

One of the most common forms of kinky sex involves creating imagined scenarios. BDSM includes an extremely wide range of activities, from light paddle spanking and dominant/submissive role-playing to bondage parties and pain play. When most people think of kinky sex, they think of BDSM, a four-letter acronym that stands for six different things: Bondage, Discipline, Dominance, Submission, Sadism, and Masochism. “Kink” itself refers to anything that bends away from the “straight and narrow,” though there are a few categories that commonly fall under the kinky sex umbrella: While the word kink doesn’t have a medical or technical definition, it’s generally any sexual practice that falls out of convention - commonly considered acts such as loving touch, romantic talk, kissing, vaginal penetration, masturbation, and oral sex. Let’s back up for a moment: What exactly qualifies as kink? And there’s growing research that getting adventurous in the bedroom could have multiple benefits, both for your health and your relationship.

Perhaps more surprising? Another survey found that nearly half of the 1,040 people surveyed was interested in kink, even if they hadn’t had the opportunity to explore it. According to the 2015 Sexual Exploration in America Study, more than 22 percent of sexually active adults engage in role-playing, while more than 20 percent have engaged in being tied up and spanking. The truth is that at least some of your friends have probably tried it - and one out of five make it part of their regular play in the bedroom. And if it wasn’t for anonymous studies, we might not know just how many Americans have tried - and liked - spanking and tying each other up. If it weren’t for mainstream erotica and softcore pornography (hello, “Fifty Shades of Grey”), you might not have known much about experimenting with boundaries in the bedroom.

But if you can’t talk about it with your closest friends, is bringing it up in the bedroom going to be that much easier? Sharing the most intimate details of your sex life is still largely taboo. Half the population is interested in kink
