10 Things You Wanna Know About S&M But Are Afraid To Ask
By Dr. Sonia Borg. Posted on .
![10 Things You Wanna Know About S&M But Are Afraid To Ask [EXPERT]](http://images.tangomag.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/node-full/image_blog/omg.jpg "10 Things You Wanna Know About S&M But Are Afraid To Ask [EXPERT]")
They study it at Harvard, but you don't have to go back to school to learn about BDSM.
Whether you are a Fifty Shades of Grey fan or not, you can probably appreciate that the book has brought awareness to individuals, homes and now college campuses. Not just any college campus, either; Harvard University! Here is what they are likely to know about sex and kink in the Ivy League:
- Sex is cultural. What one culture considers taboo, another considers commonplace. What's for sure is that erotica has been part of every civilization known to humans as seen in erotic art dating back to Paleolithic time.
- Shame as a control tactic. Societies have tried to control sexual behavior since the beginning of time through the use of shame. Generally speaking, cultures with the highest shame and lowest education about sex have the higher rates of sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies and low sexual satisfaction.
- What is BDSM? BDSM stands for Bondage (restraint), Discipline (mental or psychological restraint), Dominance/Submission (control and personal power), Sadism Masochism (receiving pleasure from watching or inflicting pain onto others).
- How common is kink? Most people have taken part in some sort of BDSM. Role-playing, blindfolding, tie ups and spankings are all forms of kink.
- Meaning varies. The meaning of sex varies according to the individual. Just like "love" varies from person to person, everyone has their own definition of sex, which means that kink practitioners require a high degree of communication to discover one another's meaning. 'Safe, sane and consensual' is a commonly heard mantra amongst kink groups.
- What is Sadism? Sadism is a derivative of the author Marquis de Sade's name. Napoleon imprisoned Sade for the last 13 years of his life for writing Juliet, a novel about a nymphomaniac.
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