"I'm a switch." In some bdsm communities, those words would be greeted with the same derision that might greet someone who says he or she is bisexual in certain gay and lesbian communities. I believe that in the same erroneous way some people say there's no such thing as bisexual, some from within bdsm communities say there's no such thing as a 'switch'.

But why?

Why do a small, but vocal, minority of bdsmers feel that you're not a 'true bdsmer' if you choose to 'play' on both sides? I hear it often--switches aren't 'real bdsmers' but mere 'players'. The insinuation being that they don't fully comprehend, or understand, the often delicate balance between dominance and submission.

But are they really, as some would have you believe, individuals who shouldn't be considered a part of the bdsm community? People who haven't yet managed to find their true sexual leaning? Even, "players" who don't take the lifestyle seriously enough? Or, are they bdsmers who simply choose to be different from regular bdsmers? A 'third genre' within the bdsm community.

Could it also be that maybe they're seen by some as perhaps just taking more than their share of the already small bdsm community pie? Doubling their chances of finding a suitable partner and/or sexual satisfaction at the supposed expense of 'regular' dominants and submissives. Do some 'purists' perhaps view switches as some kind of sexual opportunists who are willing to take what ever comes their way-- and therefore more than what they're actually entitled to take?

Personally, I think experiencing both sides rather gives a better understanding of the psychological complexities of bdsm. And, since we never stop learning about ourselves, and particularly our sexuality, it seems perfectly nature for some bdsmers to want to experience both sides, and for some to discover that they're neither fully dominant or submissive, but purely switches.

Either way, in a community that is already set on the fringe of 'regular' society, by virtue of being a sexual minority, doesn't it seem rather sad that some people from within it actually choose to factionalise and prejudice each other like this?