This, my first article on this blog, relates to a survey I did of “Informed Consent” users looking at the symbols, like collars, that they use to display their relationship status and to get an idea of how they regard theses symbols.
Just over 200 people replied – an idea of who they were can be found here.
This blog looks at answers to the question:
Your views on “ownership” – just one selection please, whichever you think most represents your views
Across the entire sample (broken down by principle BDSM orientation) answers were as follows:
| Your views on “ownership” – just one selection please, whichever you think most represents your views | ||||
| Answer Options | Sadist Masochist | Dominant Submissive | Master Slave | Response Percent |
| I consider myself owned or possessed by my partner | 1 | 26 | 20 | 27% |
| I own or possess my partner | 0 | 9 | 17 | 15% |
| I am in a BDSM relationship but do not consider myself or my partner to be owned. | 2 | 7 | 1 | 6% |
| I believe BDSM ownership is possible | 5 | 18 | 5 | 16% |
| I don’t think BDSM ownership is possible | 19 | 6 | 0 | 14% |
| I believe that there are specific times and occasions when a person in a BDSM dynamic can be owned by their partner | 4 | 27 | 0 | 18% |
| I believe a person can be owned by a person not their partner for a specific time or activity | 4 | 4 | 0 | 5% |
| Answered question | 175 | |||
| Skipped question | 29 | |||
This data also appears in the column chart below. What stood out for me was the large proportion of people who characterise themselves as either Dominant/submissive (D/s) or Master/slave (M/s) who are in a relationship they characterise as ownership or possession, or who think this is possible. compared to the high proportion of Sadists/masochists (S/m) who don’t think BDSM ownership is possible.
Respondents could only choose one answer option.
A dominant and submissive life 