How common is BDSM?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

And there are a goodly number of BDSM folk who don’t have anything to do with “the scene”, as I’m given to understand it’s commonly called.

22

About 3% is far from common.

Subject to the same arguments about the continuum from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively homosexual, of course.

Statistically unusual != unheard of. Also, != evil, or anything like that.

Regards,
Shodan

23

If we restrict it to people for whom BDSM is a normal, regular part of their sexual life (as opposed to occasional sexual games), my WAG would be that it’s less common than homosexuality.
On the other hand, I don’t actually have a clue about how common homosexuality is, and it seems it it’s a very debated topic. So, that’s a WWWWAG…

24

Indeed. I never attended any BDSM event, for various reasons. Nevertheless, though I’m a long shot from being 100% into BDSM, it takes a much larger place in my sexual life than just an occassional game intended to “spice up” things.

25

Shodan, I was always under the impression that homosexuality was about 10% of the population.

Where is your stat from?

26

Jar, what I meant by my post was not that spousal abuse is BDSM but that there can be violence in sexual activity that is not BDSM but abuse.

Anyhoo.

27

jarbabyj, the “10%” figure is a well travelled UL promoted by activists, but not backed up by any reputable research. While it is certainly true that homosexuality is more prevalent than a lot of closed-minded people want to believe, I think you’d be hard pressed to find a peer-reviewed study that finds 10% of any substantially large population (like the U.S.) is homosexual. (Note that I’m not saying that the percentage is actually lower, just that there isn’t any reliable evidence that the number is accurate.)

I should also correct my earlier post: while it’s true there are a number of Dopers here in Toronto, I actually meant that the BDSM crowd was several thousand people. :rolleyes:

28

I’m gonna move this to MPSIMS, as it doesn’t belong in the Pit, and I can’t think of where else to move it.

Lynn

29

So we are agreeed?

There is no way to say how common BDSM is?

Also, the slave-dog thread is still running over at The Pit and is still somewhere between informative and alarming.