This text was also published in:P. Califia and D. Campbell (eds) Bitch Goddess. Greenery Press, San Francisco, 1997.

"If there can be said to be a community-wide ethic of SM, it is the concept of "safe, sane, consensual." In recent years, this concept has gone beyond an ethical ideal to become a political slogan, even a party line. Yet it is not without controversy."