Are Kinks Hereditary? What Science Says About the Genetics of Desire

glamour.com:

is any type of non-mainstream sexual interest according to , research fellow at the Kinsey Institute and scientific advisor to .

A is a specific subtype of kink defined by a heightened fascination with a certain object, body part, or bodily fluid. In other words, fetishes tend to have a sensory component wherein people are drawn to the feel, taste, smell, or look of a particular thing. “All fetishes are kinks, but not all kinks are fetishes,” Lehmiller explains.

and “gonzo anthropologist” Katherine Gates has devoted her career to the study of . Speaking from a non-academic point of view, Gates offers up another way of understanding the distinction between kink and fetish: Kink describes the use of props and role play in erotic interaction, but those elements aren’t required in order to get off.

Moreover, kinky encounters don’t necessarily involve sex—the experience can be gratifying with or without it. Fetish, on other hand, connotes a sexual interest that is “extremely narrow and fixed.” And that fetish has to be incorporated in order for the person to get off and feel sexually fulfilled by an encounter.