Prompted by threads elsewhere, I think it'd be both useful and interesting to have a more general, focussed discussion of the types of sexuality loosely grouped under the (overly) medical term, 'paraphilias'. Firstoff, I don't want to get too hung up on discrete categorical classifications; I think it's more useful to consider these phenomena dimensionally - the idea that there exist, for example, continuums (continua?) of exhibitionism, sadism, fetishism, etc. which shade into consensus 'normal sexuality'. I'm interested here in examining trends and currents within these dimensions.
Paraphilias remain a murky, under-researched, poorly-understood area of human psychology. It's received wisdom that paraphilias occur more commonly in males than females, that it's common for individuals to have more than one type, that they begin in late childhood and are difficult to eradicate or modify.
Myself, I see fetishism as the key to understanding paraphilic sexualities. The verb to fetishise means, roughly, to invest something non-human with magical or erotic power. We've talked about this before, albeit in a fairly light-hearted way. I tried, in that thread, to define 'fetish', and found it difficult to do so. I guess I see 'fetish' and 'kink' on a continuum, but a strictly medicopsychological definition of the former would tend to specify sexual attraction to something non-human to the apparent detriment of human relationships (making the possibly rather leaky assumption that a sexual relationship with another human being is what we should all strive toward...).
While this might be fine as a working definition of the extreme end of the spectrum, there are presumably many lesser shades of fetishism, in which the non-human fetish object is preferred as an accompaniment to human-human sexual interaction, rather than its absolute substitute. Intuitively, we know this to be true: there would seem to exist as many, if not more, guys who like fucking in leather than guys who like fucking leather (although the latter are, perhaps, less likely to operate socially).
The 'non-human' bit would also appear to be somewhat limiting, excluding as it does foot fetishists, breast fetishists, hair fetishists, etc., etc. This, I think, is one of the ways fetishism can be seen to shade into the accepted norms. "I'm a leg man" and so on. I reckon it's also the crux of why some fetishes are socially acceptable and some aren't: those which include human elements - fancying women in uniform, say, rather than specifically the uniform itself - are tolerated more than those which disregard or exclude attraction to other human beings.
If the concept of fetishism is expanded to include other factors, such as self and situation, some of the other paraphilias can be interpreted in terms of fetishisation. The transvestite could be viewed as fetishising garments associated with the opposite sex, or perhaps him/herself in those garments. The voyeur could be seen as fetishising the situation of being a hidden observer. The necrophile might fetishise the feel of dead skin, or the point of death, or the idea of being a vampire.
My own fetishes are detailed in the link above, and I spend a considerable amount of online time visiting websites which cater for them. I've chatted, online and off, with many people - mostly males - who share my quirks, or similar ones, and I'm always keen to dig deeper, ask questions about the origin and development of their interests.
From this admittedly anecdotal (and possibly self-selecting) base, I've come to believe that yes, fetishism (and, by extension, other paraphilias) are more common in men than women - or, perhaps more accurately, men seem more driven to actively pursue their fetish interests. Fetishes do appear to generalise, at least to an extent, with leather fetishists often being into rubber too, and/or PVC and/or BDSM. I'd take issue with the 'late childhood' onset, though; I'd say fetishes arise earlier, usually in the first decade. And yeah, those who try to 'cure' themselves find it virtually impossible.
This is all a little rambling, I know, but I'd appreciate input or thoughts on any of the above. |
