What Type of Submissive are You?



The following is an excerpt from the Submissive Guide I am currently working on:

There are many levels and versions of submission. One way to ensure a good relationship is to be up front in what you want during play time, personal service and sexual service. State what your desires and needs are and there will be a lot less mistakes. Dominants are not mind readers. Be clear on your limits. Some submissives only submit in sexual scenes and not in the rest of their lives, while others give over their entire life to a Dominant. Some subs only want to be servant subs with no sexual acts ever taking place.

The following list isn't intended as a rigid classification. Most submissives don't fall neatly into one category. There are still further shades in between. I have listed what I term as the most common types of submissives.



The Conceptual Submissive:   This submissive is one that learns everything they know about submission from romance or erotica books and the internet. This submissive will normally only become an online sub or slave and try to administer advice to others with no real experience or concept of what BDSM is. They usually live a vanilla life outside of the cyber world. 


    The Mental Submissive: The mental submissive begins his or her submission in their mind. This person is submissive in and out of the bedroom. They generally have a need to submit or surrender to a Dominant. The act of submission is all mental but can also consist of physical. S/he can give as much or as little as they wish to or need to give. The surrendering is the power exchange. Once the surrender occurs, they can become an empty vessel for the Dominant to mold in whatever image They wish. Love is not required, as this is a mental submission.








The Romantic Submissive: This type of submissive wishes to surrender everything, without becoming a slave. In comparison with the mental submissive, a romantic submissive craves the love of the Dominant they submit to. The act of submission is full of emotion and love. They give all they have for the return of love and trust from the Dominant they serve.







    The Bedroom Submissive: This type of submissive is Vanilla in every facet of their life or even Dominant, but when the bedroom door shuts, the roles drop and they submit to the Dominant. The bedroom is where the power exchange happens and stays. This submission is almost always sexual in nature. In the bedroom, the act of submission is complete. But, when the bedroom door is open, the bedroom submissive returns to the vanilla world or role.



The Servant: This type of submissive is only interested in serving a Dominant. This submissive typically does not include sexual activities. They run errands, clean the home, run a Dominant's calendar or arrange meetings for the Dominant. This type of submissive satisfies their submissive needs by doing things for other people. This is a very special type of submissive.






  The Sex Slave: This submissive is in this Lifestyle for sex, with one person, many people, or in any way that can be imagined. This person rarely has any limits when it comes to sex and will allow a Dominant to use pain as a method of arousal and release, with little or no cautions. This submissive cannot imagine any punishment worse than being locked in a chastity device or not given permission to masturbate or have sexual release.






The Slave: Unlike a submissive, a slave must surrender completely and be completely controlled by a Master. The slave must feel completely owned. They can become a different person when a Master trains them to serve Him/Her in whatever way they prefer. When Master is happy, the slave is happy. They feel most complete when with a Master. The slave beams when s/he brings Master pleasure.




   The SAMs: These are 'Smart Ass Masochists'. They deliberately misbehave all the time so the Dominant will punish them. These types of subs are frowned upon in the BDSM community. Most people feel these subs are too weak to honestly ask for what they want. At times, they can provoke real anger without thinking how their behavior can affect the Dominant. The Dominant may then lose control and do actual harm to the SAM. They feel great remorse in losing control and can lose confidence in their Dominant abilities.

   The Attention Seeker: These types of submissives are the ones that always do things to seek attention from other submissives and Dominants alike. They post status updates on web sites that try to make you feel sorry for them, post lots of pictures of themselves in various states of undress, not because they are proud of their bodies but from the need to receive good comments to make validate their efforts, and are generally very whiney. These kinds of submissives are mostly found in cyberspace and are generally frowned on by real life BDSM practitioners.


    The Alpha Submissive: This person believes they are the ultimate, uber submissive. They think no one can come close to their knowledge, level of submissiveness, or training in protocol. They believe they are a step above all other subs and slaves. These people are generally not real submissives. They tend to read books and articles about the Lifestyle, may even submit to a Dom, but generally have no experience and don’t know what to do with book knowledge in real situations. They also do not have the need to submit internally and only want to do it for the experience.




