Empirical Sex: The Science of Kink

Elisa Misu Solaris
@The Book Club, Shoreditch

Arguably, sexually deviant behavior is becoming more socially acceptable in western cultures. Popular trends such as 50 Shades of Grey selling 100 million copies worldwide is a clear indicator that a very large proportion of the general public welcome ‘kink’ into the mainstream media. Though that particular book series is certainly not representative of what many people now refer to as the ‘Kink Community’ it is a significant adjustment from previous decades.

With the rise of the internet individuals with unusual sexual interests can very easily find websites and communities dedicated to specific kinks. The creation and growth of these online communities have enabled researchers to break through these restrictions to start asking more questions about the aetiology of kink.

This talk will outline how we define and measure sexually deviant behaviour and describe the current literature including Elisa's own research.