RACK, PRICK, and Other BDSM Safety Protocols

RACK is just one of several BDSM safety protocols. Learn what they mean and how to use them for the safety of you and your partners.

RACK, PRICK and other BDSM protocols are essential shorthand for kinky people. For safety’s sake and for clear communication between lovers.

BDSM safety protocols and their acronyms allow kink communities to communicate quickly and have a shared language so that they can easily be understood.

Why Safety Protocols are Essential in BDSM

Negotiating risk, consent, desire, and safety are absolutely essential in BDSM.

Safety protocols protect kinky lovers from impulse, pressure, and the “heat of the moment.” You decide what your limits are, what risks you are willing to take, or how much pain you are willing to administer.

Safety and consent protocols are important in any sexual relationship. In vanilla relationships and encounters, they are more likely to be implied than spelled out in acronyms. But ethical kink and consent has always been a very important value to BDSM and fetish lifestyles.

Read: Ethical Kink: 7 Values for Responsible Dating

couple discussing safety protocols before BDSM play.

Discussing and negotiating desire and boundaries are a key aspect of our lifestyle and ethical philosophy.

This is partly because BDSM and fetishes have often been condemned as strange or deviant, and so we want to keep everything squeaky clean and monitor our own behavior and choices.

Read: All About Kink Shaming and Why It’s Not Okay

It is also partly because some of our sadomasochistic kinks may be associated with criminal behaviors and violence. We have always been careful to distinguish ourselves from darker manifestations of our desires with consent.

But the vast majority of sex criminals or violent crimes are committed by vanillas or in a vanilla context—most rape is your basic in and out, if I may be crude, but we only hear salacious details about a sadistic criminal.

It is always smart to defend yourself with safety and consent priorities and protocols.

Finally, most BDSM lovers are genuinely concerned with limits and boundaries and clear communication helps us respect the needs of our lovers. Our BDSM safety protocols protect us from psychological and physical harm, and they protect our lovers too.

Read: BDSM Education: How to Learn BDSM Online

Couple engaged in safe, sane, consensual BDSM play.

What is RACK in BDSM?

RACK is an acronym that stands for Risk Aware Consensual Kink.

Consent is one thing, but we can be fuelled by desire and curiosity to run on instinct or impulse. Or we may not be fully aware of what a kink or fetish entails.

Risk Aware Consensual Kink means we take care to inform ourselves and each other about the risks in any fetish or kink practices, and set our own limits and respect the limits of others.

Read: Tips for Negotiating Risks in BDSM Relationships

How to Practice RACK

Risk awareness and Risk Aware Consensual Kink is more than just “I agree.” Practicing RACK means you should be able to discuss the risks, understand them, and know something about preventing them or minimizing them.

Practicing RACK means understanding physical, mental, emotional and psychological risks. It means understanding safety procedures, physical and psychological preparation, and aftercare.

RACK means prioritizing your partner or partners, and making sure they have a broad awareness of risks or dangers, instead of having the attitude, “Well, they were into it.”

Read: BDSM Aftercare: What’s It All About?

Couple with blindfold practicing RACK BDSM.

What Does PRICK Stand For?

PRICK is a safety protocol that takes RACK to the next level.

It stands for Personal Responsibility Informed Consensual Kink.

It is the same as RACK, but it also declares that you and you alone are responsible for your actions, your knowledge, your kink, your desires.

While still looking out for the safety of your lovers, you acknowledge that your lovers are not ultimately responsible for your safety and choices and cannot be expected to know everything about the things you are into.

Read: Should Sexual Consent be Implied or Expressed?

How to Practice PRICK

Taking personal responsibility for your kink means you do independent research, learn about psychological and medical risks and their care, and that you are accountable to your choices. You learn how to “do” your kink and what the risks are.

What about SSC?

SSC is an initialism that stands for Safe, Sane, and Consensual.

How to Practice SSC

Practicing SSC means practicing safety protocols, making sane or reasonable choices, and the informed consent of all parties involved.

SSC has been the motto of countless kinky people since the 1980s. But in recent times, some have switched to RACK or PRICK.

BDSM fetishists who are into extreme kink may take issue with “safe” and “sane.” Some practices are not really very safe or sane, and the SSC motto can be viewed as condemning extreme BDSM. Risk awareness or personal accountability makes more sense in this context to some.

Read: Extreme BDSM: 24 Examples of Hardcore BDSM

Dominatrix with Man on Leash

What is CCCC in BDSM?

CCCC stands for Caring, Communication, Consent, and Caution. CCCC is used by those who subscribe to RACK, to PRICK, or to SSC as well—or it can replace these.

Some CCCC advocates feel the use of the word “risk” or risk awareness in general is judgmental to kink sexuality. It seems obvious to those into extreme fetishes that play may not be safe. Caution and Communication may be better philosophies than safety or sane, to CCCC advocates.

Read: BDSM Contracts and Why You Might Want One

What’s Your BDSM Safety Philosophy?

In the end, your BDSM safety philosophy is your call, so long as it involves consent if you’re playing with anyone else.

Choosing BDSM safety protocols means it’s easier to communicate with other kinky lovers and your partners, to educate each other and yourself, and to build a BDSM practice that prioritizes your partner’s wellbeing and upholds your own.

Read: BDSM Limits and Boundaries to Discuss

What BDSM safety practices or philosophies do you follow?

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