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Kink (regarding sexual preferences) is formally defined in various dictionaries as including a component of being uncommon, unconventional, etc. Holding hands,

Kink (regarding sexual preferences) is formally defined in various dictionaries as including a component of being uncommon, unconventional, etc. Holding hands, cuddling, and emotional bonding (along with kissing and various kinds of caressing) are probably among the most common sexual preferences on earth, so for kink to retain its semantic meaning they kind of have to be excluded. What you describe are sexual preferences, and perfectly valid ones! Just not kinks. That said, when people are casually or intimately discuss their sexual preferences, sometimes "kink" will be used as a substitute for the more cumbersome and clinical sounding "sexual preferences", so as long as contextual cues are good you are generally fine to give your preferences (when you are comfortable doing so). Kink is a fairly wide spectrum, because it turns out all kinds of random stuff turns people on when you are looking at large groups. Honestly, the kind of work the author/researcher is doing could go a long ways towards actually settling on some kind of formal delineation that isn't completely arbitrary (but still somewhat arbitrary of course). I gather vore is fairly unusual as far as kinks go, with things like spanking, foot fetish, leather, latex, etc, being more common but still not seriously appealing to the majority of people.

LoganDark 3y ago
The clinical sounding thing doesn't actually sound quite right to me. "Kink" for me includes things that cause arousal for other reasons that aren't necessarily that. For example I have kinks that have absolutely nothing to do with penetration or even being in the context of any sort of sexual activity. They're just things I like in that way.
- InSteady 3y ago
  Kinks and sexual preferences both include things that don't directly relate to sex. Not sure if this helps to clarify, but all kinks are sexual preferences but not all sexual preferences are kinks. Kind of like how all squares fit the classification of rectangles but rectangles are never squares by definition. As far as I can tell it is mostly about what is common and expected vs less common and less expected. It's not the most important distinction in the world IMO in common conversation. To social scientists and such like the author it is of course a fascinating distinction to dig into.
  - LoganDark 3y ago
    > rectangles are never squares If squares can be rectangles, rectangles can be squares, by virtue of happening to be a square that is also a rectangle. However not all rectangles are squares. I suppose I get the point you're trying to make, but the bar of exactly what makes something a kink or not is something I don't really understand.

LoganDark 3y ago

The clinical sounding thing doesn't actually sound quite right to me. "Kink" for me includes things that cause arousal for other reasons that aren't necessarily that. For example I have kinks that have absolutely nothing to do with penetration or even being in the context of any sort of sexual activity. They're just things I like in that way.

InSteady 3y ago
Kinks and sexual preferences both include things that don't directly relate to sex. Not sure if this helps to clarify, but all kinks are sexual preferences but not all sexual preferences are kinks. Kind of like how all squares fit the classification of rectangles but rectangles are never squares by definition. As far as I can tell it is mostly about what is common and expected vs less common and less expected. It's not the most important distinction in the world IMO in common conversation. To social scientists and such like the author it is of course a fascinating distinction to dig into.
- LoganDark 3y ago
  > rectangles are never squares If squares can be rectangles, rectangles can be squares, by virtue of happening to be a square that is also a rectangle. However not all rectangles are squares. I suppose I get the point you're trying to make, but the bar of exactly what makes something a kink or not is something I don't really understand.