The Battle of the BDSM Acronyms
SSC, RACK, and PRICK are the three most common approaches to kinky play. But what do these BDSM acronyms stand for?
As with any subculture, there’s a tendency towards tribalism when it comes to these various schools of thought.
If you’re new to the kink scene, we’ll let you in on a little secret: kinksters love (and we do mean love) acronyms. Below we’ve listed the most well-known approaches to kinky play.
SSC: Sane, Safe, and Consensual
In the 1980s, gay S&M clubs saw so-called “Dominants” preying on newcomers and pushing boundaries, limits, and consent. But good kinksters existed too, and within the S&M communities they grew increasingly more passionate about education and advocacy.
In 1983, a NYC non-profit organization called GMSMA (Gay Male S/M Activists) announced in a newsletter that it was “seriously interested in safe, sane, and consensual S/M”.
“...to help create a more supportive S/M community for gay males, whether they desire a total lifestyle or an occasional adventure, whether they are just coming out into S/M or are long experienced.”
The ethos of Safe, Sane, and Consensual grew in popularity up to the inclusion of the phrase as a slogan for marches on Washington by Lesbian & Gay Rights and the S/M Leather Fetish Contingent in 1987 and 1993. As with most of BDSM history, it was such activists as these who moved conversations forward and created the rich history of the kink community.
RACK: Risk-Aware Consensual Kink
The dawn of the internet brought with it unprecedented means of connecting with other people across the globe. Suddenly, kinksters were presented with easier means to find others in their communities, to organize, and to discuss concepts of what it means to engage in kink.
One kinkster in particular, Gary Switch, coined the concept of Risk-Aware Consensual Kink (RACK) in 1999.
RACK was a response to SSC on two main levels:
RACK acknowledges that not every kink is necessarily a ‘safe’ one.
Specifically for edge players, SSC created a bit of a roadblock to what they wanted to explore. With RACK, kinksters felt more emboldened to engage in activities such as fire play or blood play. This is why you’ll most often see RACK as the preferred school of thought for kinksters who play on the edge.
RACK argues that the concept of what is ‘sane’ is subjective.
What one person considers sane, another may consider to be completely outside the realms of a sound mind.
What ultimately matters within RACK is that participants identify and discuss potential risks, formulate a risk mitigation plan for the activity, and engage in it only through mutual consent and understanding of those risks.
PRICK: Personal Responsibility Informed Consensual Kink
It’s unclear where and when PRICK arose, but the odds are that much like its predecessor, it was born of internet discussions.
PRICK was a response to RACK, arguing that emphasis needed to be placed on the fact that every human being has a personal responsibility to take ownership of their actions.
This means that participants in a scene must all have taken the responsibility of researching the risks inherent in the activity. Each individual is 100% responsible for being educated, being honest about feelings and concerns, and recognizing the part they play in the overall scene.
PRICK does not mean that a more experienced kinkster should not take it upon themselves to inform the less-experienced party about potential risks.
What it does mean, however, is that newcomers should take it upon themselves to ask questions. In order to mitigate a risk, we must not only be informed about it, we must also talk about it.
Which is the best in BDSM: SSC, RACK, or PRICK?
That is your personal decision, and if we’re being honest, not every kinkster professes to follow an acronym-based ethos.
We won’t tell you which acronym to choose, or even that you have to choose one to be a ‘legit’ kinkster. When kinksters say that they ascribe to one of these approaches, they are endorsing the approach because it speaks to them and the activities in which they engage.
One thing we can say for sure is this: there may be disagreements about how best to approach kinky activities, but “consent” remains at the core of what we do. We encourage you to speak to members of your community and explore why they prefer one over the other.
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