Got Kink? The Strange Neuroscience of Fetishes
Research shows why we develop our oddest sexual desires.
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It couldn't have been easy being Adolf Hitler's girlfriend. That lucky lady not only had to deal with Hitler’s fragile ego but also his undescended testicle and penile hypospadias — a deformity that causes the urethra opening to be located on the shaft instead of the tip (and often causes a micropenis). Oh, and she also had to satisfy the Furer's feces fetish.
Yep, you read that right. Hitler got off on his lovers defecating on him.
According to one of the weirdest dossiers from the US Office of Strategic Services — what would later become the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) — Hitler's poo obsession was sated by his half-niece, Geli. Encouragingly, the report's author, Dr. Walter C. Langer, reassured the public not to "suppose that Hitler (gratified) his strange perversion frequently." Well, that's comforting.
But Hitler isn't the only famous person with unusual sexual interests or paraphilia — which means "beyond typical love." Jean Jacques Rousseau enjoyed a good spanking. Salvador Dali was turned on by a woman's ear lobe. Lyndon B. Johnson loved to whip out his penis in front of the staff. And Elvis Presley fetishized white panties with pubic hair coming out of the sides. Everyone has got their thing.
According to Sai Goddam, author of A Billion Wicked Thoughts, kinks differ in men vs. women. Goddam states that men are more prone to developing kinks based on visual stimuli.
Unfortunately, a recent meta-analysis found the "men are more visual" stereotype to be complete bullshit. Sorry, Gentlemen. There goes your biological excuse to ogle hot Instagram models.
Conversely, Goddam found that women are more prone to objectum sexualis (OS)—attaching emotional, romantic, or sexual feelings toward inanimate objects. Women with OS can be aroused by a statue, a painting, or a salami sandwich. (Damn it. I am always writing about sex while hungry.)
One study even found that OS is linked to synaesthesia —the blending of the senses in which one sense stimulates another. For example, synaesthetes often experience a song as a color.
With so much individuality, sexologists have long wondered if sexual kinks are driven by nature or nurture. The answer is probably both. Some people may be born with a greater predisposition to associate specific sensory experiences with sexual arousal, while others may develop these preferences over time through exposure to environmental stimuli.
One explanation for the nature argument is the adjacent brain theory, first proposed by renowned neuroscientist Dr. V.S. Ramachandran, author of The Tell-Tale Brain.
To understand the adjacent brain theory, it's helpful to first understand how the brain processes sensory information. We often think of the brain as having separate regions that govern different emotions and behaviors. For example, the frontal lobe contains Broca's area, which is associated with language, and the amygdala is our fear center that processes negative stimuli. But that thinking is too simplistic. To start, neural connections exist between regions that lie far apart, so our brains process info across many regions.
For example, language is not localized in a single part of your brain. As you read this article, your frontal lobe, parental lobe, temporal lobe, and insular cortex are activated. Or not.
A perfect example of this brain division myth is the belief that people are either "left-brained" or "right-brained."
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