SSC
Safe, sane and consensual, a BDSM motto widely adopted since the 1980s, coined as a minimum standard to set consensual play apart from abuse and later criticized as too narrow.
SSC stands for safe, sane and consensual: activities kept safe, participants of sound mind, and everyone consenting. David Stein said he coined the phrase for the New York group Gay Male S/M Activists as a minimum standard separating consensual play from abuse, and many organizations adopted it from the 1980s on. Liam Wignall’s review of the literature notes that it spread quickly as a mantra but came to be used to police riskier play, and that critics found “sane” problematic; the American Counseling Association’s 2020 brief adds that many people dropped the term because “sane” can stigmatize practitioners with a history of mental illness. RACK grew partly from these objections. In Wignall’s interviews with 30 kinky gay and bisexual men, 25 had never heard of SSC or its alternatives.
Sources
- Risk-aware consensual kink — Wikipedia
- Safe, sane and consensual — Wikipedia
- Beyond safe, sane, and consensual: navigating risk and consent online for kinky gay and bisexual men — Journal of Positive Sexuality (Liam Wignall, accepted manuscript)
- Kink culture: what professional counselors need to know — American Counseling Association practice brief (Litam and Speciale, 2020)