Dominatrix
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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A dominatrix (from the Latin dominatrix, meaning a female ruler or mistress; plural dominatrices or dominatrixes) or mistress is a woman who takes the dominant role in bondage and discipline, domination and submission or sado-masochistic sexual practices, which are commonly abbreviated as BDSM. The male equivalent is Master. A common form of address for a submissive to a dominatrix is "Mistress", "Ma'am" or "Maîtresse". Note that a dominatrix does not necessarily dominate a male partner; a dominatrix may well have a female submissive.
The term "Domme" is a coined pseudo-French female variation of the slang Dom (short for dominant). There is confusion on its pronunciation, with some pronouncing it identically to Dom and some pronouncing the final e as a second syllable, e.g. saying dom-MAY or DOM-may. The correct pronunciation is identical to Dom, by analogy to one-syllable French-derived words like femme or blonde.
Older woman-younger man relationships are much more common in female dominant relationships than among vanilla couples.
The film Maîtresse, starring Gérard Depardieu and Bulle Ogier, depicted a professional dominatrix.
See also
- List of dominatrices in popular culture
- Fetishes (documentary)
- Fetish fashion
- Session wrestler
- Feminization (activity)
- Sadism and masochism in fiction
- BDSM in culture and media
- Master (BDSM)