Ms. Athena is dead on (as always).
The problem in this hobby is, unfortunately, that those of us that skew towards the more alternative find it difficult to communicate with providers that may be into some, but not all facets of 'kink'.
Providers and clients both harbor preconceived notions about kink, and the only consistent thing about those notions are their levels of inconsistency in what is or isn't considered kinky. Look at the ads (posted in the appropriate boards!)--many of them may say they're "kinky", "into kink", "love kink", etc., but when you start breaking down what they mean by kink, you find that you're having the discussion Ms. Elisabeth had with her friend: what is and isn't kink. And you end up repeating this discussion with each new prospective provider.
Yes, boxes do suck, but categorizing the kink and having set definitions would make the client/provider services tap dance so much easier to muddle through for us deviants.