From feet and urine to bondage and other inanimate objects like leather, people have all sorts of interesting sexual desires and fetishes. But is being aroused by non-living objects or non-genital body parts normal?
What is sexy?
Within the brain what you find sexy is a combination of cognitive, emotional and physical processes. Of course the private aspect of sexual behavior has made studying fetishes challenging. To get around this, one study used online Yahoo groups to estimate the relative frequency of atypical sexual preferences.
Looking at 5000 online users, here is what they found.
Most Popular Fetishes
- objects associated with body parts like shoes or headphones.
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bodily fluids and body size.
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the feet and toes.
Why Objects?
After observing rat, scientists discovered that the rats that were used to having sexual relations with a jacket couldn’t get into the action without the jacket. This could explain why certains people need their leather boots or anything like this.
Rats vs Humans
While we know a lot about rat fetishes, there isn’t much research on rare sexual preference in humans and in the past they were often listed as mental disorders. But while your specific sexual desires and fetishes may be unique to you and your experience, modern science does show that having one in the first place is a normal part of being human. And if it isn’t harming you or someone else, they can exist as part of a healthy sex life.
Sources
- AsapScience
- The Independant
- Business Insider
