Body Worship

Body worship is a traditional act of submission in BDSM, where one of the partners (usually submissive, but can also be a simple fetishist) purposefully erotizes, fetishizes, and idealizes the image of the Dominant partner by demonstrating deep respect, admiration, and reverence for his body. Adoration can be expressed verbally (through praise and compliments), shown through behavior (kneeling, bowing to the ground), or by performing certain actions (kissing, licking, sucking).

As a form of purposeful erotization and idealization, body worship can be directed at specific body parts or the entire body of the Dominant partner.

Some of the most popular objects revered and adored in body worship are the ass (Ass worship), feet (Foot worship and Boot worship), and hands (Hand worship and Glove worship). Each of them can also be an independent object of fetishistic attraction for the submissive, and some of them such as Ass worship, Foot worship, and especially Boot worship can also contain an element of humiliation. A partner's genitalia can also be praised and adored, but practices such as Cock Worship and Pussy Worship, despite their name, are usually associated with oral stimulation and oral sex.

As a specific act of submission, body worship is usually part of a more complex scenario that may include obedience training, verbal or physical humiliation, various types of painful impacts such as caning, spanking, CBT, high-heel torture, different forms of fetishism, and others. Some acts of worship, due to their specificity, require the Dominant to wear special clothing (e.g. leather pants, open-butt skirt, boots, gloves), while the submissive is usually naked, with only a collar, which enhances their vulnerability or wears a BDSM hood to enhance their sensory experiences during worship.

The simplest form of body worship is the verbal expression of admiration and reverence for the Dominant partner's body. This can involve praising specific body parts such as muscles, curves, or features deemed particularly attractive or arousing. The words of admiration can also be directed at the general appearance of the Dominant and their stern, domineering, or fetishistic presence: "How strict you are!", "How domineering you are!", "How shiny you look!", necessarily accompanied by an expression of gratitude: "Thank you for teaching me!", "Thank you for correcting my mistakes!" or "Thank you for having you and being able to touch you!".

Words of admiration are often accompanied by signs of submission such as looking down, kneeling, or even prostrating before the Dominant.

Gestures of worship can find their continuation in physical acts of adoration. The specific actions and body parts they target will depend on the level of trust and intimacy between the partners and can range from kissing (e.g. on hands, feet, ass), caressing (legs, thighs, ass), face rubbing (feet, ass, groin), and even licking (feet, ass, groin) and sucking (fingers, toes, genitals). In some cases, the contact with the Dominant partner's body may be direct, and in others - intentionally indirect: for example, rubbing the face in the Dominant's groin through their leather underwear, kissing and caressing the ass through their leather pants, or a leather skirt, kissing and licking their boots, kissing their gloved hands, etc.

The physical expression of adoration can be very intimate and highly sexually charged, but it rarely implies true intimacy and seldom serves as a prelude to intercourse. Although it looks like an autonomous expression of the admiration and adoration felt by the submissive (without excluding their inner urge), the act of worship is usually ordered and directed by the Dominant, who determines its content and controls it entirely. They instruct the submissive on which parts of the body to focus on, how to perform the worship, and what words or gestures should accompany the act. It is a strictly regulated and controlled process in which every action, every word, and every gesture is learned and trained in advance to the point of automation. Learning the sequences and specific actions that accompany body worship is usually done during the obedience training sessions, which are part of the Dominant's duties toward his submissive partner.

Many inexperienced Dominants let their submissive partners improvise and even expect the submissives themselves to initiate the act of worship as an expression of their emotional affection or gratitude. This betrays a deep misunderstanding of the essence of worship, its meaning, and its purposes in the context of Dominance and submission.

Unfortunately, the specialized literature does little to dispel the misconceptions, describing worship as a mere theater in which the meaning of the act is limited to its symbolism or exhausted by its mechanics. In the same direction is the equating of worship to a form of daily care by the submissive to the body of their Dominant (massage, manicure, pedicure, hair combing, etc.).

Body worship does not exclude care, but it is not limited to it. It does not exclude symbolism, but it is not related to it. Perhaps the closest answer is found in the mechanics of the actions and above all in their repetition.

The classical act of body worship is highly ritualized, with specific rules or sequences that the submissive must follow. Turning these requirements into a norm and controlling (and if necessary punishing) their implementation, the Dominant partner turns them into a ritual designed to regulate not just behavior, but the experiences of the submissive partner, including his sexual arousal and the way it can be expressed.

By designing the act of worship down to the smallest detail and constantly making it more complex in the course of obedience training, the Dominant directs the arousal of the submissive, creating a pattern of sexually motivated experience directly related to his body and his personality.

In this context, body worship goes beyond simple admiration and adoration and serves as a tool of behavioral conditioning and mental control. The repetitive nature of the worship, paired with the explicit focus on specific body parts or features of the Dominant, is intended to create a strong connection between sexual arousal, the pleasure of submission, and the image of the Dominant himself.

The erotization of the Dominant's personality and fetishization of their body is the central of this process. Through the act of worship and its repetition, physical features of the Dominant — whether it's their feet, hands, ass, breasts, or any other feature — are exalted beyond their usual significance, becoming a source of arousal and obsession for the submissive.

It doesn't necessarily have to be the most aesthetically or sexually attractive parts of the Dominant's body. Worship may be consciously directed by the Dominant toward the veneration of what may be considered "imperfections" or "flaws" in the conventional sense such as sagging breasts or even bad breath, but through the act of conditioning accompanying worship, they may become a powerful erotic stimulus for the submissive. Eroticized and fetishized during worship, in the mind of the submissive they become an ideal that he seeks and is ready to follow.

In this sense, the act of worship can be seen as a form of psychological reinforcement intended to deepen the submissive's psychological dependence on their Dominant partner, and their readiness to accept and honor the Dominant's body as it is - perfect down to the last detail.

This readiness of the submissive demonstrated repeatedly in acts of worship in an intimate setting, finds its concentrated expression in acts of worship performed in the presence of third parties - other dominants and submissives during a fetish event, an audience during public sessions and demonstrations, etc.

Many novices are amazed at the level of interaction that can be seen between some Dominants and their submissives, and especially, how natural it seems. In reality, it is a well-trained behavior in which what is learned by the submissive during acts of worship, is demonstrated mechanically, without thought, without hesitation, without doubt. What remains hidden to the novice is the psychological state of the submissive, who in the presence of his Dominant feels the same level of security as in a controlled environment. Thanks to the acts of body worship repeated persistently and sometimes rudely by the Dominant, the expression of respect and reverence by the submissive has become a natural behavior, logical and normal, due to the Dominant and associated with pleasure.

Experienced dominants usually develop two forms of body worship: an elaborate one for their intimate moments and used as psychological reinforcement, and a simpler one for public settings. By developing the act of worship in its basic form, the Dominant can afford all the extravagance of which he is capable of influencing the behavior, experiences, and attitudes of the submissive, while in the public form, he will borrow from the basic form only those accents that will help him to carry this attitude into their public interaction as a D/s couple.

Greatly underestimated and often misunderstood in recent years, body worship as a BDSM practice is a powerful tool in the hands of the experienced Dominant, enabling them to shape the behavior, attitudes, and desires of their submissive. Applied in the right way and with a clear understanding of the goals, body worship not only deepens and strengthens the relationship between the Dominant and their submissive, but it also leaves an imprint on every aspect of their interaction, including their public image as a couple.