Sexual Fantasies: A Research Overview

Sexual Fantasy Research

Introduction

• A discussion on an article reviewing sexual fantasy, noting it was the first of its kind and subsequent research has been limited due to the difficulties and perceived lack of academic respectability in studying sex.

• Sex therapists emphasize the brain's importance in sexual activity, suggesting that problems with sexual fantasy are linked to sexual dysfunctions.

Challenging Freud

• Challenges Freud's assertion that sexual fantasizing indicates a lack of sexual activity.

• Counter-argument: Sexually active people tend to have more sexual fantasies.

• Sexual activity and fantasies influence each other.

Findings on Sexual Fantasy

• Men tend to have sexual fantasies earlier in life than women.

• Sexual fantasy and age have a curvilinear relationship:

  • Lower fantasy rates in children and young teenagers.

  • Higher rates in adolescents and young adults.

  • Decline in older adults.

• Most people don't feel guilty about sexual fantasies, but a significant minority do.

Gender Differences in Sexual Fantasies

Men:

• Fantasies are more visually explicit (e.g., beer commercials during sports events).

• More active, imagining what they are doing to another person.

• More dominant.

Women:

• Fantasies are more romantic (e.g., perfume commercials).

• More passive, fantasizing about what's being done to them.

• More submissive.

Clarification of Dominance vs. Submission

• Submissive fantasies are NOT about rape but about feeling irresistible.

• Dominant fantasies are NOT about sexual assault but about feeling irresistible.

Heterosexual vs. Homosexual Fantasies

• Exploration of whether the fantasizer's identity or the object of the fantasy shapes the fantasy's content.

• Straight and lesbian women share similar fantasy traits:

  • Romantic.

  • Passive.

  • Submissive.

• Gay and straight men share similar fantasy traits:

  • Visually explicit.

  • Active.

  • Dominant.

• Key difference: The gender of the fantasy object. Straight men fantasize about women, gay men about men, and similarly for women.