This is something that has been floating around my brain for a while, and instead of writing this up on a word doc first, and secreting away, I figure, I'll just put it straight onto here.

The dictionary definition of masochism is this:
mas·och·ism
[mas-uh-kiz-uhm, maz-]
noun

• 1. Psychiatry. the condition in which sexual gratification depends on suffering physical pain or humiliation.
• 2. gratification gained from pain, deprivation, degradation, etc., inflicted or imposed on oneself, either as a result of one's own actions or the actions of others, especially the tendency to seek this form of gratification.
• 3. the act of turning one's destructive tendencies inward or upon oneself.
• 4. the tendency to find pleasure in self-denial, submissiveness, etc.

Now, I can only imagine how many people will take offense at that definition of the word. How many submissives out there who don't consider themselves masochists, qualify as such because of point 4 on that list? How many in the community would argue that point 3 defies the tenants of SSC? Point 2 doesn't sound very much like the standard of masochism I've heard, either, it sounds more along the lines of objectification and other such things.

Now, another definition for masochism that I've commonly heard spouted off by the BDSM community is "A person who derives pleasure from pain."

Maybe it's just me, but I don't feel like I fall under that heading. I was trying to explain this to my chain-brother Aiwait-Nii-chan the other day, and he couldn't quite wrap his mind around it. When Master hits me with the flogger or the riding-crop, it doesn't hurt. To me, it does NOT register as pain.

It's not as though I have any wires crossed in my nerves, or that my body is misconstruing pain for pleasure. When something does hurt, I'll cry out, "Ouch, Master please... that actually hurt, please be more careful!"
Edit (Correction, what actually comes out of my mouth will usually be closer to: "OUCH YOU SMUG SON OF A BITCH THAT HURT!" And me trying to grab whatever he hit me with and/or threatening HIM with it, depending on how much said item hurt. >.> P.S. Other subs, unless you know your Master/Owner/Daddy/and/or Dom can take a JOKE DON'T do that!)

So I find myself kind of wondering... does the label actually fit? Maybe... just maybe, it's time to change some definitions.

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