The Pleasure of Pain (Psychology Today)
and The Causing of Pain to Enhance Sexual Pleasure:
” * SM sex is obtaining pleasure from an exchange of power and/or pain in consensual sex play or sexual fantasy.
* SM sex is, by definition, consensual. Non-consensual sex is an abuse of power and is therefore sexual violence, not SM sex.
* There are no predetermined roles in SM sex. Power relations are determined by choice.
“These three points figured frequently in the evidence received from individual respondents. An academic respondent who has made a study of the subject said that SM sex is essentially a theatrical activity in which the sadists and masochists act out roles of symbolic dominance and submission, of shaming and being shamed. Their aim is not pain per se, which they fear as much as anyone else, but pleasurable excitation which is linked, or becomes switched to, sexual pleasure. They may suffer some degree of injury, but they view this much as a sports player views the risk of injury which is inevitably found in most games. Another respondent said that SM sex is essentially a matter of role-playing. One person is the giver of “punishment”, and the other is the receiver. They may frequently reverse roles. They may be both of the same sex or of different sexes. It greatly enhances the enjoyment for the receiver if he or she feels completely under the domination of the giver. Hence, temporarily, the giver is granted complete control. A third respondent said that SM games often involve fantasies of domination and submission, and that the different roles are freely entered into and do not necessarily reflect the participants’ roles in real life.”