Consent
Consent is not as straightforward as it first seems. It’s not black and white it does encompass a grey area.
Informed consent is consent that is given freely and willingly by someone who is aware of what they are agreeing to, not under the influence of drugs or alcohol, not being pressured or coerced, of legal age, and not having mental issues or medical issuses preventing consent.
consent is one of the basic principles of BDSM. It is vital before starting a scene, especially any scenes that involves play that appears nonconsentual that consent is given. Anything other than informed consent is not true consent because the consenting party is either unable to give consent (as is the case with children, those intoxicated, and those with mental or medical issuses), is unaware of what they have agreed to, or is agreeing under duress. Consent must be given freely with full awareness.
For some activities it becomes even more of a grey area. Take for instance a simple paddling while the submissive may like marks left on her so she can feel the pain you have to remember the outside world can view this as abuse. If your submissive was paddled to where she can't sit down because they like the pain they could squirm at a doctors office causing alarms to go off. While the submissive gave consent in some place simply leaving any marks could land you in jail. This is where it becomes the grey area. Some places have laws in place where the submissive doesn't get a say in the Dominant partner going to jail or not because local or other agencies force prosecution. While some may understand others simply don't care to understand this is where it becomes a grey area on consent.
Consent renegoations during play does happen and this is one where it starts to become grey. While a person consents to certain activities during the play at the very beginning some submissives may actually go into there head known as subspace and may consent to things they did not want nor desire. This is considered taking advantage of a person and should never be engaged in.
Remember Consent within BDSM can be taken away at any time throughout and once that consent ends everything stops.