The Science of Kink

Hosted by: Elisa Misu Solaris

Empirical Sex London’s only regular public exploration of the science of sex, sexuality and gender differences. Join us every other month to satisfy your curiosity about the science of sex with our lectures from the edge of academic research. Each event consists of a 45 minute lecture from an invited speaker followed by a brief break and a Q&A session with the audience. Our aim is to increase public awareness of current sex research presenting up to date information in a fun and accessible way for everyone.

The Science of Kink:

Arguably, sexually deviant behavior is becoming more socially acceptable in western cultures. Popular trends such as 50 Shades of Grey selling 100 million copies worldwide is a clear indicator that a very large proportion of the general public welcome ‘kink’ into the mainstream media. Though that particular book series is certainly not representative of what many people now refer to as the ‘Kink Community’ it is a significant adjustment from previous decades.

With the rise of the internet individuals with unusual sexual interests can very easily find websites and communities dedicated to specific kinks. The creation and growth of these online communities have enabled researchers to break through these restrictions to start asking more questions about the aetiology of kink. 

This talk will outline how we define and measure sexually deviant behaviour and describe the current literature including Elisa's own research.