Bondage

Many couples incorporate bondage into their sex lives, and find sexual bondage to be relationship-affirming.

Bedroom bondage games may be used for sexual arousal or as a form of foreplay, that requires and implies a level of trust and a surrender of control by the restrained to the active partner. The restrained partner (called a submissive) surrenders control to the other partner (called a dominant). This surrender of control happens voluntarily and under mutual understanding and consent. The main feature of sexual bondage is that it renders the restrained person vulnerable to a variety of sex acts, including some that they may be inhibited from otherwise engaging. The restrained partner is dependent for their sexual satisfaction on the actions of their partner, who may treat the restrained partner as their sex object. There are many reasons why people allow themselves to be bound. Some people feel a kind of freedom during corporal passivity, they can concentrate on their inner spirituality and feel at peace, as a participant in a study about motivation for bondage explained: “Some people have to be tied up to be free”. Others experience helplessness, struggle against their bonds, and feel a degree of masochistic pleasure from the restraint and pain, as well as being unobstructed for erotic stimulation by their partner. The free partner may derive erotic pleasure or achieve sexual arousal from being in a dominant situation, while the tied partner may achieve arousal from being in a largely “helpless” position in the hands of a trusted partner. Either way, the partners are usually playing out bondage games to act out their sexual fantasies. [1]