Sexual Fantasy Survey Responses - A Brief Analysis

Sorry that I haven't been keeping up with this blog.  It's hard to motivated to write things here when the reaction it get to my post about lesbians puts people off.  The motivation for studying lesbian attitudes towards men was based on hatred that I was observing on the subreddit r/gendercritical.  That subreddit has been banned from Reddit due to hate, so I was clearly not the only person who noticed the hateful content.  It's unfortunate when any group contains members who are hateful.  It complicates things when the hatred comes largely from a minority group (lesbians) and it targets men, who are often seen as acceptable targets for hate.  This topic matters to me because I was a victim to misandry as a child, and it has stuck with me.  There's evidence that internalized misandry can have an impact on how much gender dysphoria a man feels, but that's something I will be looking into in greater detail in the form of a study later.

With that off my chest, I can get into what this blog post is really about, and that's to describe some of my results from previous surveys.  I don't plan on going into much detail, but I think it's worth stating what some of my results were.

Sexual Fantasies Survey

For this survey I asked a number of questions regarding sexual fetishes, erotic target identity inversions, and mental illnesses (both formally diagnosed and suspected by the respondent).  I found these notable results:

• People who masturbate more than once a week are more likely to have a fetish
• People who masturbate more than once a week are more likely to be aroused by inhabiting a body that is not theirs
• About half of people with unusual erotic targets, like furries or pedophiles, are aroused by the idea of transformation - i.e. transforming into their erotic target

Masturbation Frequency

There appears to be some kind of relationship between fetishes, masturbation frequency, unusual erotic targets, and erotic target identity inversions (ETII; wanting to be the sexual target you find desirable).  Higher masturbation frequency might point to a higher sex drive, which might in turn cause fetishes somehow, but I find this unlikely.  Many fetishes develop in childhood, prior to puberty, so sex drive might not play a role.  It could be that fetishes themselves trigger arousal more frequently, resulting in masturbating more often.  One such fetish is arousal by inhabiting a body that is not theirs (ETII).  It seems more likely to me that a fetish causes someone to be aroused more often, rather than having a greater sex drive.  Perhaps a fetish is a stronger arousal pathway than a non-fetishtic arousal pathway.

Erotic Target Identity Inversions and Unusual Erotic Targets

It's interesting that about half of people with unusual erotic targets, like furries or pedophiles, are aroused by the idea of transformation - i.e. transforming into their erotic target.  Autogynephiles are aroused by the idea of being women, and only 3-15% of the male population are autogynephiles.  Something is going on to make people with unusual erotic targets much more likely to be aroused by the idea of being their erotic target.  Below is a graph showing erotic target and percentage of those two desire to inhabit another body.  I also included those who masturbate several times a day and those who masturbate weekly.  Those who masturbate several times a day are much more likely to find it sexually exciting to inhabit another body.  Further study should be done on high-frequency masturbators.





Mental Illness and Fetishes

When it came to sexual fetishes and mental illnesses, people with the following mental illnesses were more likely to have a sexual fetish than the mean of the total of respondents: ADD + ADHD, OCD, borderline personality disorder, and schizophrenia.  Bipolar disorder did not increase the likelihood of a sexual fetish.  More research is needed regarding the relationship to fetishes and mental illnesses.

Future Studies

The following would be valuable to research:

• Fetishes and frequency of masturbation:  Why do people with fetishes masturbate more frequently?
• Unusual erotic targets and ETII:  Why are people with unusual erotic targets more likely to have ETIIs
• Mental illnesses and fetishes:  What impact do mental illnesses have on fetishes, ETIIs, gender dysphoria, and the likelihood of identifying is the opposite gender or gender non-binary.