Dominance and Submission - D/s Relationship Styles

D/s Relationship Styles

There can be any number of partners in a D/s relationship, in some cases with one dominant sometimes having several submissives, who may in turn dominate others, or a submissive sometimes may have multiple dominants. Relationships may be monogamous or polyamorous. Romantic love is not necessarily a feature in D/s, partners might be very much in love or have no romantic relationship at all.

Variation in D/s is virtually limitless and the activities take many forms. These may include:

• domestic servitude or consensual slavery
• enforced chastity of the submissive
• erotic humiliation
• sexual slavery
• verbal humiliation
• fetishes, such as shoe/boot worship, uniforms, smoking, latex, heavy rubber, among others are activities considered part of BDSM
• dehumanization (pony or animal play) or objectification (forniphilia, becoming an 'inanimate object' such as a foot stool)
• cross-dressing
• whipping
• Corporal Punishment
• Trampling
• Human Furniture
• Human Toilet - Golden showers
• Feminization
• Cuckold
• Bondage (sexual)
• Public humiliation

These may be combined with other forms of BDSM. A classic example of D/s is the sissymaid, where an adult male dresses in cartoonish female clothing and performs stereotypical female chores such as housecleaning or serving tea. It should be noted that cross-dressing in D/s does not always involve a desire to be sissified or made into caricatures of women or to serve; for example, others may desire to be made as beautiful as possible and interact on a "girlfriend-to-girlfriend" non-sexual basis.

Some D/s relationships are sexual, others completely chaste. Fantasy role play can also be a part, with partners taking classic dominant/submissive roles, or classic authority figure roles such as teacher/student, police officer/suspect or parent/child. Animal play, where one partner takes the role of owner/caretaker and the other takes the part of a pet or animal, can also be D/s play.