BDSM: Femdom Laws and Politics
(Legal Issues Related to BDSM Female Domination Plays)

Femdom Laws and Politics

General Overview
Lack of Definition of BDSM Femdom Activities
For Parties in BDSM Femdom Activities
-- Possible Criminal and Civil Charges
-- How to Act When Law Enforcement Officers Come
For Law Enforcement Officers
-- Perception as a Motive for Prosecution
-- Ulterior Motives
-- The Dilemmas
-- The Differences Between Abuse and Consensual Lovemaking
-- Signals to Help You Evaluate the Situation
-- How to Act

For Law Enforcement Officers

Ulterior Motives

Leaving the area of criminal law and concentrating on civil law it becomes obvious that the vast majority of court cases that involve female domination activities and/or emotions in any way, are found in the following fields: divorce cases, custody cases and (sometimes) employment-related or political cases. The problem here is predominantly in the fact that in such cases femdom play is almost always brought up because either of the parties has ulterior motives: one wants the marriage to end, wants to gain sole custody, seeks a financial arrangement of any kind, tries to do as much political and media damage as possible or either wants to end or keep the employment.

The femdom play related "facts" as such in these cases are usually not studied and have little or no relevance to the case, but are merely used to create a certain atmosphere to the benefit of the party bringing them up and will serve as "character arguments" (in many cases plain character assassination).

Magistrates, lawyers and juries would do wise to disregard the subject entirely in cases like these. Unfortunately that is usually not the case. Assumptions and stigma again - unfortunately also often used by "external experts", such as childcare institutions and individual aid workers - play the predominant part here and again - since the motivation for the entire case is a different one - will usually not be investigated or judged on its merits and relevance to the case but will only serve as character-motives.

With respect to civil cases it becomes even more important to emphasize the social implications, people "accused" of entering into female domination activities or even nurturing such emotions will face. There is a substantial fear in the entire femdom community that one may lose custody over ones children - or may never see them again - and that jobs and careers are at stake. Not to mention family relations, neighborhood "popularity" and such. In many cases that fear is very real. People - especially those in high profile jobs - have lost careers and jobs if there is even a hunch of female domination activity. The same goes for people that have jobs that are in anyway related to children, such as social workers and teachers. Because the social stigma will often brand them as a potential bad influence to say the least. When investigating such cases one often finds that female domination in BDSM was not the direct motive for letting people off, at least it did not say so in the letter of resignation, but that such motives and assumptions were at the root of the decision.

When confronted with an actual female domination activity of BDSM situation you will find yourself faced with several dilemmas. Conflicts between your training and the actual situation. That may make things difficult for you. For this reason, on this page we will try to follow the standard procedure and standard report systems many police organizations use. There may be minor variations of course, due to local differences in training and procedures, but most officers will recognize the format. If you follow the line of thought layed out on this page, you should be able to make the correct judgements in female domination situation and you will be able to deliver a report that will support your decisions, should this be required, in standard format.