Top (BDSM)

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In BDSM, a top or dominant is a partner who takes the controlling role in sexual play (such as in flogging, bondage, servitude, humiliation). The top performs acts such as these upon the bottom.

A top filling the dominant role is not necessarily a dominant, and vice versa. The top may sometimes even be the partner who is following instructions, i.e., topping when and as a bottom requests. A top who may apply sensation or control to a bottom, and does so according to the bottom's explicit instructions, is sometimes called a service top.

Topping from the bottom is a related BDSM term, referring to a person who wants to be dominated but simultaneously directs the top to do it according to their own wishes. Topping from the bottom is often considered poor practice amongst lifestyle BDSM devotees, although fairly common amongst the "BDSM curious" or newcomers who have had submissive fantasies, but may lack face-to-face experience with a dominant.

Some dominants might give orders to a submissive, or otherwise employ physical or psychological techniques of control, and might instruct the submissive to perform acts on or for the dominant. Also, a top in BDSM need not be the 'insertive' sex partner; for example, a dominant may command the submissive to do the penetrating, either by using the submissive's own body parts, or toys.

Some people like to switch roles between dominant and submissive from one encounter to the other, or even during a single encounter, depending on mood and preference. People who enjoy submitting to some people, dominating others, or exchanging roles with the same partner, usually identify and are referred to as switches.

[edit] See also

v • d • e
BDSM
Bondage and discipline
B&D
Dominance and submission
D/s
Sadomasochism
S&M
Aftercare · BDSM in culture and media · Scene - Role-play · Top - Switch - Bottom · SSC · Consent · YKINOK · Leather Pride flag · BDSM Emblem · International Fetish Day · Fetish

[edit] References and further reading

  • Dossie Easton, Janet W. Hardy. The New Topping Book. Greenery Press, 2003. ISBN 1-890159-36-0.
  • Jay Wiseman: SM 101: A Realistic Introduction. Greenery Press (CA) 1998, ISBN 0-9639763-8-9
  • Saez, Fernando y Viñuales, Olga, Armarios de Cuero, Edit. Bellaterra, 2007. ISBN 84-7290-345-6
  • Phillip Miller, Molly Devon, William A. Granzig (Vorwort): Screw the Roses, Send Me the Thorns: The Romance and Sexual Sorcery of Sadomasochism. Mystic Rose Books 1995, ISBN 0-9645960-0-8
  • William A. Henkin, Sybil Holiday, Consensual Sadomasochism : How to Talk About It and How to Do It Safely, Daedalus Publishing, 1996. ISBN 1881943127.
  • Breslow, Norman: SM Research Report, v1.1, 1999
  • Janus, Samuel S. / Janus, Cynthia L., 1993 The Janus Report on Sexual Behavior, Wiley, New York
  • Thomas S. Weinberg: S&M – Studies in Dominance and Submission (Ed.), Prometheus Books, New York, 1995 ISBN 0-8797-5-978-X
  • Robert Bienvenu, The Development of Sadomasochism as a Cultural Style in the Twentieth-Century United States, 2003, Online PDF under Sadomasochism as a Cultural Style
  • Charles Moser, in Journal of Social Work and Human Sexuality 1988, (7;1, P.43-56)
  • Gloria G. Brame, BDSM/Fetish Sex:Overview and Study, online gloria-brame.com
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