When sexual object choice is so disordered that it impairs the capacity for
affectionate erotic relations between human beings, the sexual object is
called a paraphilia (from the Greek "love of [philia] what is beyond
[para]"). The paraphilias comprise an array of unusual objects and situations
that are sexually arousing to some individuals. Among the more common
paraphilias are female underwear, shoes, inflicting or receiving pain,
and "peeping." Among the more bizarre paraphilias are human feces, dead
bodies, and amputated limbs.
TYPES OF PARAPHILIAS
The paraphilias divide into three categories: (I) sexual arousal and preference
for nonhuman objects, including fetishes and transvestism; (2) sexual
arousal and preference for situations that involve sufferingand humiliation,
including sadism and masochism; and (3) sexual arousal and preference for
nonconsenting partners, including exhibitionism, voyeurism, and child
molesting.
Fetishes
To have a fetish is to be sexually aroused by a non living object. In many
cases, it may be harmless. For example, women's panties are sexually
arousing to many men. When a man fantasizes and talks erotically about panties during sexual intercourse with a mutually consenting partner, the
paraphilia may be playful and lead to heightened arousal. More typically,
however, his partner feels excluded; when the underwear a woman wears
displaces the woman, and her partner cannot be sexually aroused unless she
is wearing it, the object is no longer a means to arousal but the end of
arousal. And when it becomes the preferred or exclusive mode of sexual
arousal it becomes pathological. At this point it is of clinical interest. The
most common fetishes are for female underwear, shoes, boots, various textures
such as rubber, fur, silk, and velvet, parts of the female body such as
feet, hair, ears, and eyes. Rarer fetishes include human feces (coprophilia),
human urine (urophilia), dirt (mysophilia), animals (zoophilia) and even
dead bodies (necrophilia). Here is an example of a fetish, specifically a foot
fetish:
At the age of seven Leo was taught to masturbate by his older half sister. In the
course of the lessons he accidentally touched his penis with her slipper. From that
time on, the mere sight of a woman's shoe was enough to induce sexual excitement
and erection. Now twenty-four, virtually all his masturbation occurred
while looking at women's shoes or fantasizing about them. When he was at school
he was unable to keep himself from grasping his teacher's shoes and in spite of
punishment continued to attack her shoes. He found an acceptable way of adapting
his life to his fetish. When he was eighteen, he took a job in a shop which sold
ladies' shoes and was excited sexually by fitting shoe son to his customers. He was
absolutely unable to have intercourse with his pretty wife unless she was looking at,
touching, or thinking about her shoes at the same time. (Krafft-Ebing, 1931, case
114)
It is typical that a fetish is acquired during childhood. The object that will
become: the fetish accompanies early erotic play. The fetish grows in
strength when it is repeatedly fantasized about and rehearsed, especially
during masturbation. A fetish may reveal itself when adult interpersonal relationships
are unsatisfactory. At this point, one's childhood experience
may take over and the fetishist may seek comfort in the simpler sexual pleasures
ofchildhood instead ofdealing with the complexity of another human
being.
Interestingly, virtually all cases of fetishes and the vast majority of all
paraphilias occur among men. Such a man is usually full ofshame and guilt
about his fetish, which isolates him from sexual activity with other people.
Erectile dysfunction is the regular consequence of fetishism when the fetish
is absent. Depression, anxiety, and loneliness often accompany the fetish. In
addition to such individual problems, fetishists are occasionally in trouble
with the law. They may steal objects of the fetish, lunge for the objects in
public, and they may masturbate on the objects. Some will frequently acquire
a collection of the objects. One young shoe fetishist was discovered
with a collection of 15,000 to 20,000 pictures of shoes.
Transvestism
Transvestism occurs when a man persistently dresses in the clothes of a
woman in order to achieve sexual arousal. It is usually carried on in secret,
although a transvestite's wife may share the secret and cooperate by having
intercourse with him when he is dressed as a woman. The secrecy ofthe act
makes its prevalence difficult to estimate, but it is probably rare-occurring
in fewer than one percent ofadult men. There have been virtually no reports
of transvestism in women.
Transvestism usually begins with cross-dressing in childhood, as shown in
the following case of Sam:
At about the age of fourteen, I discoveredin my dad's photo album a photo he
had taken of me at five-and-a-half just before having my long (bobbed) hair cut
off. My mother had dressed me in girls' clothes to see what I would have looked
like if I had been a daughter, which is what she had wanted first. When I sawthe
photo I recalledthe incident clearlyand the sightofthe photo thoroughly "shook"
me, for it appeared to be a rather pretty young girl.
