After reading this thread, it's provided me with a little insight into something I was previously ignorant of. I wonder in a way if being submissive after suffering abuse is some form of coping mechanism. An experiencing of 'abuse' in a controlled way, effectively flipping the nature of abuse. Do understand, I'm excusing nothing from abuse, just wondering about the nature of what is done after the abuse has (hopefully) stopped. A friend of mine claims that 1 in 4 women are raped and/or sexually abused, and many of them drift into BDSM because of the psychological trauma caused by it. I'd hate to think that this is the reason for such behavior. I think that it's overstating the case, but it may be more common than I thought.

Conversely, I wonder further from the other side of the coin now on whether those who did the abusing naturally progress to the dominant aspects? I find this a rather disturbing correlation myself. For the record, I have never been abused or abused someone to my knowledge and therefore don't know if there is a direct causation for our desires for bdsm or fetish. I would like to think that I freely chose what I enjoy and am not a result of something aberrant or psychologically 'wrong'.