Popular sexual fetishes and kinks - How common are they?
Enjoying your Fetish Play, Fantasy Play and Kinks
We're all used to seeing what was once considered Fetish wear on the high street but what about Fetish Play - How common is that? Do most people want to experience it? Have most people tried it?
So where to start? - Well there have been numerous studies looking into people’s attitudes and behaviour regarding different sexual desires and activities, what fetish play people would like to experience and also what fetish they have experienced. And yes there are a couple of questions to bear in mind when comparing studies like this over time. Are people simply more honest now? Are people more comfortable talking about their ‘fetish’ desires and experiences? And if so has the percentage of people that like to play and explore there kinks stayed pretty much the constant over time? I’ll let you decide those questions for yourself. One other point to think about is can we call these things unusual when repeatedly somewhere between one-third and two-thirds of people from a general sample report desire for them? Or to put it another way - Can something be ‘unusual’ if around 50% or more of the adult population share in it?
Here are a couple of studies:
First a Canadian study (from 2017)

In this study, 1,040 Canadian adults aged 18-64 participated in a survey about their sexual desires. (links to details about this study at the bottom of this article)
And below - an independent study (from 2018) with the data broken down by Kink and by Male / Female
sample - rom /r/samplesize, twitter and tumblr. Sample size was 2044 for the data analysis (study and analysis 2018)
(links to details about this study at the bottom of this article)
Unsurprisingly the most common fetish play and Fetish fantasies are uniforms or specific outfits (sexy maid, lady boss for females to wear or fireman, police officer for a male to wear), toys, sensual bondage, Mistress (Female Dominating), Latex / PVC, male dominating / female submissive and then heavy bondage. This spread of popularity or ‘reported sexual interest’ is borne out by the data in both reports. The Canadian report has less detail but does put voyeurism at the top followed by Fetishism, both with impressively high scores for popularity or ‘reported sexual interest’. The male / female split makes for interesting reading and holds a few surprises. Spanking desired by females), light bondage (desired by both males and females), females submitting (desired by females), females dominating (desired by males) and males dominating (desired by females) are all pretty much clustered in the same area along with uniforms making for in interesting and popular cluster of desires. It seems a lot of the population are into some form of role play / fetish play / mild submission and restraint. The independent report also agrees that voyeurism is more popular amongst males than females.
Both reports make for interesting reading and would seem to be saying broadly the same thing. Voyeurism, Fetish play (uniforms, sexy maid), toys, sensual bondage and mild sensual submission are now, if not the norm, at least fantasised about or enjoyed by around 40% to 60% or more of the population. And that’s if you assume that everyone was 100% honest and open and happy to talk about and disclose their kinks without hiding anything. Hmmmm? Perhaps…
What’s your Fetish or Kink?
Well, if we were joking with you we’d say…. If you’re a normal adult male you’ll be into Voyeurism and maybe a little uniform / role play, sexy maid or sexy secretary. And if you’re a normal adult female then you’ll be into uniforms (sexy fireman) and maybe a little voyeurism…. We’re joking of course! Who wants to pigeon-hole people and use words like ‘normal’? Not us! The point being more and more studies are returning the similar results, and when the results say 40% to 60% of people share a desire for some form of consensual Fetish play, fantasy play, kinky fun, whatever you want to call it, it’s no longer niche or unusual – it’s the norm. And maybe always has been. It’s just that people are happier to discuss these things and answer questions honestly than they were back in the 1950s or 1960s. The anonymity of internet based surveys may well play a part as well.
These studies, and others, may go some way to explaining the long, long history of certain sexual imagery that keeps on returning in popular culture, no matter how tired and stereotyped they may be. Take for example - the sexy woman in latex / catsuit (Cat-Woman, Trinity in the matrix etc etc), the sexy man in some sort of uniform, either skin tight or half naked (most marvel films). If the imagery didn’t have the desired effect ie keep the target audience watching, then these and other clichéd images / characters would long since have been dropped from movies and adverts. The reason they work is a large percentage of the population love to see a ‘fetish’ being played out and we are transfixed. And this brings us back to the question “how can a fetish be thought of as unusual or niche if around half the population share in it?” or to put it another way “if something is unusual why would the love of that thing be used in advertising?” By definition it has no mass appeal.
So the next time you see a handsome man half stripped in uniform, or a sexy woman in long boots or latex in an advert… The image or style is not niche or unusual. Enough of the population are attracted and enjoy, or want to enjoy that type of play that Hollywood and the advertising agencies are happy to use the desire and play up to it.
If it was simply the models beauty that was being expressed there would be no need for the uniform in the case of the man or the Fetish / Dominatrix outfit in the case of the woman. Fetish play and voyeurism thrown together for your delight in a movie or an advert – if these things were unusual the advertisers would have to find some other (some may say more creative) way to try to exploit the audience, and the screen writers a more creative way to develop the characters. Although most advertisers are a lot more subtle these days the messages and nods to Fetish Play and Role Play are, more often than you may think and still there for a good reason - They work on a large percentage of the audience!
Are men more prone to fetishes?
Short answer – possibly... Long answer - it depends on the Fetish. So for example a good percentage of both men and women like to be dominated. This implies a safe environment with rules and does not imply “in life in general”, or at least in my experience that’s what it implies. There may be a difference between the percentage of men that want to be dominated by women and the percentage of women that want to be dominated by men. But this needs to be looked at in more detail - is there an age range difference for example. Would more men aged over 30 be interested in submitting in a dominatrix session rather than younger men under the age of 25? Do males and females show similar desires at similar ages when it comes to Fetish Play? As far as I know proper studies and researches are not done yet on same subjects on men and women.
Are Fetishes usually niche?
You won’t be surprised to hear- no - I don’t think so. The most common fetishes are common, and as we’ve seen from the data they are shared by a good proportion of the population. Role Play with outfits and uniforms, spanking, light sensual bondage – think Tie and Tease, toys, females dominating are all common forms of fantasy and Fetish Play. Of course there are less common, or niche, Fetishes but what used to be seen as niche is pretty common these days, I’m thinking of pegging or strap on play, and transformation or cross-dressing / feminization. These used to be seen as niche but are becoming more and more popular.
Conclusion
In answer to the questions - Have Fetish Play, Fantasy Play and Kinks gone mainstream? and How common are Kinks and Fetish Play? Mainstream, in a way - yes. The idea of dressing up and indulging in a little tie and tease is absolutely not shocking or surprising to most adults these days - maybe it never was. Maybe it was only ever - a little taboo, and not to be admitted to or discussed. Maybe it's just that the subtler, more sensual sides of Fetish Play are openly accepted and are therefore now becoming mainstream. Toys, mild dom, sensual bondage a little dressing up and uniforms, some role play... All pretty much common place.
How common are Kinks and Fetish Play?? In the same way as sensual Domination, uniforms, role play, toys and cross-dressing, most people will have tried some or all of these, so we could say that some KINKS and Fetish Play are now common place and probably always were. It's just that today more people are prepared to try what they want and see if they enjoy it. And that can only be a good thing.
Links to the research:
Click here to take a look at the Canadian study:
To learn more about this research, see: Joyal, C. C., & Carpentier, J. (2017). The prevalence of paraphilic interests and behaviors in the general population: A provincial survey. The Journal of Sex Research, 54(2), 161-171.
Click here to take a look at the Independent research (Sample size was 2086):
reddit.com --- the tabooness and popularity of sexual fetishes