The Case for Classifying Authority Transfer Relationships as a Form of BDSM

Liam Wignall; Mark McCormack

doi:10.1007/s10508-026-03457-7

The Case for Classifying Authority Transfer Relationships as a Form of BDSM

Liam Wignall
, Mark McCormack

University of Brighton

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

Authority transfer relationships (ATR), as described by Casey and Sagarin (2025), are a consensual inegalitarian relationship form that should be distinguished both from other relationship forms (egalitarian and traditional patriarchal) and from other forms of sexual diversity, most notably “exist[ing] outside” of kink and BDSM. Casey and Sagarin’s concern is that seeing ATR as a form of BDSM can downplay the intentionality of these relationships and “pigeonhole” them as “kinky role-play.” In this commentary, our contention is that the separation of ATR from BDSM is a false distinction that makes ATR seem more homogenous and static than the diverse and complex forms of relationship that exist where power is exchanged over a sustained period. We argue that by classifying ATR as a form of kink and BDSM and situating them in a broader existing literature, particularly around BDSM relationships, a more expansive and inclusive understanding of ATR is possible.

Original language	English
Number of pages	4
Journal	Archives of Sexual Behavior
Early online date	28 May 2026
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-026-03457-7
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 28 May 2026

Bibliographical note

Copyright © The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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The Case for Classifying Authority Transfer Relationships as a Form of BDSM_VoR
Copyright © The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Final published version, 550 KBLicence: CC BY 4.0

Cite this

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title = "The Case for Classifying Authority Transfer Relationships as a Form of BDSM",

abstract = "Authority transfer relationships (ATR), as described by Casey and Sagarin (2025), are a consensual inegalitarian relationship form that should be distinguished both from other relationship forms (egalitarian and traditional patriarchal) and from other forms of sexual diversity, most notably “exist[ing] outside” of kink and BDSM. Casey and Sagarin{\textquoteright}s concern is that seeing ATR as a form of BDSM can downplay the intentionality of these relationships and “pigeonhole” them as “kinky role-play.” In this commentary, our contention is that the separation of ATR from BDSM is a false distinction that makes ATR seem more homogenous and static than the diverse and complex forms of relationship that exist where power is exchanged over a sustained period. We argue that by classifying ATR as a form of kink and BDSM and situating them in a broader existing literature, particularly around BDSM relationships, a more expansive and inclusive understanding of ATR is possible.",

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The Case for Classifying Authority Transfer Relationships as a Form of BDSM

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