What is deviant sex?
That usually depends on culture, morality and personal preference, but two institutions related to the University of Montreal created a study to define "sexual deviancy," according to Huffington Post.
"Our main objective was to specify norms in sexual fantasies, an essential step in defining pathologies," lead author Christian Joyal said, according to Huffington Post. "And as we suspected, there are a lot more common fantasies than atypical fantasies. So there is a certain amount of value judgment in the DSM-5."
DSM-5 refers to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the standard manual used by mental health professionals. The American Psychiatric Association publishes the book, according to All Psych Online. The DSM-5 lists coded diagnoses, causes, ages of onset and other pertinent information.
The DSM-5's definition of paraphila (sexual arousal by atypical practices) is "strict," according to Huffington Post. Fantasies of "suffering or humiliation of oneself or one's partner" (i.e. sadomasochism) is considered "deviant," but Joyal told the Huffington Post that sadomasochistic fantasies were surprisingly common among those polled.
The study asked questions online to more than 1,500 citizens of Quebec (799 men, 718 women) with an average age of 30. The responses were then labeled "statistically rare," "unusual," "common," or "typical."
The study found:
- Over 52 percent of women fantasized about being tied up versus 46 percent of men.
- Between 30 and 60 percent of women described fantasizing about types of submission (bondage, spanking or rape).
- More men than women fantasized about being urinated upon (10 percent of men compared to three and a half percent of women).
- Over 40 percent of women fantasized about having a partner ejaculate on them.
- About 33 percent of women and a slightly higher percent of men (44 percent) fantasized about being filmed or photographed during intercourse.
There were gender differences too. Among them, men had more fantasies than women, and more men hoped they would come true, versus women who distinguished between fantasy and desire (the realization of the fantasy). Women were more likely to include their spouse in their fantasy, the study said, according to Huffington Post.
Also, a third of women had homoerotic fantasies, while one-fifth of men had fantasies of having sex with another man. The fantasy percentage was higher than the number of study participants who identified as homosexual or bisexual, the study said, according to Huffington Post. (Eighty-five and a half percent identified as heterosexual, according to RAVERX).
"Only two sexual fantasies were found to be rare for women or men, while nine others were unusual," study authors wrote. "Thirty sexual fantasies were common for one or both genders, and only five were typical."
The study concluded that: "Care should be taken before labeling an SF as unusual, let alone deviant. It suggested that the focus should be on the effect of a sexual fantasy rather than its content."
