Sexual fantasy

A sexual fantasy is a mental image, or a pattern of thought that makes the person become sexually aroused or helps this process. It can be created by the person's imagination. Sometimes, erotic literature, or pornography can help create a sexual fantasy. The same may be true for certain objects, or being attracted to another person. Anything that can produce sexual arousal can also produce a sexual fantasy.

Sexual fantasies occur in almost all societies around the world. They are rarely put into practice, mainly because of cultural, social, moral, and religious constraints. Talking about sexual fantasies may be difficult, because of taboos and inhibitions. Some people find it convenient to act out fantasies through sexual roleplay. People watching porn sometimes find their fantasies validated. A fantasy may be a positive or negative experience, or even both. It may be in response to a past experience and can influence future sexual behavior

Literature

Sexual fantasy is also used for a genre of literature, film or work of art. Such works may be appreciated for their aesthetics, though many people may feel uncomfortable with such works. For example, women in prison movies may be described as sexual fantasies, as are pornographic movies. In the case of movies, the term may describe a part of the movie, such as a fantasy scene or sequence. Besides pornographic films, some mainstream films have included sexual fantasy scenes, such as Business Is Business (1971), Amarcord (1973), American Beauty (1999) and others.

References

Citations

↑ Leitenberg & Henning 1995, p. 470.
↑ Kasemy, Z; Desouky, D. ES; Abdelrasoul, G (2016). "Sexual fantasy, masturbation and pornography among Egyptians". Sexuality & Culture. 20 (3): 626–638. doi:10.1007/s12119-016-9346-1. S2CID 147262359.

Bibliography

Journal articles

Aylwin, A. Scott; Reddon, John R.; Burke, Andrew R. (2005), "Sexual Fantasies of Adolescent Male Sex Offenders in Residential Treatment: A Descriptive Study", Archives of Sexual Behavior, 34 (2): 231–239, doi:10.1007/s10508-005-1800-3, PMID 15803256, S2CID 34409689
Birnbaum, Gurit E. (2007), "Beyond the borders of reality: Attachment orientations and sexual fantasies", Personal Relationships, 14 (2): 321–342, CiteSeerX 10.1.1.570.4987, doi:10.1111/j.1475-6811.2007.00157.x {{citation}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |citeseerx= (help)
Bhugra, Dinesh; Rahman, Qazi; Bhintade, Rahul (2006), "Sexual fantasy in gay men in India: a comparison with heterosexual mean", Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 21 (2): 197–207, doi:10.1080/14681990600554207, S2CID 141919786
Carlson, Earl R.; Coleman, Catherine Elaine Havelock (1977), "Experiential and motivational determinants of the richness of an induced sexual fantasy", Journal of Personality, 45 (4): 528–542, doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.1977.tb00169.x, PMID 592084
Ellis, Bruce J.; Symons, Donald (1990), "Sex Differences in Sexual Fantasy: an Evolutionary Psychological Approach", The Journal of Sex Research, 27 (4): 527–555, doi:10.1080/00224499009551579, JSTOR 3812772
Heiman, Julia R. (1977), "A Psychophysiological Exploration of Sexual Arousal Patterns in Females and Males", Psychophysiology, 14 (3): 266–274, doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.1977.tb01173.x, PMID 854556
Joyal, Christian C (2015), "Defining "Normophilic" and "Paraphilic" Sexual Fantasies in a Population-Based Sample: On the Importance of Considering Subgroups.", Sexual Medicine, 3 (4): 1–10, doi:10.1002/sm2.96, PMC 4721032, PMID 26797067
Joyal, Christian C; Cossette; Amélie; Lapierre; Vanessa (2015), "What exactly is an unusual sexual fantasy ?", Journal of Sexual Medicine, 12 (2): 328–340, doi:10.1111/jsm.12734, PMID 25359122, S2CID 33785479
Knox, Jean (2005), "Sex, shame and the transcendent function: the function of fantasy in self development", Journal of Analytical Psychology, 50 (5): 617–639, doi:10.1111/j.0021-8774.2005.00561.x, PMID 16255728
Leitenberg, Harold; Henning, Kris (1995), "Sexual Fantasy", Psychological Bulletin, 117 (3): 469–496, doi:10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.469, PMID 7777650
Mednick, Robert A. (1977), "Gender-Specific Variances in Sexual Fantasy", Journal of Personality Assessment, 41 (3): 248–254, doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa4103_4, PMID 886421
Nicholas, L.J. (2004), "The Association Between Religiosity, Sexual Fantasy, Participation in Sexual Acts, Sexual Enjoyment, Exposure, and Reaction to Sexual Materials Among Black South Africans", Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 30 (1): 37–42, doi:10.1080/00926230490247264, PMID 14660292, S2CID 26269663
Smith, David; Over, Ray (1987), "Male Sexual Arousal as a Function of the Content and the Vividness of Erotic Fantasy", Psychophysiology, 24 (3): 334–339, doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.1987.tb00304.x, PMID 3602290
Strassberg, Donald S.; Lockerd, Lisa K. (August 1998), "Force in Women's Sexual Fantasies", Archives of Sexual Behavior, 27 (4): 403–415, doi:10.1023/A:1018740210472, ISSN 1573-2800, PMID 9681121, S2CID 32056579

Books

Fisher, Seymour (1989), Sexual Images of the Self: The Psychology of Erotic Sensations and Illusions (First ed.), Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., ISBN 978-0-8058-0439-3
Friday, Nancy (1998). Men In Love. New York: Delta Trade Paperbacks. ISBN 0-385-33342-0.
Rathus, Spencer A.; Nevid, Jeffrey S.; Fichner-Rathus, Lois; Herold, Edward S.; McKenzie, Sue Wicks (2005), Human sexuality in a world of diversity (Second ed.), New Jersey, USA: Pearson Education, ISBN 978-0-205-40615-9
Scott, Gini Graham (1994), The Power of Fantasy: Illusion and Eroticism in Everyday Life (First ed.), New York, New York: Carol Publishing Group, ISBN 978-1-55972-239-1
Wilson, Glenn Daniel (1978), The secrets of sexual fantasy (First ed.), London, England: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., ISBN 978-0-460-04309-0

Theses and dissertations

Davidoff, Orion (2005), Social Influences As A Mediator Of Gender Differences In Sexual Fantasy, Sexual Desire, and Sexual Behavior, presented to the Department of Psychology of the University of South Carolina.
Frostino, Andrea Taylor (August 2006), Guilt And Jealousy Associated With Sexual Fantasies Among Heterosexual Married Individuals, presented to the Faculty of the School of Human Service Professions, Widener University.
Girolami, Lisa (August 2005), A Comparison Of The Content Of Sexual Fantasies Of Lesbian And Heterosexual Women, presented to the Department of Educational Psychology, Administration, and Counseling, California State University.

Other

The American Sex Survey: A Peek Beneath the Sheets (PDF), ABC News, 2004-10-21, retrieved 2010-04-13

[FOOTNOTELeitenbergHenning1995470-1] Leitenberg & Henning 1995, p. 470.

[2] Kasemy, Z; Desouky, D. ES; Abdelrasoul, G (2016). "Sexual fantasy, masturbation and pornography among Egyptians". Sexuality & Culture. 20 (3): 626–638. doi:10.1007/s12119-016-9346-1. S2CID 147262359.