The Most Common Types of Kinks Explained
Kinks and fetishes have become more mainstream in recent years. Thanks to various movies and TV shows, people are more open to discussing their kinkier fantasies, although there is still a certain stigma attached to certain fetishes that means a lot of us still don't fully understand the wild world of sexual kinks.
Funny thing is, almost everybody has a kink, even if they have fully discovered it yet. Many people indulge in mild kinks in the bedroom, whether it's using a blindfold and handcuffs, talking dirty, or eating something off their partners bodies.
Of course, delving further into the world of kinks is a daunting prospect for most, as there are a lot of weird and wonderful kinks out there that you've never heard of. However, there are many common kinks that have become a mainstay in countless peoples' sex lives, so learning more about kinks doesn't need to be a scary prospect!
Let's take a closer look at the most common types of kinks:
Bondage
One of the most common kinks in the world, bondage falls under the umbrella term BDSM (Bondage, Discipline, Dominance and Submission), which describes some of the most widely participated kinks that most of us have heard about.
Bondage involves trying, binding, and restraining, so it is a kink that a lot of people have tried without ever realising it. For instance, if you've ever used handcuffs or rope in the bedroom, you've enjoyed a bit of light bondage!
The enjoyment comes from being tied up or doing the tying, although a lot of people enjoy both. Anything can be used to bind someone, such as handcuffs, rope, a tie, or even just a t-shirt, with most being bound to their bed or having their hands tied behind their back.
Dominance and Submission
The D in BDSM stands for dominance and submission (D/s), which involves a more defined position of power in the bedroom than vanilla sex. Basically, one person gets turned on from dominating while the other gets turned on from being submissive, while some like to exchange roles.
Don't let popular books and movies fool you into thinking this is always an extreme kink, as there are both mild and extreme aspects of dominance kinks. In fact, you don't even need to touch each other to enjoy dominance!
That said, D/s is often incorporated with sadomasochism, which is viewed as one of the more extreme kinks out there, highlighting the wide spectrum of this (and most other) kinks.
Foot Fetish
All fetishes are a type of kink, and perhaps the most common fetish around is the foot fetish, particularly amongst heterosexual males. As the name suggests, a foot fetish is when a person is turned on by seeing, touching, and often smelling feet.
This fetish often results in foot worship, where one person massages, kisses, and generally worships the other person's feet. Again, there are levels to foot fetishes, with some just being turned on by them while others want to incorporate other kinks, such as humiliation or submission.
Humiliation
Not all kinks involve physical contact, with humiliation being a great example of this. Sometimes the act of being verbally and psychologically humiliated is a massive turn on, even more so than any physical humiliation.
That said, people with a humiliation kink often like both physical and mental humiliation, whether it's being verbally abused or degraded using physical objects, while the severity of the humiliation can also vary.
For instance, some people like a bit of name calling during sex (e.g. getting called a slut or bitch), although it is important to discuss boundaries before engaging in this kink to avoid saying anything out of bounds.
Impact Play
Another popular kink lots of us have tried, impact play is the act of using objects like a paddle or whip to strike your partner's body. This could be mild impact play, such as a bit of spanking you're your hand during sex, or more extreme impact play involving whips, paddles, floggers etc.
Most people dabble in spanking, with it being a great starting-point for anyone wanting to explore more aspects of BDSM. Like with all kinks, it is important to establish consent and boundaries before starting impact play, as it is important to determine how much force should be used, safe words, what places are okay to strike etc.
Role Play
Another common kink most people try to some extent, role play is the act of make-belief in the bedroom. Basically, both people act out a sexual fantasy, with one-time fantasies and on-going fantasies commonly used during roleplay.
There are many popular role play fantasies, such as teacher and schoolgirl, doctor and patient, police officer and prisoner etc., and it is often combined with dressing up for these roles. The great thing about role playing is you can easily act out a fantasy in the bedroom without much experience, with it many people trying this out as their first real kink.
Sadism and Masochism
Sadism is the act of deriving sexual pleasure by inflicting consensual pain on someone else, be it physical, mental or both. On the opposite end, masochism is the act of being pleasured through extreme sensations, most commonly pain. Like with masochism, the pain can be physical or mental, so it often intersects with other aspects of BDSM, such as being bound, spanked, verbally humiliated.
Group Sex
This kink is a big fantasy for many people but it is something lots more enjoy in person! Basically, group sex is a kink where you get turned on by the idea of having sex with more than one person at a time.
A threesome is perhaps the best example of a popular type of group sex, although it also includes things like orgies and gang-bangs. While it is often thought of as a male-dominated kink, there are lots of women that enjoy the fantasy or physical act of group sex.
Voyeurism
Often confused with group sex, voyeurism is the kink of getting turned on by watching other people that are naked or having sex. This is a surprisingly common kink and it goes without saying that it should only ever be done with people that are consenting, such as visiting a sex party.
You also have exhibitionism, which is the other side of the coin, referring to people that are turned on by having sex in front of others.
Sensation Play
Sensation play is a kink where sensations are used to stimulate someone, including receiving and withholding certain sensations. A common example of this is blindfolding someone, depriving them of the sensation of sight, making other sensations height ended as you touch them, often with a tongue.
Temperature play is a popular type of sensation play, involving the use of ice cubes or candle wax to provide hot or cold sensation, while things like ticklers, hands, and even teeth can be used in sensation play.
Anal Play
Anal fetishes are quite common, which is when someone mostly gets off on all types of anal play, be it anal sex, anal fingering, rimming etc. Again, lots of people have tried this kink, whether it's the occasional finger in the ass or anal sex.
Gagging
When someone gets turned on by the sound of gagging, usually during a blow job, it is known as a gagging kink. It's quite a common one given how popular blow jobs are, and it can be both the recipient and the giver that is turned on by the gagging noise.
Of course, safety is important here as it can get uncomfortable gagging for too long, often causing the giver to throw up, which is a bit of a mood killer (although some even get turned on by this!)