The emotional result was two fold. It aroused my first interest in girls and also
an interest in girls' clothes. I found myself compelled to go back to look at the
photos again and again.
One winter my wife and I were living alone. Our marital relations were good.
We were spending New Year's Eve entirely alone and for some reason my wife,
not knowing of my mere leanings (at the time) toward transvestism (a word I did
not know then), decided to put one of her dresses on me and make up my face just
as a sort of New Year's Eve prank. When she finished we sat around for a while
and she asked me how I liked it. When I answered in the affirmative she became
resentfuland veryanxious forme to take offthe clothesshe had put on me voluntarily.
(From Stoller, 1969, subject 3.)
When cross-dressing begins, only one or two items of clothing, such as
panties, may be used. This item of clothing may become a fetish habitually
used in masturbation and in intercourse with a cooperating partner. Such a
man may wear these panties under his daily masculine garb. Cross-dressing
usually progresses from a single item to a total costume. When dressed as a
woman, the transvestite feels considerable pleasure and relaxation; he is intensely
frustrated if circumstances block his cross-dressing. A transvestite
may believe he has two personalities: one male, which dominates his daily
life, and the other female, which comes out when he is dressed up. In other
respects, the transvestite is unremarkably masculine in appearance and
conventional in his behavior.
Transvestism is often mistakenly confused with homosexuality on the
one hand and with transsexuality on the other. Transvestites are decidedly
not homosexual: almost three-quarters of them are married and have children,
and on the average they have had less homosexual experience than the
average American man (Benjamin, 1966; McCary, 1978). Further, a transvestite
is aroused by his fetish, whereas a homosexual is obviously aroused
by another person. While a male homosexual will occasionally dress in female
clothes in order to attract another man, a homosexual, unlike a transvestite,
is not sexually aroused by the fact that he is in "drag."
Since most transvestites merely want to be left alone in order to pursue
their habit secretly, we must ask why it is considered a problem. Depression,
anxiety, shame, and guilt often occur in transvestites; and while sexual
arousal is intense during cross-dressing, affectionate sexuality is often impaired
by transvestism. A transvestite will commonly be impotent unless he
is wearing some female clothing, and this is often not possible when his
partner objects.
affectionate erotic relations between human beings, the sexual object is
called a paraphilia (from the Greek "love of [philia] what is beyond
[para]"). The paraphilias comprise an array of unusual objects and situations
that are sexually arousing to some individuals. Among the more common
paraphilias are female underwear, shoes, inflicting or receiving pain,
and "peeping." Among the more bizarre paraphilias are human feces, dead
bodies, and amputated limbs.
TYPES OF PARAPHILIAS
The paraphilias divide into three categories: (I) sexual arousal and preference
for nonhuman objects, including fetishes and transvestism; (2) sexual
arousal and preference for situations that involve sufferingand humiliation,
including sadism and masochism; and (3) sexual arousal and preference for
nonconsenting partners, including exhibitionism, voyeurism, and child
molesting.
Fetishes
To have a fetish is to be sexually aroused by a non living object. In many
cases, it may be harmless. For example, women's panties are sexually
arousing to many men. When a man fantasizes and talks erotically about panties during sexual intercourse with a mutually consenting partner, the
paraphilia may be playful and lead to heightened arousal. More typically,
however, his partner feels excluded; when the underwear a woman wears
displaces the woman, and her partner cannot be sexually aroused unless she
is wearing it, the object is no longer a means to arousal but the end of
arousal. And when it becomes the preferred or exclusive mode of sexual
arousal it becomes pathological. At this point it is of clinical interest. The
most common fetishes are for female underwear, shoes, boots, various textures
such as rubber, fur, silk, and velvet, parts of the female body such as
feet, hair, ears, and eyes. Rarer fetishes include human feces (coprophilia),
human urine (urophilia), dirt (mysophilia), animals (zoophilia) and even
dead bodies (necrophilia). Here is an example of a fetish, specifically a foot
fetish:
At the age of seven Leo was taught to masturbate by his older half sister. In the
course of the lessons he accidentally touched his penis with her slipper. From that
time on, the mere sight of a woman's shoe was enough to induce sexual excitement
and erection. Now twenty-four, virtually all his masturbation occurred
while looking at women's shoes or fantasizing about them. When he was at school
he was unable to keep himself from grasping his teacher's shoes and in spite of
punishment continued to attack her shoes. He found an acceptable way of adapting
his life to his fetish. When he was eighteen, he took a job in a shop which sold
ladies' shoes and was excited sexually by fitting shoe son to his customers. He was
absolutely unable to have intercourse with his pretty wife unless she was looking at,
touching, or thinking about her shoes at the same time. (Krafft-Ebing, 1931, case
114)
It is typical that a fetish is acquired during childhood. The object that will
become: the fetish accompanies early erotic play. The fetish grows in
strength when it is repeatedly fantasized about and rehearsed, especially
during masturbation. A fetish may reveal itself when adult interpersonal relationships
are unsatisfactory. At this point, one's childhood experience
may take over and the fetishist may seek comfort in the simpler sexual pleasures
ofchildhood instead ofdealing with the complexity of another human
being.
