Canadian sex study: Weird fetishes and kinky sex are common in general population

A new study has found that sexual fetishes, considered anomalous in psychiatry, are in fact common in general population. Sexual interests are generally divided into two categories, normal (normophilic) and anomalous (paraphilic).

Researchers from the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivieres asked 1,040 Quebec residents, representative of general population, regarding their sexual behaviour experiences considered abnormal by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5).

“Overall, nearly half (45.6%) of the sample subjects were interested in at least one type of sexual behaviour that is considered anomalous, whereas one third (33%) had experienced the behaviour at least once,” said Prof. Christian Joyal, one of the study's authors.

The study was published in the Journal of Sex Research. Out of DSM-5’s eight types of anomalous behaviour, four were found neither unusual nor rare among the desires and experiences reported by the men and women.

Of the men and women considered, 35 percent agreed they liked voyeurism, 26 percent fetishism, 26 percent in frotteurism and 19 percent in masochism. Interestingly, masochism and fetishism were not significantly different between women and men, writes Times of India.

In fact, masochism was found to be associated with more diverse sexual interests and connected to higher sex life satisfaction. As per the researchers, people were more comfortable acknowledging their fetishes online, rather than telephone. Joyal concluded saying men are in general more interested in paraphilic behaviours than women.

“However, this doesn't mean that women don't have these interests at all. In fact, women who report an interest in sexual submission have more varied sexual interests and report greater satisfaction with their sex lives,” he added.