Edge Play

Last week on AltSexTalk.com, Domina, Jarl and dira spoke about the controversial topic of edge play. After listening to the program I had lots of questions about my feelings on edge play and so I decided that I would do some personal research about edge play and share my thoughts with you.

The first thing that I struggled with was my definition of edge play. When you listen to the program each host gave their own opinion on it and it became clear to me that edge play was quite subjective. The basic consensus that my research showed (Wikipedia, Kink in Motion, Edge Play) was that edge play is sexual play that borders on the line of safe, sane, and consensual. Examples of this are where each individual comes in, what one person considers safe, sane and consensual, the next person may consider a hard limit. At this point, I decided edge play is play that takes place between two or more consenting adults that borders on what society at the time has deemed a safe and sane act.

This lead me to my second struggle. If you were to use my definition of edge play, all of kink would be considered edge play as society can be quite the prude when it wants to. So once again I have to adjust my definition. Edge play is play that takes place between two or more consenting adults that borders on what the fetish community has deemed a safe and sane act. However, have you ever perused through the internet and taken notice of some of what the fetish community considers safe and sane? (see below and whipped ass above)…

So once again I am back to the beginning of the vicious cycle of trying to define edge play. It is very evident now to see why there is so much debate over edge play.  After careful thought I believe the website edgeplay.com has the most understandable definition. They define edge play as “a subjective term for types of sexual play that are “on the edge” of the traditional safe, sane and consensual creed. These forms of BDSM activity are regarded by many as inadvisable and dangerous, and it is nearly universally held that they should not be attempted without proper training, supervision, safety precautions, etc. as appropriate.”

To summarize the various websites listed above in my research, the following list is what the different authors agree on could constitute edge play:

• The risk of serious, even permanent harm or death (such as branding, body modification, breathplay, gunplay)
• increased risk of spreading disease (E.g. cuttings, bloodplay, barebacking, scat, exchange of bodily fluids)
• psychological danger (from such practices as fear play, humiliation , incest scenes, rape play, interrogation scenes, etc..)
• social taboos (for example, ageplay, watersports, fetishism, racial slurs)
• controversial topics like Total Power Exchange, anonymous forced sex fantasies and abduction scenes

It is important to remember that what constitutes edge play varies with the persons involved. What one person may think vanilla is another persons edge play. As my journey into kink continues it will be my responsibility to decide for myself what constitutes edge play in my mind.

Photo Credits-

• Needles in Face – Mickey Stellavato
• Caning Welts– Whipped Ass
• CBT