A Liberation Bridge

BDSM is the key to sexual freedom?

- Mehak Walia

BDSM is ‘a range of sexual preferences that generally relate to the enjoyment of physical control, psychological control, and/or pain.’

However, it is just so much more than that. BDSM has often been misunderstood, subsided, suppressed, darkened, neglected and even historically criminalized. This sexual need is still considered ‘deviant’ and an ‘abnormal’ sexual practice by our society for no apparent reason.

BDSM can be broken down into six rather interesting components: bondage and discipline, domination and submission, and sadism and masochism, and based on these, people further divide themselves into roles like ‘dominant’, ‘submissive’, ‘switch’ etc. These roles categorize their behaviour during the session i.e., whether they would take charge, let go or just switch between the two.

However, with COVID-19 crashing the party, the community has had to go through quite a shake up, which meant changes and big ones at that!

BDSM During The Pandemic

The restrictions posed during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has affected the BDSM lifestyle significantly.

The dynamic community, however, was quick to adapt and improvise in order to accommodate the situation. The curious and interested folks who found it hard to come out of the closet due to privacy concern, found the courage to explore and engage in the community, virtually and safely.

The community has also witnessed a growth spurt, as the general public has started experiencing an increase in sexual desire during the lockdown, and the urge to explore their sexualities.