The roles below are those available to select on Fetlife.  There may be other roles or more in-depth definitions of the roles.  The definitions are the bare minimum for each of these as everyone’s relationships and statuses vary on a spectrum.

Pet: a bottom who enjoys animal play or a pampered submissive treated as a human type of pet.

Pony: a submissive dressed in a harness, often very decorative, usually with a gag and a butt plug with a tail.

Primal Predator: a primal who seeks to hunt and attempt to capture prey.

Primal Prey: a primal who seeks to be hunted by a predator.

Primal: a person who brings out the basest animal instinct that people feel.

Princess: a person who requires a very particular treatment of praise, care, and/or attention.

Property: a person who consensually gives total authority to their master/owner.

Protecting: a person who escorts and/or watches over a charge to ensure that the other is safe.

Pup: a person who identifies as a puppy or dog, or as having puppy or dog characteristics.

Rigger: a person who practices the art of bondage; mostly with rope.

Rope Bottom: a person who receives rope bondage.

Rope Bunny: a person who likes to bottom to bondage, usually feminine-presenting, or a demo model for rope work, such as shibari.

Rope Top: a person who performs rope bondage.

Sadist: a person who enjoys inflicting pain or humiliation on another.

Sadomasochist: a person who enjoys both inflicting and receiving pain or humiliation.

Sensualist: a person with a strong focus on the pursuit of sensual pleasures and interests.

Sibling: a non-gendered person under the control of the same dominant.

Sissy: a usually male-presenting submissive who uses feminization.

Sister: a female under the control of the same dominant.

Slave: a person who consensually gives total control to their Master/Mistress/Owner.

Slut: a person who embraces the freedom to engage in sexual activity in accordance with their desires regardless of conventional values.

Spankee: a person who enjoys being spanked.

Spanker: a person who enjoys spanking others.

Spanko: a person who enjoys spanking others; this person differs from a spanker as they are in a culture based on submissive, hetero-normative, white, cis-women being spanked because they are “naughty” exclusive of most of the excuses, fetishes, reasons, roles or motivations used in the BDSM community.

Student: a person being taught by an advisor, usually with hands-on teaching of skills.

Submissive (sub): a person who desires to give up control of themselves, or of certain aspects of their lives, to a Dominant partner.

Swinger: a person or couple in a committed relationship who swap(s) partners for sex.

Switch: a person whose role ‘switches’ between a Dominant/sadistic and submissive/masochistic depending on the person with which they’re playing or their mood.

Teaching: a person acting as an advisor, generally with hands-on teaching of skills.

Top: a person in control during a scene or in play.

Toy: a person who is treated and used as a toy, be it sex, play, dog, or fuck toy.

Training: instruction by a more experienced member of the community in various aspects of BDSM, generally educating and disciplining a submissive.

Under consideration: a lesser-power person still being considered or decided by a person of power.

Vanilla: a person who is not involved in BDSM, fetish, or kinky lifestyle.

Voyeur: a person who enjoys witnessing others’ sensual or sexual play.

All definitions are obtained from BDSM Glossary, a glossary of terminology related to BDSM/Kink/Fetish and sexuality.

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