You can't fake it in a dungeon.
You don’t have to be kinky to want a happier life.
More happiness starts with getting radically honest with yourself.
You can learn a lot from kinksters about happiness without ever stepping into a dungeon.
This isn’t about turning you into a kinkster. It’s about what we can learn from kinksters to build a happier life. Researchers have pointed this out, too: BDSM isn’t just about fantasy. It’s often a way people build community, connection, and meaning when nothing else seems to fit.
And instead of just new sexual practices (BDSM isn’t about sex for everyone), they found something more valuable: a place to belong. A place where their desires weren’t weird, needs had names, and relationships were built on clarity rather than assumptions.
Maybe you relate because of that sense that something you can’t quite name is off. Maybe you’ve followed all the rules, but you still feel, well, restless.
The Kink Isn’t the Point
You don’t have to be kinky to recognize the deeper issue here.
What I saw in BDSM practitioners was what happens when people reject the default blueprint and build their own. They had to because nothing else worked.
And they built something many people crave and never find: a life that actually fits.
This isn’t about kink as a solution. It’s about kink as a case study. A group of people who had to figure out how to name their needs, communicate them clearly, and build relationships that actually feed them.
We live in a world that hands out a one-size-fits-all script: love, sex, security. But no one teaches you how to figure out what those things should actually look or feel like for you.
So, most people just follow the script. They do what they’re told will bring them happiness. And when that doesn’t work, they assume they're the problem.
But the people I interviewed had already tried all that. They did the things they were supposed to do, and it didn’t work. So, they tried something else because they were out of options. And in doing that, they built happier lives and relationships.
Most of us never get that far. We keep hoping that somehow things will eventually start making us happy.
We can learn something from people who were willing to toss the script. You don’t have to be kinky to want a life that fits you.
“In vanilla relationships, I always felt like I had to pretend. Like I couldn’t say what I really wanted without scaring someone off. Kink was the first place I ever felt like I could breathe,” added Rae, 35, a domme and a school counselor.
Be honest: How often do you feel like you have to shrink yourself (your wants, your needs, your thoughts) to accommodate someone else?
Most of us do it without thinking. We prioritize peace over honesty, even in our most intimate relationships, because we’ve been taught that needing too much—or wanting the “wrong” thing—makes us unlovable.
But what if the problem isn’t that we ask for too much but that we’ve spent our lives learning not to ask at all?
What Kinksters Know About Happiness
If there was one theme that came up again and again, it was this: Happiness requires honesty. And it’s not just about being honest with other people but being honest with yourself.
“I was exhausted from pretending,” said Morgan, a 46-year-old submissive. “Kink didn’t make me happy. But it forced me to get honest about what wasn’t working. And that’s what changed everything.”
For the people we spoke with, it wasn’t actually BDSM practice that made them happy. It was being authentic, fully themselves, and honest about what they wanted and needed. And then asking for those things from people they could trust.
It's Not About BDSM. It's About All of Us
Let’s be clear: I’m not suggesting everyone try kink. Most of us won’t. And that’s fine because if it’s not your thing, trying it won’t make you happier. It’ll just make you uncomfortable.
I’m not holding up kink as a solution, but I am using it to rethink how people build happiness in a world that rarely hands us the tools.
See, the point isn’t to swap one script for another. The point is to build a life that suits you. BDSM practitioners had to build their happiness from the ground up. They couldn’t keep pretending that what everyone else wanted made them happy. So, they created communities where their needs had language, their wants weren’t shamed, and they could be themselves.
And for many of them, that was lifesaving.
So, what about the rest of us? Well, we can keep pretending that the default blueprint works and keep trying to feel at home in lives that weren’t built for us.
But maybe it’s time to ask: What if the life you’ve been trying to fit into just wasn’t built for you? And what would it take to build one that was?
Why Gen Z Is the Kinkiest Generation Yet
Be honest: How often do you feel like you have to shrink yourself (your wants, your needs, your thoughts) to accommodate someone else?
Most of us do it without thinking. We prioritize peace over honesty, even in our most intimate relationships, because we’ve been taught that needing too much—or wanting the “wrong” thing—makes us unlovable.
But what if the problem isn’t that we ask for too much but that we’ve spent our lives learning not to ask at all?