In the symbols of ownership survey I asked people about how and when they wore their symbols of BDSM ownership.
210 people did the survey and 177 answered this question. 10 said they were Tops, 19 Bottoms, 61 – Dominants, 116 – Submissives and 22 identified as switches.
Their answers were as follows:
| Top | Bottom | Dominant | Submissive | |
| I have no symbols of ownership. | 70% | 32% | 70% | 15% |
| I wear them all, all the time? | 20% | 5% | 26% | 11% |
| I wear some of them, some of the time? | 5% | 18% | ||
| I wear some of them all the time? | 5% | 21% | ||
| All of them visible when wearing normal clothing | 2% | 8% | ||
| Some are visible when wearing normal clothing | 10% | 16% | 2% | 18% |
| None aree visible when wearing normal clothing | 2% | |||
| I only wear them/show them in BDSM settings | 37% | 8% |
I’ve highlighted the most common answer in each column in blue and the second most common in red.
They are charted below.
Key points
- Tops and dominants are equally likely NOT to have any symbols of ownership (70%) but, when they did, they wore them all the time (20% – T and 26% – D).
- Bottoms and submissives were more likely to wear some symbols of ownership (32% of bottoms and only 15% of submissives had NO symbols of ownership) but a relatively low percentage wore them all the time (5% – B, 11% – S).
- Bottoms and switches were more likely to only wear symbols of ownership in a BDSM setting (37% – B, 45% – Sw)
If you found this interesting or useful, please think about doing the BDSM and Money survey, on the impact of BDSM on people’s pockets. Current results will be visible once you have completed the survey
Related articles
- Masters and slaves: attitudes to BDSM symbols of ownership. (belasarius.com)
- Attitudes to ownership symbols; what dominants and submissives say. (belasarius.com)
- Symbols of ownership – sadists and masochists view (belasarius.com)
- Collar wearing, what do submissives do? (belasarius.com)
- Collars, and other symbols of BDSM ownership. (belasarius.com)
- BDSM Ownership and Symbols Survey – are you owned? (belasarius.com)
- BDSM people and multiple or poly relationships (belasarius.com)
A dominant and submissive life 