Stands for Safe Sane And Consensual
It is the basis of what many people in the BDSM lifestyle believe is the cornerstone to creating an environment where all parties involved in a scene can safe, comfortable and happy.
Lets breakdown each one:
Safe
You’re not going to do anything or participate in anything that might severely harm you or another person. If you believe that an activity is too dangerous for you to do than it is also too dangerous to perform on someone else. You should only take part in activities that you and others feel safe with.
Safety is also about learning the right ways to perform and receive the activities that you enjoy so that accidents don’t happen. Knowing what you are doing and the precautions you must take to ensure safety is essential to maintain safety during your play.
Sane
Everyone’s definition of sanity varies slightly, given their experiences. But it’s safe to say that ‘sane’ BDSM practices include not doing anything that is obviously harmful or detrimental to one’s health or emotional well-being.
For example, you are not going to tie someone up, leave them in the middle of the road and then come back in the morning to see how they’re doing. You’re not going to rid someone of sleep and then interrogate them with verbal abuse.
And you’re not going to create genuine fear in your partner by doing things that are unreasonable and unrealistic – locking them in your basement and leaving them there without food or water.
Sane practices in BDSM are fairly common sense – don’t do anything that you wouldn’t want done to you.
Consensual
Consent begins with pre-play or pre-relationship negotiations that discuss what will and what will not be allowed. This includes lengthy talks about things that might cause emotional harm to someone or physical limitations that might also be problematic to the slave or to the Master. Hard limits that must never be crossed, soft limits that a person might be open to in the future but are currently off limits and activities a person enjoys.
In the end all partners must agree and consent to the boundaries and the limitations of any play or relationship. This will allow both partners to feel more comfortable in knowing that all activities will remain safe, sane and within the agreed upon limits.
Even many of the strictest Master/slave relationships still obey these rules.
Always, always, always practice SSC