This lecture isn’t about “normal” or average sex, the domain of Kinsey reports and NORC (National Opinion Research Center) studies, which say the average person has sex 79 times a year, for a total of 28 minutes each time, mostly (75% of the time) with the same partner each year, and mostly (97% of the time) in the missionary position with occasional enjoyment over watching one’s partner undress. Instead, this A-Z page is about deviant sex, defined as any sexual preference, interest, or obsession out of the ordinary and/or problematic. Also, not every type of deviant sex listed is a fetish, as the title suggests, since transsexualism and transgenderism, for example, are not considered fetishistic behavior.

Many things, of course, are out of the ordinary without being deviant, and something becomes problematic only when it interferes with functioning. For example, a foot fetish becomes problematic when it leads to fetish burglaries and assaults. Lesser degrees of problematic occur when a loathing develops for self and others like yourself. Sexual identity crisis, of course, have been linked to a number of serial murderers, such as Ed Gein, John Wayne Gacy, Ed Kemper, and Jeffrey Dahmer. There’s also sexual addiction, which usually means: (1) failure to control interests and obsessions; and (2) persistence in the face of negative consequences on acting out those interests. Probably only a small percentage of people who engage in the behaviors on this page can be considered deviant, problematic, or addicts, but I’ve cast as wide a net as possible for exploratory purposes.

Deviant sex is often manifested as part of various psychological problems. In people without psychological problems, it can be just a nihilistic attitude, bad habit they’re aware of, or some quirk to their personality. However, it may be possible that sexual deviance goes hand-in-hand with some of the exact kind of personality disorders that criminals, and especially serial criminals, have. Read more

GOLD HILL, Ore. – A teen who pinched and twisted another boy’s nipple while standing in line at a deli has been sentenced to four days in juvenile detention because he refused to write a letter that explained his actions. David Thumler, 16, was convicted of offensive physical touching in July 2005, after the victim’s parents complained to police. The Crater High School student paid a $67 fine and served three days of community service. “I emptied trash cans, mowed lawns and shoveled gravel,” Thumler said.

But Thumler’s refusal to comply with the final piece of his sentence will cost him four days in detention. He was required to write the letter during four classes put on by Mediation Works, which operates the victim-offender program for Jackson County Community Justice. Mary Miller, executive director of Mediation Works, said the purpose of the letter is to prepare teens to be accountable for their offenses. “They don’t have to apologize,” she said. “But they are required to be accountable.”

The offender is required to describe the act in detail, explain “thinking errors,” “express empathy” and describe any resultant life changes. Miller said the program is “often a very, very healing experience between the victim and youth offender.” Thumler said he presented a rough draft of his letter in the third session. He said he balked when told he must also describe his “criminal thought processes.” Read more

By Keith Bowers
So you think you’re a pervert, eh? I can show you a book which might humble you. And when you see it, I bet you’ll eventually find something inside it that makes you ask, “What the fuck are these people thinking?”

It’s Deviant Desire: Incredibly Strange Sex, a heavily illustrated volume released earlier this year by Juno Books, a spin-off of RE/Search Publications. In the press materials for Deviant Desires, Juno promises that author Katharine Gates will show us “the most fascinating and obscure outposts of the erotic frontier,” and that we’ll see various freaks “radically subvert mass culture for their own nefarious sexual purposes.” A tall order, to be sure, but for the most part Gates lives up to the billing. Deviant Desires not only answers questions, it also uncovers questions that the reader would never have imagined — and then it answers those.

Ponyplay and fat fetishes are just the beginning. You meet men who fuck giant balloons. Women and men thrilled by dreams of body expansion, a la Violet Beauregarde in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. One man who makes movies of women crushing bugs with their feet and then gets off by pretending he’s the insects. Ladies who spill large amounts of food on themselves for sexual pleasure. Men who reach orgasm by lying in cardboard “ovens” and pretending to be Thanksgiving turkeys.

And these people aren’t alone. With a couple of exceptions, each category claims hundreds or even thousands of followers. According to Gates, none of these practices is new — ponyplay, for example, dates back to ancient Greece. Such secret societies have been able to organize and gain more visibility only in recent years, though, thanks to the Internet. Read more