Popular sex blogger and activist Aella has released a valuable research tool based on her database of over 900,000 followers. This sample is not representative of the general population, but it does give valuable insight into those who are highly interested in sexual variations. The tool allows one to perform a variety of demographic correlations between mental health, childhood upbringing, IQ, and many other factors with preferences for different sexual attributes and fetishes. The results are sometimes surprising: women are much more aroused by BDSM than men, especially those who have engaged in sex work, are on the left politically, and grew up poor; however, men (especially those on the extreme left and right) are more likely to enjoy inflicting pain and women to enjoy receiving it. Being spanked in childhood correlates with finding spanking arousing as an adult. Bisexuals, leftists, and those with ADHD have the greatest number of fetishes. Early age of first penetrative sex correlates with having ADHD, growing up poor, not having both parents at home, experiencing neglect, and physical or verbal abuse from men. Early sexual debut correlates with higher rates of adult depression, especially for females, but it also correlates with a greater ability to experience vaginal orgasm and indices of higher sex drive more generally.
The Big Kink Survey