Now, these are the different types of subs/slaves that I use to categorize. Don't forget that you may not fall into just one area, but several. You also may not agree with my descriptions. But hopefully, this will give you a broader understanding of the different levels of submission and the many forms it can come in.

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Published on April 05, 2013 00:42
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message 1: by Lilgizmo (new)

Lilgizmo I'm definitely more a mental sub but I was also described as once as a genetic sub.... only thing is I don't understand you don't mention anything about how I'm chemical drown to some dominant men n then I sub unconsciously is so dangerous for me.
I hide wanting to find a daddy relationship n love I think this would be safest. I crave to submit my inner being to someone but I can't find that person. It kills me.


message 2: by Michelle (new)

Michelle Fegatofi Being drawn to the 'bad boys' is not just a chemical thing. I believe it is also a product of your past experiences and environment as well. Since you are aware of this, yet you want to find a Daddy dom, why not try to find a medium? There are dominants that provide both.

Lilgizmo wrote: "I'm definitely more a mental sub but I was also described as once as a genetic sub.... only thing is I don't understand you don't mention anything about how I'm chemical drown to some dominant men ..."


message 3: by Lilgizmo (new)

Lilgizmo Hi Michelle can u plz explain more.

I find that if I am with a man who is not as routh/touth/degrading/dominant/abusive

I crave it from someone else. I think iv lung to enjoy this over the years. Iv tried to condition myself to lure to take pleasure from lesser forms of domination but I can't seen to pull away emotionaly (anx i dont mean aahhh i love him no no i mean magnetic charge the feeling of his ownership) there's something deep within me that craves to be owned dominated not protected by him.


message 4: by Lilgizmo (new)

Lilgizmo Craves to be owned dominated not" protected....

Supposed to say and" protected sorry.


message 5: by Michelle (new)

Michelle Fegatofi The first question have is what exactly do you mean by 'abusive'? Are you referring to actual bruising, broken bones, bloody noses, or are you referring more to things like being humiliated, craving edge play (knives, choking, etc) in a consensual way?

It sounds like you are a very masochistic submissive and that you desire a very sadistic dominant.

Lilgizmo wrote: "Craves to be owned dominated not" protected....

Supposed to say and" protected sorry."



message 6: by Autumn (new)

Autumn Apples I'm not in love with the list of sub types to be frank about it.

I see two very common sub types left out: The service sub and the house sub. Some people believe the two are one and the same, some don't.

There is also the brat sub. This is most certainly an accepted classification of subs. Whether it is a good or bad thing is often debated though.

And there is the "contract slave". These are the ones you find in auctions who may simply be Role Playing the slave role to please their buyer.

Attention Whore? Well, that would be a personality trait. No Dom trains their sub to be an attention whore. Plenty of vanilla people out there who are attention whores. Are they being submissive when this personality trait is in full bloom? I'd say no.


message 7: by Michelle (new)

Michelle Fegatofi Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. What you call one type of sub, others have 10 different types of adjectives that would describe them. I stand by my classifications as I stand behind everything I write. That certainly doesn't mean everyone will agree with me, nor do I expect them to.

To me, someone that is what you call a Brat Sub is not a true submissive at heart. A brat in my way of classifying subs would be under SAM.

Contract slaves would be covered under The Slave category.

The Servant classification covers what you refer to as a house sub and a service sub.

I believe you didn't read my classifications correctly as I have one called the Attention Seeker, not Attention Whore. If you are going to debate what I write, respectfully do so by not misquoting what I have written. These are very real and present in real life and online BDSM circles. I have encountered many in my 23 years around the lifestyle.

Now, again, if you read the explanations that are provided with each sub type, them you may gain a clearer understanding of my meanings. As I say at the end of the post "Now, these are the different types of subs/slaves that I use to categorize. Don't forget that you may not fall into just one area, but several. You also may not agree with my descriptions. But hopefully, this will give you a broader understanding of the different levels of submission and the many forms it can come in."

