Nothing wrong with voyeuristic, kinky fetishes, says study

A survey of 1040 residents of Quebec in Canada reveals the sexual tastes which are considered abnormal by psychiatrists are actually a lot more normal than you might think.

If you get aroused by weird things, then don’t worry, you are not alone. A new study has revealed that nearly half of us have deviant sexual fantasies. Researchers asked 1,040 Quebec residents and revealed that sexual tastes which are considered abnormal by psychiatrists are actually a lot more normal than you might think. Out of the eight “paraphilic” fetishes listed, voyeurism, exhibitionism, frotteurism, masochism, sadism, fetishism and transvestism, four of them were found to be surprisingly common desires.

“Overall, nearly half 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,” Christian Joyal, one of the study’s authors, said.

Joyal added these facts suggest that people need to know what normal sexual practices are before we label a legal sexual interest as anomalous, noting that some paraphilic interests are more common than people might think, not only in terms of fantasies but also in terms of desire and behaviour.

Of the sample, 35% said they were interested in voyeurism, 26% in fetishism, another 26% in frotteurism and 19% in masochism. The researchers also found people were more likely to acknowledge their interests in fetishes in an online, rather than telephone, survey.