SSC (Safe, Sane and Consensual)
SSC is the basis and foundation for the lifestyle. It is a frequently heard phrase for which you will found in various facets of the community as a whole. Its roots are deeply entwined with a concern for ethics and fair play when it comes to activity in the lifestyle.
- Safe: Safe means that even if we play hard, we avoid cause any type of true harm to anyone.
- Sane: People do not play when they’re angry, intoxicated, under the influence of drugs, depressed, exhausted or otherwise not fully able to determine boundaries and evaluate risk.
- Consensual: Participants within in a scene or any aspect of the lifestyle have provided each other with knowledgeable and informed consent to participate and interact with each other. It is understood that any participant be it the dominant or submissive has the right to stop the scene at any time through the use of safe words or other predefined means.
RACK ( Risk Aware Consensual Kink )
- Risk-aware: Both parties understand and are well informed of the risks involved in the proposed activities for which they are involving themselves in.
- Consensual: In the light of these risks, both or all parties have, of sound mind, offered preliminary consent to engage in said activity.
- Kink: Said activity can be classified as alternative sex.
PRICK
- Personal
- Responsibility
- informed
- Consensual
- Kink
Not all members of the BDSM community adhere to one principle to the exclusion of the other. Some people subscribe to both mottos, using SSC as a description of the activities to any member of the general public, while using RACK as a description of the activities within members of a community. Still others define their own terms, the term PRICK (Personal Responsibility, Informed Consensual Kink) in particular emphasizes the concept of taking personal responsibility for your actions, as well as an informed analysis of the risks. In some “old-guard” circles the term “Committed Compassionate Consensual” is circulated.