Sexual desire for non-normative sexual behaviors: differences between centennials and millennials considering sexual orientation

Abstract

Introduction: Non-normative sexual behaviors were traditionally studied from a psychopathological perspective, although nowadays a distinction is made between paraphilia (nonpathological) and paraphilic disorder (mental disorder). Methods: The present study aims to examine the differences between a group of millennials (n = 173) and centennials (n = 159) in their appetite for these sexual behaviors without the preconception of these behaviors as harmful or pathological. Results: Differences in appetite related to exhibitionism and foot fetishism were found in the first instance, with millennials showing a greater appetite for these. When including sexual orientation in the analysis, in addition to exhibitionism and foot fetishism, differences were found in behaviors related to asphyxiation, bestiality and urophilia. Millennials and homobisexual centennials showed the highest appetite for exhibitionism behaviors, homo-bisexual centennials for choking behaviors and bestiality and homo-bisexual millennials for foot fetishism and urophilia-related behaviors. Discussion: Exploring nonnormative behaviors from a non-psychopathological perspective will help us to understand the evolution of sexual appetite as part of human sexual diversity and to prevent risky behaviors.