Atypical Sexual Behavior
Walking, perhaps crawling, on the
wild side
Paraphilias
• A nicer name
• A term used to describe uncommon types
of sexual expression
What’s Atypical?
• Even though these behaviors are unusual,
many of us, at some point in our lives, may
recognize some tiny urge in ourselves that
falls off the straight and narrow
Is this mostly a guy thing?
• Not necessarily
• Males are far more likely to be
apprehended and prosecuted, but …
• Is it because we’re just so much more
complex?
If you like … you’ll probably enjoy ….
• These behaviors tend to cluster, people
usually can’t stop at just one
• Some have four or more
• Inhibitions lowered?
Noncoercive Paraphilias
• Many just involve I person, or another
consenting adult
• Typically benign
• But certainly have the potential to pose
distress for others
Fetishism
• Obtaining sexual excitement primarily or
exclusively from an inanimate object or a
particular part of the body
• Not just aroused or attracted by lingerie,
legs, knee caps, etc.
• Only when focused, to the exclusion of
all else
Fetishes - What?
• Often common objects – black mesh
stockings, shoes, boots, hair, leather, silk,
latex, crushed wheat thins, etc
• Ballooners
Fetishes – Why?
• Somehow these items get inserted into a fantasy
sequence ending in orgasm
• Classical Conditioning – object (initially neutral)
becomes a powerful conditioned stimulus after
being consistently paired with the unconditioned
stimulus of sex (masturbation) followed by the
unconditioned response of orgasm
• Operant conditioning – orgasm as a reinforcer
Research
• Richman – (1966)
• Developed fetishes with boots, even
generalized to other footwear
Autoerotic Asphyxia
• Enhancing sexual excitement and orgasm
by pressure-induced oxygen deprivation
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Rare but life-threatening
Almost exclusively male
Pressure via chain, belt, rope noose
Alone or in groups
Why ?
• They aren’t talking
• Must enhance excitement and orgasm
DANGER !
• Elaborate techniques for escape
sometimes fail
• FBI estimates 1,000 deaths a year?!?
Bizarre but true
• Klismaphilia – obtaining sexual pleasure
through receiving enemas
• Corophilia – turned on by contact with
feces
• Urophilia – excited by contact with urine
Coercive
• Some activities, by their very nature, are
coercive or invasive
• These can easily have negative impacts
on targets
• Often illegal
• Worse yet, can lead to more serious
offenses
Exhibitionism
• a/k/a “indecent exposure” – baring your
genitals to unwilling observers
• Almost always a male exposing himself to
a young or mature female
• Often immediately followed by
masturbation centering on victim’s
shocked reaction
• Setting – anywhere offering easy escape
Who?
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Based mostly on arrests – limited sample
Males from 20-30
Half married or divorced
Often shy, insecure, troubles with intimacy
Get along in society
Unsatisfying sex lives
Why?
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Attention
Affirmation of masculinity
“Sexual sharing”
Revenge
Some are disturbed, disabled, disoriented
Ripples
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Usually that’s as far as they go, but
Often lasting effect on targets
Small minority assault victims
Some progress to more serious offenses
• But imprisonment for a first time offender?
Frotteurism
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Fairly common
Unwelcome “spooning” in public places
Usually press genitals against woman
Sometimes hands
Often unnoticed
Occasionally detected and upsetting
More Frotteurism
• Can lead to arousal and orgasm
• Usually becomes part of masturbatory
fantasy
• Similar profile to exhibitionists
• 21% of college men?!?
Think Frotteurism is weird?
• Zoophilia – sexual contact with animals
• We assume that they are unwilling
• Kinsey – 8% of males!! (17% of farmboys)
4% of females!!!
Preferences
• Tastes vary – sheep, goats, donkeys,
dogs, cats, ducks/geese
Why & What
• Usually just a transitory phase when
human partners are unavailable
• TRUE Zoophiles actually prefer animals
• Very rare
• Usually a deep-seated psychological
problem at the root
• Perhaps a distorted image of other sex