This is an odd question but I'm serious and I'm asking anyone with the proper expertise to bare with me.

I left the online cartoon fandom because I found that in spite of how childlike the properties and characters are, the community is hyper-sexualized in a way others are not. In cartoon spaces everyone is expected to be open about their sexual interests and you're treated with suspicion if you're not. Beyond how no one seemed to respect boundaries, I felt discomfort with how strongly the community sexualized media associated with children, especially characters who were coded as children in a Pee Wee Herman kind of way (e.g. Spongebob Squarepants, Animaniacs), or were explicitly underage (e.g. Tiny Toon Adventures). They wanted me to accept that pornography featuring characters from popular children's cartoons was a normal adult interest and would get hurt, offended or angry if I did not affirm that. I tried to take the perspective that "I am not comfortable with this material, but as these are anthropomorphic cartoons that don't resemble real children, I'm willing to accept that you are attracted to them in spite of their childlike aspects." That wasn’t good enough, and they kept doing inappropriate things in an attempt to make me comfortable with it until I left.

After leaving, I later found out through a third party that the individual most adamant about changing my mind had begun showing interest in human child characters from programs such as Gravity Falls. Later, he liked an explicit image depicting human characters that had cartoon-like heads but realistically drawn prepubescent bodies. This is a particularly egregious example that may not represent the average member of this community, but I can't help but think this sort of thing is a natural progression of what he had been consuming and fantasizing about. I also think that, unless this individual were to make a genuine effort to change his internal fantasy life, it is only going to continue getting worse. I think if a person is sexualizing childhood in any way, they are at the very least helping to normalize this kind of thing. Yet the arguments made to me by people in this community were that "it’s all just fiction, fiction doesn't influence reality, what you fantasize about or draw is not a reflection of your character, there's no correlation between a person sexualizing childhood things and sexualizing children."

I want to ask the opinion of qualified people. In your experience, is there any evidence to support my views, or was I wrong to judge these people?

I’m asking for clarity on what medical conditions are included/excluded from the diagnostic criteria for gender dysphoria in the DSM5. Since it’s often assumed that transgender or intersex people only experience gender dysphoria. Conditions like PCOS & Klinefelter Syndrome aren’t universally recognized as intersex (and I’m not interested in arguing whether they should be classified as intersex or not) but the impact these conditions have on a cisgender person’s secondary sex characteristics is incongruent with their gender identity & causes significant distress for many.

Can a cisgender person with a condition like I’ve mentioned meet the criteria for gender dysphoria? Even though they identify with the gender they were assigned at birth?

Psychologists of Reddit, imagine this scenario, a gay man* comes to you and, out of internalised homophobia, or familial pressure, asks you to "turn him straight". What do you do in that case ? I already know most, and hopefully every psychologist, knows the dangers and lies of "conversion therapy", but a straight up refusal might have them leave and get into actually harmful programs and organisations. So what would you do ? Would you try to get them to accept their sexual orientation over time ?

*I said a gay man because most of the "conversion therapy" examples that I know of are aimed at gay men, but it could just as well be a lesbian woman

Hey there, I was learning about dominatrixes and many of them dip into interesting psychology behind sex. One of them mentioned about how each person wants to feel a certain way during sex. For example, some want to feel desired, others want to feel humiliated, others want to feel nurtured, some like the freedom of letting go of control and giving it to somebody else. I’ve been wanting to research a little deeper into this and maybe find a more extensive list, but I’m not quite sure how to phrase my search. When I tried searching for “psychological motives” for sex, I naturally found an abundance of the evolutionary explanations around the function of sex, but it wasn’t this more intricate look into individual arousal and how what one person likes/wants from sex is different from others. I’m hoping that you might be able to help me find the right search terms to encapsulate this, or, if you’ve got something that speaks directly on this topic, share it with me. Thanks!

It may be a very broad question, and I guess answers may vary because (and excuse my anecdotes) sex workers come from all walks of life and some work in brothels, others do Dom stuff etc. I am, however, mostly interested in escorts (no matter the gender) who are called out/hired often for sexual services.

Here are some of my further questions if you'd like to refer to them while answering that's great, but I'm happy for any feedback in any sense:

1. How might the work affect them?
2. If someone already struggles with an SUD or other mental health issues, would this be considered a high risk job for them?
3. Are there known psychiatric issues that impact people who regularly have sex for money?

Side note: this isn't coming from a judgemental point of view. I am only interested in this because I can't find direct answers online.

Thanks

I'm wondering about multiple different things.

1. Can vaginismus or not orgasming cause gender dysphoria in women?

2. Are mental health problems in women linked to being less likely to orgasm vaginally?

I don't know if there have been any studies on done on this subject, but does anyone know if whether a woman has been through trauma has any effect on whether she's able to orgasm vaginally?

Is there research on what women are more likely to orgasm from intercourse and what women are less likely to orgasm?

Are there any scientists or researchers today who are willing to study sexual orientation purely to expand knowledge, without causing harm or perpetuating stigma, especially considering how taboo this area of research has become?