This article looks at how strongly 491 survey participants felt about using safewords in all their BDSM interactions. The method I have used for calculating the charts is detailed below.
In the analysis I have done here I found significant differences in attitude between different groups as to which were more likely to think a safeword essential in all their interactions than not (switches and S/m people were more likely to think safewords essential).
I asked further questions about the use of safewords in play and, specifically, with relationship partners and these will be analysed in future articles.
The first chart, below, shows how inclined, or not, all respondents were to consider safewords essential.
As can be seen, only the group of respondents who identified as switches were more likely to agree with the statement “Safewords are essential in all BDSM transactions” than not. Tops/dominants and bottoms/submissives showed an almost equal inclination to disagree. Bottoms/submissives, however, were slightly less likely to agree with the statement too.
Women
This and the the next chart show the attitude of female respondents to whether safewords are essential. The first chart looks at attitudes according to the respondent’s position in the relationship.
Female switches are much more likely to agree that safewords are essential than to disagree, whilst both tops and bottoms are both more than twice as likely to disagree than to agree (there is little real difference between the groups).
The next chart shows women’s attitudes based on the respondent’s choice of BDSM component – ie whether they are in a Sadist/Masochist (S/m), Master (mistress) and slave,(M/s) or dominant/submissive dynamic.
S/m women were more likely to agree that safewords were essential than not. D/s women are more likely to disagree, but not by much. But M/s women are around four and a half times more likely to disagree that safewords are essential than to agree.
Men
This next chart shows the responses of males concerning whether safewords are essential in all BDSM transactions. Within each orientation it differs little from the responses given by women. But, overall, male respondents were more likely to disagree that safewords were essential than women. Males switches in particular were more balanced than females – where roughly twice as many thought safewords were essential than didn’t.
Male S/m people differ quite markedly from their female equivalents (chart below). Female sadists/masochists were slightly more likely to say they agreed safewords were essential than not. Males were more than twice as likely to disagree.
People in master/slave dynamics showed a pronounced gender difference too. Males are only twice as likely to disagree that safewords are essential, whereas women were more than four times as likely to disagree. In contrast, whilst D/s women were only slightly more likely to disagree, Dominant/submissive men were much more likely to disagree.
Data used in this article
The article uses data from a question where people were asked whether they considered safewords to be essential in all BDSM transactions. 491 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 multiplied the result by 10 for convenience.
The data used is in the tables below
| Safewords are essential in all BDSM interactions – sample structure | |||||||
| Agree | Agree strongly | Disagree | Disagree strongly | Neither agree nor disagree | All | ||
| Bottom/Submissive | Dominant/Submissive | 28 | 29 | 54 | 53 | 23 | 187 |
| Master/Slave | 2 | 4 | 9 | 34 | 6 | 55 | |
| Sadist/Masochist | 3 | 2 | 12 | 5 | 9 | 31 | |
| Bottom/Submissive Total | 33 | 35 | 75 | 92 | 38 | 273 | |
| Switch | Dominant/Submissive | 12 | 12 | 11 | 3 | 8 | 46 |
| Master/Slave | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |
| Sadist/Masochist | 8 | 2 | 9 | 7 | 10 | 36 | |
| Switch Total | 21 | 15 | 21 | 11 | 19 | 87 | |
| Top/Dominant | Dominant/Submissive | 11 | 13 | 17 | 25 | 15 | 81 |
| Master/Slave | 1 | 1 | 23 | 1 | 26 | ||
| Sadist/Masochist | 5 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 24 | |
| Top/Dominant Total | 16 | 22 | 23 | 53 | 17 | 131 | |
| Grand Total | 70 | 72 | 119 | 156 | 74 | 491 | |
| Safewords are essential in all BDSM interactions – women | |||||||
| Agree | Agree strongly | Disagree | Disagree strongly | Neither agree nor disagree | All | ||
| Bottom/Submissive | Dominant/Submissive | 20 | 26 | 43 | 39 | 18 | 146 |
| Master/Slave | 1 | 4 | 8 | 32 | 5 | 50 | |
| Sadist/Masochist | 3 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 6 | 23 | |
| Bottom/Submissive Total | 24 | 32 | 59 | 75 | 29 | 219 | |
| Switch | Dominant/Submissive | 3 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 17 |
| Master/Slave | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||
| Sadist/Masochist | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 17 | |
| Switch Total | 8 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 9 | 37 | |
| Top/Dominant | Dominant/Submissive | 2 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 22 |
| Master/Slave | 6 | 6 | |||||
| Sadist/Masochist | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 8 | ||
| Top/Dominant Total | 4 | 5 | 8 | 13 | 6 | 36 | |
| Grand Total | 36 | 46 | 73 | 93 | 44 | 292 | |
| Safewords are essential in all BDSM interactions – men | |||||||
| Agree | Agree strongly | Disagree | Disagree strongly | Neither agree nor disagree | All | ||
| Bottom/Submissive | Dominant/Submissive | 8 | 3 | 11 | 14 | 5 | 41 |
| Master/Slave | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | ||
| Sadist/Masochist | 4 | 1 | 3 | 8 | |||
| Bottom/Submissive Total | 9 | 3 | 16 | 17 | 9 | 54 | |
| Switch | Dominant/Submissive | 9 | 5 | 8 | 1 | 6 | 29 |
| Master/Slave | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Sadist/Masochist | 4 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 19 | ||
| Switch Total | 13 | 6 | 15 | 6 | 10 | 50 | |
| Top/Dominant | Dominant/Submissive | 9 | 11 | 11 | 19 | 9 | 59 |
| Master/Slave | 1 | 1 | 17 | 1 | 20 | ||
| Sadist/Masochist | 3 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 16 | |
| Top/Dominant Total | 12 | 17 | 15 | 40 | 11 | 95 | |
| Grand Total | 34 | 26 | 46 | 63 | 30 | 199 | |
Background
This is the fifth article about the safeword survey I recently conducted. More information about the terms and ideas I use in these surveys can be found here. Information about the demographics of this survey is here.
Related articles
- BDSM Safeword Survey – who uses safewords with play partners (belasarius.com)
- Safeword Survey – who uses them with their principal partners (belasarius.com)
- BDSM safeword survey – does age alter behaviour? (belasarius.com)
- BDSM Safeword Survey: what people said about safeword use. (belasarius.com)
- BDSM People who like “pain” and safewords (belasarius.com)
- What do sadists really like (and submissives, and slaves, etc). (belasarius.com)
- BDSM safeword survey – does age alter behaviour? (daddysnaughtylittlegirl.wordpress.com)
- The Gender Gap (belasarius.com)
- Differing dynamics: S/m, M/s and D/s (belasarius.com)
- Safewords Survey – Are safewords essential in BDSM punishment (belasarius.com)
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