Autumn wrote: "I'm not in love with the list of sub types to be frank about it.

I see two very common sub types left out: The service sub and the house sub. Some people believe the two are one and the same, s..."



message 8: by J1n (last edited Nov 15, 2014 04:14AM) (new)

J1n Hello Michelle,

Would you help me please understand which sub I am and understand my guys dominance please. I'm very new to this type of relationship and my closed mindedness still sees it as bullying not erotic (my guy had never told me that he likes this type of sex but does it when we're having sex).

He loves wrestling me (I initiated that), punching my stomach (he lets me do it back to him), choking me, slapping me which causes me in defense and gut reaction to slap him back (he says he wants me to slap him back) pinning me down and calling me a bitch saying "this is how you treat a bitch", thrusting hard into me while saying "this is how you control a bitch, this is how a pimp marks his terriority, this is how you claim a bitch"

I love wrestling him (being succumbed by power), punching him back (shows that I'm actually of equal power to him), being riden hard (passionate, no holding back sex) being told he's claiming me (not as claiming but more like the true blood "sookie is mine" statement. Someone thinks you're worth protecting and claiming as their own and noone elses)

I really dispise the "bitch" name calling and the pinning me down while saying "this is how you treat a bitch". I hate the humiliating and degrading side of submission. He gets frustrated explaining to me that when he says "bitch" he means it as an attitude (he knows I'm not a bitch) and becuase he says he's role playing it doesn't mean anything. Its true that he doesn't do any of those things unless he is wanting sex from me. He's actually respectful and attentive other times.

Is this just a normal bdsm relationship behaviour or is this behaviour i should be worried about. Can you help me understand his "bitch" roleplaying from his point of view so I can understand him better please?


message 9: by Michelle (new)

Michelle Fegatofi Thank you for your question. I will be happy to answer it on my weekly blog post called Talk Tuesday. You can view my answer to your questions at www.bdsmunveiled.com.

J1n wrote: "Hello Michelle,

Would you help me please understand which sub I am and understand my guys dominance please. I'm very new to this type of relationship and my closed mindedness still sees it as bul..."



message 10: by J1n (new)

J1n Thank you Michelle,
I've bookmarked the page and I'm looking forward to reading your answer.


message 11: by Michelle (new)

Michelle Fegatofi http://bdsmunveiled.blogspot.com/2014...

J1n wrote: "Thank you Michelle,
I've bookmarked the page and I'm looking forward to reading your answer."



message 12: by J1n (new)

J1n Thank you for answering my question, it really was a genuine and heart felt question.


message 13: by Paula (new)

Paula I have always had a craving feeling for a submissive relationship but never really explored it. I am recently seperated and my husband was not interested in it. How do I try and learn more about it, I'm a little nervous about how to get started.


message 14: by Francesca (new)

Francesca Hello,
So Im new to the Practice of BDSM culture I'm 19, but I've always wanted to be part of it since I was 14 maybe. Anyways I'm trying to figure out what I am. After researching i feel as though my ideology of it all was very naïve, and offensive to the culture but I don't know. Anyways in my professional life and whatnot outside of sexual life encounters I am a person that holds a lot of high positions and leadership roles. So I'm always in control. When being sexual I want to lose control I don't want that responsibility. I want to be consumed, pushed beyond what I can do to myself. The surprise and thrill of it all is what kind of does it for me. But at the same time I'm very much a tease so I think I maybe SAM and I feel like that's something you don't want to be. I'm very much into he pushes me, and i push back till he over powers me completely which makes me think I'm a switch. And by the way my first DOM is my boyfriend and he knew little to nothing about BDSM culture and one day he just asked me what my fantasy was and I told them and he was very turn on to the idea of it. So now we've been practicing and whatnot. (he still is into his full potential yet but that's okay) lol. But now that I'm in the culture of it. I figured I'd do some true research, and I came across this. Now I'm just curious as to what kind of submissive I am.


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