http://www.alternet.org/sex-amp-relationships/what-makes-people-kinky
AlterNet
By Carrie Weisman
If the 125 million copies of 50 Shades of Grey that have been sold haven’t made it obvious, kink is pretty cool. Some readers feel the book helped introduce them to kinky sex, while others feel it gave them the permission they needed to pursue it. While experts remain divided on what exactly leads people down the kinky path, a lot of us are left wondering whether kink is something we’re born with or something we pick up along the way. Perhaps the answer falls somewhere in between.
Clinical sexologist Joe Kort wrote an entire book about why some (straight) men seek out non-normative sexual experiences with other men. Most often, the reason boiled down to early childhood experiences, some traumatic, some less traumatic. But other experts see it as genetic. In his book Modern Sexuality, sex therapist Michael Aaron explores the possibility that an interest in kink roots back to the womb.
That’s not to say we’re all stuck in fixed sexual identities. As Aaron notes, most of human sexuality is fluid, and can change over time. But often, he argues, this has to do with “uncovering” our genuine sexual interests, not changing them as we go. Homosexuality, he reminds us, is largely considered a biologically driven identity. And many in the kink community argue their lifestyle belongs under that same umbrella.
A 2014 study found that men are much more likely have “atypical sexual interests” than women. Aaron suspects this has something to do with the fact that men are exposed to higher levels of fetal testosterone in the womb—a finding some researchers have used to explain why men seem more prone to autism than women. In a related study, Cambridge psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen (Sacha’s cousin) decided to collect a group of babies and show them a human face and an object, like a toy.
Overwhelmingly, the baby boys were more taken with the inanimate object, suggesting that males come into the world with a greater predisposition toward objects than females. That might help explain why objects are so often employed when exploring specific fetishes. Some examples listed in the book Sacred Kink: The Eightfold Paths of BDSM and Beyond include adult babies who “transform” into the role only when handed a specific teddy bear, ponies who can only “become ponies” when they are strapped into their tack and masters who feel more powerful when wearing a cap or holding a whip.
Aaron reminds readers of an argument introduced by the psychologist Martin Seligman. He claims almost all men could be considered fetishists, but only those interested in objects beyond boobs and butts get hit with the title. But if all men come into the world potentially armed with a biological predisposition toward kink, how come not all act on it? One answer, Aaron says, revolves around something called epigenetics, a term he uses to describe instances in which “the environment triggers underlying genetic tendencies.” …