Are you a deviant?

Are you a deviant, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)?

What used to be called sexual deviancy is now referred to as the paraphilias. Most people just call it being kinky.

A recent study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine suggests that a lot of us have sexual interested that would be considered paraphiliac. This is consistent with previous studies.

Researchers from Italy surveyed 775 university students on their sexual fantasies and experiences and found that 51% of men and 42% of women reported a behaviour that was considered paraphilic.

The most common paraphilic behaviours reported were voyeurism (watching others be naked/engage in sexual activity) and fetishism (a strong desire or need for an object, activity, or body part for sexual gratification).

So, can something that half of the population experiences really be considered “deviant”? The authors suggest that we should be focusing more on the distress and impairment related to certain sexual thoughts and behaviours, and less on this outdated definition of what we think is “normal”

Source: Castellini et al. (2018) Deviance or Normalcy? The Relationship Among Paraphilic Thoughts and Behaviors, Hypersexuality, and Psychopathology in a Sample of University Students. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, (15). 1322-1335.