Yes. Rough sex can be a fetish, but not in the way people are thinking.
If a person needs tied up in order to get off, and they are essentially getting off from being tied up and not from sex. they have a fetish. It can seem blurry though when then they ask their partner to tie them up so they CAN have sex. But when it is more about the rope than the sex act then you’re crossing into fetish land even though to an outsider it just looks like “rough sex”. Spanking is another example. Spanking during sex play might be part of rough sex. If a person can’t get aroused without a spanking, gets aroused by spanking alone, and incorporates this by asking to be spanked before sex so that they can perform… and they can’t perform otherwise… I think you’re crossing into fetish land. The thing that is easy to misinterpret though is that the person is actually getting off on the rope, the whip, etc instead of the sex itself, even though both are going on at once. If the person is just getting off on the sex and the rest is just spicing it up, just the mustard on the burger, it’s probably not a fetish. I think this is what causes some confusion about it.
And don’t pick on people who decide to define their sexual boundaries for themselves instead of your dictionary or DSM manual.
Sorry. Today I am just not “playing well with others.” @dp I lurve ya so much a fluthered ya, but I am going to disagree with you here and that’s all there is to it. I can’t believe I wrote this. Ha ha ha.