The Acolyte Submissive. The Acolyte is a disciple, follower, worshipper or priestess, and considers herself a holder of sacred knowledge, a gatekeeper with the keys to her Dominant’s inner sanctum, and a part of a relationship that may transcend even death in a quasi-religious D/s relationship dynamic. In essence, the Lesser God Dominant and his Acolytes create their own private religion. Best matches: The Lesser God Dominant / The White Knight Dominant / The Ineffable Dominant

The Brat Submissive. The brat is a submissive who is generally well-behaved, but has made misbehavior, teasing, and limited kinds of defiance or disobedience an integral part of the D/s dynamic she enjoys with her Dominant, preferably with his full awareness and at least his implied approval. Without the requisite awareness and approval of her Dominant, the more appropriate classification would be the Pseudo-Sub. Best matches: The Daddy/Mommy Dominant / The Tin Pot Dominant

The Cow/Pig Submissive. The Cow or Pig submissive is one who enjoys being treated like a domesticated farm animal, and thrives on humiliation, degradation, and abuse from her Dominant. The relationship dynamic focuses on the real or imagined unattractiveness or worthlessness of the submissive. Cages, crates or pens are typically where the she is most comfortable. Best matches: The Sadistic Dominant / The Gorean Slave Master / The Femdom Mistress.

The Domestic Submissive. Sometimes referred to as a service submissive, she is expected to perform domestic duties such as cooking, cleaning, childcare, chauffeuring, and yard work. The Domestic sub is often expected to be sexually available to the Dominant, and sometimes to his other submissives, friends, or guests. Humiliation role play is quite often a significant part of their dynamic. Best matches: The Sadistic Dominant / The Lesser God Dominant / The FemDom Mistress.

The Kajira Sub/Slave.  A female Gorean slave in the tradition of John Norman’s pulp science fiction novels about the planet Gor is referred to as a kajira (plural: kajirae). Kajirae, almost by definition, are typically involved in relationships with Gorean Masters, however it is fairly common to find submissives who have been previously trained as kajirae but are no longer in the Gorean sub-culture and are now involved with other types of Dominants. Even so, it is quite common for certain affectations of the Gorean training to persist. Best matches: The Gorean Slave Master / The Sadistic Dominant / The Ineffable Dominant.

The Little Submissive. A Little is a submissive who finds joy in embracing his or her inner child. This dynamic often involves behaving, speaking, or dressing in a child-like manner or engaging in typical child-appropriate activities, and may or may not involve sex or other adult-appropriate themes and activities. While most Littles and their Mommy or Daddy Doms find age play to be sexually stimulating, there are also many who do not associate being a Little with sex at all. Best match: The Daddy-Mommy Dominant / The White Knight Dominant / The Ineffable Dominant.

The Novice Submissive. The Novice submissive is typically one who has very recently discovered and become excited about the D/s or BDSM lifestyle and has decided that she badly wants to be a part of it at any cost. Unfortunately, this often involves a frenzied and quite often very dangerous quest to find a Master – any Master – as soon as possible. This condition is often referred to as sub frenzy. The Novice submissive is easily spotted in a crowd as the sub who is lecturing anyone who will listen about her version of the “One Twue Way” to live the lifestyle. Best match: The Daddy-Mommy Dominant. Most common, but hardly the best match: The Tin Pot Dominant / The Collector Dominant.

The Painslut Submissive. The Painslut is usually an extreme masochist who enjoys or is aroused by sensations of intense or extreme pain. The Painslut’s primary interest is pain, pure and simple, and the inclusion of the suffix slut is not incidental. Painsluts are often known as much for their sexual promiscuity as they are for their extreme masochism, and they tend to gravitate toward the most sadistic Dominants. Best matches: The Sadistic Dominant / The FemDom Mistress / The Bear Dominant.

The Pet Submissive. A Pet submissive assumes the role of a cherished animal companion to her Dominant, who typically assumes the role of an owner, caretaker, trainer, breeder, or even rider. Pet submissives typically slip in and out of character as needed in order to deal with the more mundane and human aspects of their vanilla lives. The animal personas chosen by Pet submissives generally fall into three categories: kittens, puppies, and ponies. Many Pet Submissives will bristle at the notion that their pet personas are a manifestation of role playing. For many, it is an integral and primary personality characteristic that must be hidden from the vanilla world they have to live in. For those individuals, it is the vanilla façade that they must maintain in public that is the role play. Best matches: The Daddy-Mommy Dominant / The White Knight Dominant / The Ineffable Dominant / The Lesser God Dominant.

The Pseudo Submissive. The pseudo-sub is someone who may be fairly new to the lifestyle and doesn’t quite understand that just because she is a rope-bunny, spankophile, masochist, or bottom, that this doesn’t necessarily make her a submissive. She typically isn’t trying to deceive anyone; it’s all simply the unfortunate but predictable result of erroneously assuming that just because someone is a bottom, she must also be a submissive. The Pseudo-sub likes taking orders from her Dominant, as long as he tells her to do what she would be doing anyway. A pseudo-sub is never wrong. She’s just learning life lessons on her own, the hard way. The Pseudo-sub stands ever-ready to offer her Dominant advice on how to be a better partner. This usually consists of recognizing her bad moods and just not bugging her at those times. Best match: The Tin Pot Dominant / The Collector Dominant.

The Warrior Princess Submissive.   is the wicked-smart, strong-willed, uber-competent, ultra-competitive, synergistic, switchy, crusader. She’s no one’s doormat, never a victim. She is a kick-ass submissive for the 21st century. Think: Xena, the Warrior Princess, kneeling at the feet of Hercules. This definitely isn’t a woman in a precarious predicament waiting helplessly for her White Knight to arrive and slay a dragon for her. This was a woman who, as she is kicking the dragon’s ass, smiles at the White Knight standing on the sidelines and says, “Hey, buddy! Feel free to jump right in and lend your sword to this fight. Otherwise, stay the hell out of my way!” The Warrior Princess doesn’t need or want a rescuer. The Warrior Princess needs an ally that she can rely upon in the chaos of battle. She seeks a warrior equal to the tasks that she has already chosen for herself, and is demonstrably capable of accomplishing with, or without, his help. She is willing and able to fight the good fight alone, but welcomes the notion of having a worthy partner, fighting by her side. And yet, when the day’s fighting is done, she is perfectly at ease with considering herself entirely His – heart, might, mind, body, and soul. She is important because she just may be the hope and salvation of this lifestyle. There will come a day, in the not too distant future, when the Warrior Princess Submissive will be forced to become a combatant in a highly politicized war on the BDSM lifestyle. It will be a propaganda war that characterizes all Dominants as abusers and all submissives as victims of abusive and exploitative relationships. When she comes out of the shadows and chooses to fight for this lifestyle instead of against it – as many of her contemporaries will expect her to do – her strong moral compass will reassure those on the sidelines that she is doing what is right and just. Best matches: The Ineffable Dominant / The White Knight Dominant / The Daddy-Mommy Dominant.

For more in-depth information about these submissive categories, read Domination & Submission: The BDSM Relationship Handbook or The Warrior Princess Submissive, both by Michael Makai.