So I’m reading this blog I’ve run across, and I find an entry on pain sluts. I’m not even half way through the damned thing and I’m thinking “Who the hell taught this person their BDSM terms?”

The entry describes pain sluts as people who like to be treated as
doormats. Who like to be locked in a cage 24/7. Have dirty things
written on them and be made to go in public with them showing. And any
other form of degradation you can imagine. This is not the definition
of a pain slut.

The technical definition of masochist
(from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth
Edition) is as follows:

1. The deriving of sexual
gratification, or the tendency to derive sexual gratification, from
being physically or emotionally abused.
2. The deriving of
pleasure, or the tendency to derive pleasure, from being humiliated or
mistreated, either by another or by oneself.
3. A willingness or tendency to subject oneself to unpleasant or trying experiences.

And from WordNet ® 2.0:

n : someone who obtains pleasure from receiving punishment

But we’re not talking masochism here. We’re talking about pain sluts.
Pain sluts come from all walks of the world. Dominants, submissives,
switches, and people that have no D/s orientation at all like pain.
That doesn’t mean they like to be humiliated. That doesn’t mean they
like to be topped. It means they like pain. Pain gets their respective
parts wet. Whether or not they like to be humilated. Period.