This article looks at how strongly 499 
safeword survey participants agreed or disagreed with the statement “safewords are unhelpful to partners who know each other well”
The first chart, shows the extent to which all respondents (split by gender) thought safewords unhelpful to partners who know each other well (the method I have used for calculating the charts is under the subheading “Data used in this article” below).
Both men and women are much more likely to agree with this statement than to disagree and there really is no great difference of opinion between the sexes.
When the data was split by BDSM orientation (above) a clear difference did emerge. Whilst tops/dominants and bottoms/submissives strongly agree with the statement (T/ds were around twice as likely to disagree than to agree – b/s people nearly three times so) switches disagree.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, people from the Master (mistress) & slave BDSM component overwhelmingly agreed with the statement (below). People from the largest group in the survey (Dominants/submissives were split and Sadists/masochists were more likely to agree that safewords are unhelpful than not.
Data used in this article
The article uses data from a question where people were asked whether they consideredsafewords to be unhelpful to partners who knew each other well. 499 people answered the question. People were able to pick from the following responses:
- Agree
- Agree strongly
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Disagree
- Disagree strongly
To produce the charts used above I manipulated the data as follows:
- Agree (scored 1)
- Agree strongly (scored 2)
- Neither agree nor disagree (eliminated from responses)
- Disagree (scored -1)
- Disagree strongly (scored -2)
I totalled the scores and then divided that by the total of all responses (including “Neither agree nor disagree”, in order that a high neutral response would influence the outcome by reducing both negative and positive scores). I expressed that in percentages for convenience.
The data used is in the tables below:
| All | |||||||
| Safewords are unhelpful to partners who know each other well | |||||||
| Agree | Agree strongly | Disagree | Disagree strongly | Neither agree nor disagree | All | ||
| Bottom/Submissive | Dominant/Submissive | 24 | 53 | 40 | 31 | 42 | 190 |
| Master/Slave | 6 | 36 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 54 | |
| Sadist/Masochist | 6 | 8 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 31 | |
| Bottom/Submissive Total | 36 | 97 | 55 | 36 | 51 | 275 | |
| Switch | Dominant/Submissive | 7 | 15 | 11 | 14 | 47 | |
| Master/Slave | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 | |||
| Sadist/Masochist | 8 | 11 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 37 | |
| Switch Total | 15 | 12 | 27 | 14 | 22 | 90 | |
| Top/Dominant | Dominant/Submissive | 9 | 24 | 26 | 12 | 12 | 83 |
| Master/Slave | 2 | 21 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 27 | |
| Sadist/Masochist | 3 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 24 | |
| Top/Dominant Total | 14 | 49 | 32 | 21 | 18 | 134 | |
| Total | 65 | 158 | 114 | 71 | 91 | 499 | |
| Males | |||||||
| Safewords are unhelpful to partners who know each other well | |||||||
| Agree | Agree strongly | Disagree | Disagree strongly | Neither agree nor disagree | All | ||
| Bottom/Submissive | Dominant/Submissive | 6 | 13 | 5 | 3 | 14 | 41 |
| Master/Slave | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | ||
| Sadist/Masochist | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 8 | ||
| Bottom/Submissive Total | 9 | 18 | 7 | 3 | 17 | 54 | |
| Switch | Dominant/Submissive | 5 | 6 | 7 | 11 | 29 | |
| Master/Slave | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Sadist/Masochist | 4 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 19 | ||
| Switch Total | 9 | 8 | 12 | 7 | 14 | 50 | |
| Top/Dominant | Dominant/Submissive | 6 | 17 | 19 | 9 | 8 | 59 |
| Master/Slave | 2 | 14 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 20 | |
| Sadist/Masochist | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 16 | |
| Top/Dominant Total | 10 | 34 | 23 | 15 | 13 | 95 | |
| Total | 28 | 60 | 42 | 25 | 44 | 199 | |
| Females | |||||||
| Safewords are unhelpful to partners who know each other well | Safewords are unhelpful to partners who know each other well | ||||||
| Agree | Agree strongly | Disagree | Disagree strongly | Neither agree nor disagree | All | ||
| Bottom/Submissive | Dominant/Submissive | 18 | 40 | 35 | 27 | 26 | 146 |
| Master/Slave | 5 | 35 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 49 | |
| Sadist/Masochist | 4 | 4 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 23 | |
| Bottom/Submissive Total | 27 | 79 | 48 | 32 | 32 | 218 | |
| Switch | Dominant/Submissive | 2 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 17 | |
| Master/Slave | 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| Sadist/Masochist | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 18 | |
| Switch Total | 6 | 4 | 14 | 7 | 7 | 38 | |
| Top/Dominant | Dominant/Submissive | 2 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 22 |
| Master/Slave | 6 | 6 | |||||
| Sadist/Masochist | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 8 | |
| Top/Dominant Total | 3 | 14 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 36 | |
| Total | 36 | 97 | 71 | 44 | 44 | 292 | |
Related articles
- Safewords Survey – Are safewords essential in BDSM punishment (belasarius.com)
- BDSM safeword survey – Are safewords essential in all BDSM transactions? (belasarius.com)
- Safeword Survey – who uses them with their principal partners (belasarius.com)
- BDSM People who like “pain” and safewords (belasarius.com)
- Safeword Survey – Are safewords essential in BDSM play. (belasarius.com)
- BDSM Safeword Survey – who uses safewords with play partners (belasarius.com)
- BDSM Safeword Survey: what people said about safeword use. (belasarius.com)
- BDSM safeword survey – does age alter behaviour? (belasarius.com)
A dominant and submissive life 
