Erotic humiliation
Erotic humiliation is a consensual sexual practice in which embarrassment, degradation, or shame is used to create arousal or enact a power dynamic.
BDSM: A range of consensual practices involving bondage, discipline, dominance, submission, sadism, or masochism. Erotic humiliation is commonly practiced within BDSM power dynamics.
Dominance and submission: A consensual power dynamic in which one participant takes a dominant role and another a submissive role. Humiliation often serves as an expression of a submissive role.
Sexual abuse: Sexual conduct that involves coercion, exploitation, or violation of another person’s boundaries. Unlike erotic humiliation, abuse lacks valid consent or disregards limits.
Public humiliation (BDSM): A consensual BDSM scenario in which embarrassment occurs in a public or socially visible setting. It is a distinct format that requires careful agreement about audience and exposure.
Power exchange: A consensual arrangement in which participants negotiate the giving and receiving of control. Humiliation can express an agreed exchange of authority between participants.
Degradation kink: A sexual interest in consensual degradation, including language or scenarios that portray a participant as inferior. This kink centers the degrading element that defines many humiliation scenes.
Sexual harassment: Unwelcome sexual conduct that violates a person’s boundaries or creates a hostile environment. Humiliating sexual conduct is not consensual play when it is unwanted.
Online BDSM: BDSM interaction conducted through digital communication, including text, audio, or video. Digital scenes can use negotiated degrading language without in-person contact.
Safeword: A prearranged word or signal used to pause or stop an activity, especially when ordinary speech may be ambiguous. A safeword lets a participant stop humiliation when it crosses a boundary.
Role-playing: A performed scenario in which participants adopt characters or roles for a shared purpose. Fictional roles can create distance between a humiliating scene and everyday identity.