{"id":9916,"date":"2014-11-03T14:20:45","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T19:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/when-it-comes-to-sexual-fantasies-whats-normal\/"},"modified":"2014-11-03T14:20:45","modified_gmt":"2014-11-03T19:20:45","slug":"when-it-comes-to-sexual-fantasies-whats-normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/when-it-comes-to-sexual-fantasies-whats-normal\/","title":{"rendered":"When It Comes To Sexual Fantasies, What's 'Normal?'"},"content":{"rendered":"

When It Comes To Sexual Fantasies, What's 'Normal?'<\/b>
\nPutting aside highly-publicized recent attempts to masquerade abuse as sexual preference<\/a> by former CBC host Jian Ghomeshi, we’re actually pretty confused, as a society, about kink. <\/p>\n

Fantasies of submission and domination are usually considered outside of the norm of cultural acceptability, but a recent study suggests that they’re far more common than we might think. This may not come as too much of a surprise in a culture of 50 Shades of Grey<\/em>. Yet a scientific understanding of the difference between normal sexual fantasy and sexual deviance could have important implications for our acceptance of sexual differences and medical treatment of sexual pathology. <\/p>\n

Part of the problem lies in definition: There has yet to be any real scientific agreement on what types of erotic desires are considered typical or atypical. Instead, most discussions of “deviancy” rely on a cultural or moral judgment. But new research from two institutions affiliated with University of Montreal sought to scientifically define sexual deviancy for the first time ever. <\/p>\n

“Our main objective was to specify norms in sexual fantasies, an essential step in defining pathologies,” Christian Joyal, the study’s lead author, said in a statement. “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.”<\/p>\n

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) defines paraphila in rather strict terms<\/a>, which may not reflect the actual prevalence of certain sexual fantasies. According to the DSM-5, regular BDSM fantasies (non-consent, or any “suffering or humiliation of oneself or one’s partner”) are sexually deviant. <\/p>\n

“The DSM-5 classifies many of these fantasies as paraphilic interest, i.e. ‘anomalous’ or not ‘normophilic,'” Joyal said in an email to The Huffington Post. “The study demonstrates it is not the case — many are statistically common.” <\/p>\n

To find out how ‘normal’ various fantasies might be, the researchers polled over 1,500 adults living in Quebec (799 men<\/a> and 718 women<\/a> with an average age of 30 years old). The participants answered an online questionnaire describing their fantasies, and also describing their favorite fantasy in detail. The results pointed to a wide range of sexual desires, and significant gender differences in sexual fantasy. <\/p>\n

Some of the most surprising findings were the rate of sadomasochistic fantasies among both men<\/a> and women<\/a>, and the significant number of people who fantasized about performing both submission and domination, according to Joyal.<\/p>\n

Here were some common fantasies described by study participants: <\/strong><\/p>\n