands).

The drop is not due to a decline in subs (in fact they remain pretty constant until 44+ when they take a sudden jump from about 60% (before 44) to about 70% (after 44)).

The reason is a decline in switches. I don't know much about the switch psyche, but perhaps switches move slowly to one extreme or the other over their lifetime. This would sort of make sense.

Well... thats all folks! I don't have any other observations at present, but if i find something i'll definately share it.

slow shark

Best domly quote ever (IMHO): "I already know that you will do whatever I want, but what is it that you want for me to want you to do?"

F's pinkxxx

What, after all is a halo?
It's only one more thing to keep clean.