Interestingly, virtually all cases of fetishes and the vast majority of all
paraphilias occur among men. Such a man is usually full ofshame and guilt
about his fetish, which isolates him from sexual activity with other people.
Erectile dysfunction is the regular consequence of fetishism when the fetish
is absent. Depression, anxiety, and loneliness often accompany the fetish. In
addition to such individual problems, fetishists are occasionally in trouble
with the law. They may steal objects of the fetish, lunge for the objects in
public, and they may masturbate on the objects. Some will frequently acquire
a collection of the objects. One young shoe fetishist was discovered
with a collection of 15,000 to 20,000 pictures of shoes.
Transvestism
Transvestism occurs when a man persistently dresses in the clothes of a
woman in order to achieve sexual arousal. It is usually carried on in secret,
although a transvestite's wife may share the secret and cooperate by having
intercourse with him when he is dressed as a woman. The secrecy ofthe act
makes its prevalence difficult to estimate, but it is probably rare-occurring
in fewer than one percent ofadult men. There have been virtually no reports
of transvestism in women.
Transvestism usually begins with cross-dressing in childhood, as shown in
the following case of Sam:
At about the age of fourteen, I discoveredin my dad's photo album a photo he
had taken of me at five-and-a-half just before having my long (bobbed) hair cut
off. My mother had dressed me in girls' clothes to see what I would have looked
like if I had been a daughter, which is what she had wanted first. When I sawthe
photo I recalledthe incident clearlyand the sightofthe photo thoroughly "shook"
me, for it appeared to be a rather pretty young girl.
The emotional result was two fold. It aroused my first interest in girls and also
an interest in girls' clothes. I found myself compelled to go back to look at the
photos again and again.
One winter my wife and I were living alone. Our marital relations were good.
We were spending New Year's Eve entirely alone and for some reason my wife,
not knowing of my mere leanings (at the time) toward transvestism (a word I did
not know then), decided to put one of her dresses on me and make up my face just
as a sort of New Year's Eve prank. When she finished we sat around for a while
and she asked me how I liked it. When I answered in the affirmative she became
resentfuland veryanxious forme to take offthe clothesshe had put on me voluntarily.
(From Stoller, 1969, subject 3.)
When cross-dressing begins, only one or two items of clothing, such as
panties, may be used. This item of clothing may become a fetish habitually
used in masturbation and in intercourse with a cooperating partner. Such a
man may wear these panties under his daily masculine garb. Cross-dressing
usually progresses from a single item to a total costume. When dressed as a
woman, the transvestite feels considerable pleasure and relaxation; he is intensely
frustrated if circumstances block his cross-dressing. A transvestite
may believe he has two personalities: one male, which dominates his daily
life, and the other female, which comes out when he is dressed up. In other
respects, the transvestite is unremarkably masculine in appearance and
conventional in his behavior.
Transvestism is often mistakenly confused with homosexuality on the
one hand and with transsexuality on the other. Transvestites are decidedly
not homosexual: almost three-quarters of them are married and have children,
and on the average they have had less homosexual experience than the
average American man (Benjamin, 1966; McCary, 1978). Further, a transvestite
is aroused by his fetish, whereas a homosexual is obviously aroused
by another person. While a male homosexual will occasionally dress in female
clothes in order to attract another man, a homosexual, unlike a transvestite,
is not sexually aroused by the fact that he is in "drag."
Since most transvestites merely want to be left alone in order to pursue
their habit secretly, we must ask why it is considered a problem. Depression,
anxiety, shame, and guilt often occur in transvestites; and while sexual
arousal is intense during cross-dressing, affectionate sexuality is often impaired
by transvestism. A transvestite will commonly be impotent unless he
is wearing some female clothing, and this is often not possible when his
partner objects.