The brain is an erogenous zone, after all (Picture: Getty)
What can turn you on with just a thought? Is there a specific genre of erotica you always gravitate towards? What pops into your head when you’re in the mood?
Gillian Anderson’s new book, Want, reveals the deepest desires held by women around the world, categorising the 174 anonymous personal essays into chapters like ‘To Be Worshipped’ and ‘The Watchers and the Watched’.
The stories included in the collection range from daydreams of lesbian exploration and office romances to altogether more niche imaginings such as having a three-way with the Weasley twins from Harry Potter – but there are common threads that run throughout.
‘What is very revealing are the areas that we are the same,’ the Sex Education star said in a recent interview. ‘No matter the fantasy, the takeaway is the need for intimacy, the need to be desired, to be seen, a desire to be held, to be comforted, to be safe.’
It seems fantasies are at the forefront of many of our minds right now too, as this work coincides with a recent report from The Kinsey Institute looking into the bedroom habits of people around the world.
Alongside dating app Feeld, the survey of over 3,000 people uncovered more about how different generations view monogamy, how often people have sex, and how common kinks are among different age groups. And there’s even more that can be gleaned from speaking to Kinsey’s sexuality experts.
Some fantasies are extremely common (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Dr Justin Lehmiller is a research fellow at the renowned institute, and has studied sexual fantasies for more than a decade, speaking to more than 10,000 people throughout his career to work out what gets humanity going.
‘One of the things I’ve discovered are that there are at least three key things that almost everyone fantasises about at one time or another,’ he tells Metro.co.uk.
The most common sexual fantasies
Group sex
According to Justin’s surveys, a whopping 95% of men and 87% of women have fantasised about sex with more than one person, but men do so at a much greater frequency compared to women.
He says: ‘Also, which is kind of surprising to a lot of people, these fantasies are actually least common among young adults and most common among people in their 40s and 50s.’
Part of the allure of multi-partner sex is ‘wanting to feel overwhelming desired’, as evidenced by the fact that ‘most people picture themselves as being the centre of attention in their group sex fantasies.’
‘Another reason people find this idea attractive is that it just opens up a lot of new possibilities for sexual exploration, such as trying new positions and activities or exploring same-sex/gender attractions,’ Justin adds.
Kink and BDSM
Nowadays, BDSM is no longer the preserve of dominatrixes (and their clients). If anything, the likes of 50 Shades of Grey have contributed to submission and domination becoming downright mainstream in 2024.
Justin explains: ‘In my research, I find …read more
Source:: Metro
