Consent is crucial in all BDSM play and practicing giving and receiving consent is important. It might sound easy and most of the time negotiating play isn’t really that difficult. When we stress the importance of consent it is not just a simple reminder not to rape or abuse each other; We trust that you already know better! The consent reminder is based on a recognition that BDSM play does sometimes develop in undesirable ways whether one is new or experienced to the scene. And many times this development in play is not intended by any of the participants but a result of poor or no negotiation before play. Reducing the numbers of these events is in the interest of everyone.  

Remember: unless you agree that a stop word (e.g. ‘Cirkus’ (the shared stop word of SMil)) is the only word that can stop a scene, ‘no’, ‘stop’, ‘slow down’ etc. is valid ways for a bottom to renegotiate or withdraw the consent previously given.