How roles work
A role is shorthand for a set of wants and expectations. Saying you are a service sub, or that a partner is a brat tamer, tells the other person in a few words what to expect and what to avoid. Every role below comes with the same three conditions. It is chosen, it has limits stated in advance, and the person playing it can stop at any time.
The core roles
Everything else on this page is built on a handful of core roles:
- Dominant: whoever leads and holds the agreed authority; in femdom, a woman. For the exchange itself, see the dominance and submission guide.
- Submissive (sub): the person who hands authority over, within limits and with the right to stop. Start with what is a submissive.
- Switch: someone who enjoys both the dominant and the submissive role, in turn or with different partners; the switch guide explains how switching works.
- Top and bottom: the person who performs an action in a scene and the person who receives it. They describe what is done, not who is in charge, so a submissive who serves his Mistress performs the action while She remains the dominant. The switch guide sets the two pairs side by side.
Titles for the woman in charge
A dominant woman is called by one of a few titles, and they overlap more than they differ:
- Mistress: the most common title, both a role and a form of address. The online Mistress page explains how sessions with one work.
- Domme: the everyday word for a dominant woman, used for professionals and private players alike; the types of dominatrix guide sorts the styles.
- Dominatrix: the older word, usually meaning a professional who is paid for sessions; the dominatrix explainer covers it.
- Goddess: a title for a dominant woman whose dynamic is built on being adored, with the devotee as the counterpart.
Roles inside a dynamic
These roles describe how a submissive serves, and how a dominant answers him:
- Slave: a submissive in a deeper, longer or more formal arrangement, usually with stricter protocol. The title is a chosen role, and the right to stop remains. See slave training and the sub vs slave guide.
- Service sub: a submissive whose submission is useful work, from chores to protocol, as in domestic servitude.
- Devotee: a submissive who submits by adoring, through praise, ritual and attention, the heart of goddess worship.
- Pet: human roleplay between two adults, in which the submissive plays a pet, usually a pup, and his Mistress plays the owner who gives the commands and the praise. There is no animal in it at all. The pet play page covers the persona and the rules for your body.
- Brat: a submissive who resists on purpose, so that She has to catch and correct him; the resistance is agreed play. The brat meaning guide explains the game.
- Brat tamer: the dominant who enjoys that contest and wins it calmly; the strict Mistress page covers brat taming.
Roles built on sensation and control
Some roles are defined by what the dominant controls or what the submissive feels, always within limits agreed beforehand:
- Sadist: someone who enjoys giving pain or intense sensation to a consenting partner. Through a camera She cannot touch anyone, so She sets the count and he carries out anything physical himself.
- Masochist: someone who enjoys receiving pain or intense sensation. Online it stops at sharp pain, numbness or any doubt, whatever count She has set; the sadism and masochism guide explains both roles.
- Keyholder: whoever holds the key to a chastity device, and with it the decision on when, or whether, the device comes off. A Mistress can do this at a distance, as the chastity keyholder page explains.
Roles built on money and appearance
Two further families centre on a gift and on a transformation:
- Findomme: a dominant woman who practises financial domination, where giving money is itself the submission; see findom cams.
- Paypig: the submissive on the other side of that exchange, a deliberately unflattering word used by agreement. The paypig guide explains it, and the money stays within a budget fixed beforehand.
- Sissy: a submissive who enjoys being feminised by a dominant woman through dress, voice and manners, as a chosen adult role; see sissy training.
Combining and changing roles
Roles overlap freely. A service sub may brat on Fridays, a slave under strict protocol may also be a devotee, and a switch may be one Mistress's submissive and someone else's dominant. Roles also change with time, and one that fitted at the start may fade as you learn what you want. Treat each as a working description, revise it when it stops fitting, and never accept a role that was handed to you rather than chosen. Every role on this page is an adult role played by adults, and nothing age-coded is hosted on this site in any form.
Taking a role with a Mistress online
Online, a role is agreed in words. Her profile tells you which dynamics She offers, and a few minutes in Her public room, mostly free to enter, show how She runs them; a message typed into its chat reaches Her there. Before a private, send a short message saying which role you want and what your limits are. Messages are text only, so there is nothing to attach.
A private here is one-way, so a role lives in what you do with Her instructions and in your honest written reports rather than in anything She can see: She never sees, hears or answers you, and no chat box opens. A role that depends on being seen, such as an inspection, belongs in a LiveJasmin partner room marked ↗, where cam2cam is a paid extra bought in credits on that site.
Questions people ask
What are the main BDSM roles?
Dominant, submissive and switch are the core three, and top and bottom describe who performs and who receives an action. Around them sit titles such as Mistress, Domme and slave, and specialist roles such as brat, pet, service sub, keyholder, findomme, paypig and sissy. A person can hold several at once.
What are the types of submissives?
Common types are the service sub, who serves through work; the slave, in a deeper formal dynamic; the devotee, who adores; the brat, who resists for fun; the pet, in a roleplay; the paypig, who gives money; the sissy, who is feminised; and the masochist, who enjoys sensation. Many people are a mix of two or three.
Is a pet role about animals?
No. Pet play is two consenting adults agreeing to a story in which one plays a pet, most often a pup, and a Mistress plays his owner. Nothing about it involves an animal. The persona borrows a temperament, such as eagerness and loyalty, and nothing more.
How do I find out which role suits me?
Start from what attracts you rather than from a label: being directed, being useful, adoring, resisting for fun. Read the page for each role, watch a few public rooms and try a short one-way private. Fix the label afterwards, since it may change. The am I submissive guide helps.
