What turns you on? Is it sweets? Is it a centerfold of a man or woman? Is it the memory of seeing Anouk Aime and Jean-Louis Trintignant in Claude LeLouch’s romantic classic, A Man and a Womanat the Paris Theater back in l966? Everybody has their own special appetite and couples have their secret kinks, the repetitive choreography that pushes buttons. A paraphilia is described as “ a condition characterized by abnormal sexual desires, typically involving extreme or dangerous activities.” Sexuality might be seen as a continuum with latency and dormancy on one side and edgy verging on anti-social behaviors on the other, though repression can always be looked at as the other side of acting out. In Polanski’s RepulsionCarol Ledoux’s (Catherine Deneuve) somnolent exterior camouflages her murderous wishes. The enormous popularity of 50 Shades of Grey is indicative of the middle ground many people occupy in which kinks and fetishes serve as lubricants. While those who enjoy 50 Shades or even The Story of O may turn away from necrophilia or the coprophilia depicted in Pasolini’s famed classic of depravity Salo—which was based on the Marquis de Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom. The behavior of Harvey Weinstein lies at the extreme end of the spectrum, though it's no match for the horrors perpetrated by serial killers who get turned on by dismemberment. Weinstein could, for instance, have gotten all the sex he wanted by simply calling an escort service, but it appears that what lighted his fire was the master/servant or shall we say employer/employee relationship. George Simenon claimed to have sex with l0,000 women, Wilt Chamberlain with 20,000 and his carousing obviously got Dominique Strauss-Kahn into trouble. One has to assume that a person who requires paraphilias to get off is not able to find stimulation in encounters involving love or more gentle forms of congress. Some men require a golden shower as an appetizer and there are women who won’t French kiss until they’ve had a facial.The problem is one of stimulation. Some people unfortunately don't get turned on by legally or socially sanctioned forms of sex. It would almost seem unfair that society punishes some for their edgy desires (while others go about their business), if it weren’t for the fact that these self-same desires are so harmful to the well-being of those on whom they are perpetrated.
{This was originally posted to The Screaming Pope, Francis Levy’s blog of rants and reactions to contemporary politics, art and culture}