I don't find the divide of sexual interests as 'fetishes' vs 'kinks' vs 'paraphilias' to be useful or interesting . It's maybe the worst concept to come out of sex research.
IMO if it's arousing to ppl, it's a sexual interest, from necrophilia to the missionary position.
Conversation
Replying to
Some sexual interests are culturally normal and common, others aren't, but there's no cutoff! It' a spectrum, and cultures change.
Some sexual interests are obligate! This is fine, I just call it "an obligate sexual interest."
3
2
81
If we're gonna draw a line around a subgroup of sexual interests to try to give it a name that designates them as weird, I want it to be data-based. "Sexual interests with prevalence of 5% or lower are called kinks"? then I'll accept it, sure.
1
2
86
'paraphilia' is maybe the most defensible, since ppl sometimes use it to mean 'sexual interest so severe/extreme it's damaging or dangerous', but i don't trust culture's ability to determine this in practice, e.g. homosexuality counted as a paraphilia for a long time.
8
2
105
Replying to
It is a “spectrum” if the culture at hand fails to take into account the real damage that each of us can inflict with our sexuality? That concept appears to be missing from too many “cultures” today imo.
Replying to
Completely agree. There's a spectrum of HOW interesting it is, from vaguely to need constantly, but hard categories are unhelpful.
1
4
Replying to
I think the differentiation has more to do with the effect the sexual interest has on the individual. My understanding is that paraphilias are so strong that people often organize their lives around them. They can result in behaviour similar to addicts.
1
5
Replying to
Isn't it supposed to be a matter of exclusivity
Fetish being an obsession while ki'k being a marked preference and paraphiliqs referring to sexual interest in usually not sexual thing?
1
6
Replying to
The issue of whether paraphilias share some interesting causes is an unresolved important question. there is evidence they do—male-biased sex ratio, cooccurrence of different paraphilias (why are 30% of autoerotic asphyxia accidents found crossdressed?)
2
7
Show more replies