SUNGA, Jesse Antoniette Mr.

Paolo Mapula
2017 – 00377 PolSci 160

The Sociology of Sexual Deviation through the Paradigm of Georg Simmel

Sexual deviance or sexually deviant behavior, according to the American Psychological

Association (n.d.), are sexual urges and arousing fantasies that are nonconforming to the culturally accepted
sexual practices . It may include non-human entities, infliction of pain and humiliation to oneself or one’s
partner, and even towards children and other consenting adults. It must not be confused however with sexual
deviance as a mental disorder that causes distress to the individual experiencing such urges. In this
discussion we shall limit our definition of sexual deviance as sexual urges involving the fantasies stated
above in practice with consenting adults, such that these urges do not cause dysfunction and distress to the
daily life of an individual.

We also make the distinction between sexual deviance and socially accepted sex – normal sex,
“vanilla” or conventional sex in other words. We must establish first what is considered normative before
we delve into deviance. Conventional sex is sexual practice that conforms to the normative standards of the
culture where the sex is being practiced, after all what is conventional must conform. Viewed this way, it
is easily said that there must be no true universal practice of sex. In many ways, sexual practices are vanilla
to some but perhaps deviant to others. But Simmel cares not of this distinction anyways. Likewise, in this
discussion the matter of sexual deviance – BDSM, fetishism, furry, every kink in the spectrum – is not as
important as its manner. The act of sex, ‘sexual intercourse’, is for Simmel another form of interaction
between individuals. Within these interactions lie social forms that both vanilla and kinky sex actors fulfill.

Through Simmel’s paradigm, it does not matter what kind of sex we are into. It is much more
interesting to study sex in terms of the roles people play during intercourse. Sexual intercourse exhibits the
same social forms as interactions involving the exchange of emotions. Social forms are the various ways
interactions can take the shape of (White Fuse Media Ltd., 2016). In a society where male/females exhibit
inequal levels of dominance there is bound to be a subordinate partner and the more domineering one
regardless of sexual fetish. In some sexually deviant practices, there exists actual roles conveniently named
the dominator and the subordinate. In a nutshell, through the lens Simmel forwarded, it does not matter
what kind of sex people have, all that matters is that people engage in it and use it as a means to exchange
emotions or perform social roles. Sex becomes one of the many pools of interactions that form society
(Matteson, 2016). We then must understand sexual deviance in this case as a symptom of the growing
individuality and subjectivity of people in a modern society.
 Simmel general study was dialectical in nature. The dialectical approach integrates various conflicts
and conditionalities. Through the dialectical approach he sees society as a dynamic interplay of the
individual and the society. The individual is creative and possess the freedom to enrich his individuality,
yet he still part of the socialization process. This socialization process maintains that individuals and their
interactions are products of prior interactions. In this sense, Simmel’s dialectical perspectives views society
in the past, present and future (Matteson, 2016). Furthermore, the dialecticism also discusses the interplay
of the objective and the subjective culture. Subjective culture on one hand is the individual’s capacity to
take in and mold aspects of objective culture. Objective culture on the other hand is the commonly
understood and shared structures in society such as religion, art, or philosophy. Objective culture can exist
independently from an individual but may affect the him and his interactions. Individuals will take symbols
and create their own subjective culture from the objective. However, objective culture will eventually
separate from the society, and become its own. This will lead to its domination over the subjective culture
(Gingrich, n.d.; Gross, 2012).

Sexual deviation through Simmel’s paradigm is best understood to be subjective culture stemming
from the objective culture of sex. The culture of sex exists in all kinds of society. Although it has been
established that the kind of sex people engage in does not really matter in this paradigm, it is still important
nonetheless to view sexual deviation as a way for individuals to assert their creativity as free beings.
Individuals have taken aspects of normative sex – objective sex in this matter – and molded it to their
individualistic liking. Sexual deviation is a form of creativity, an urge natural to individuals.

Moreover, the development of sexually deviant behavior can be attributed to the development of
urbanity or as Simmel calls it: the metropolis or city (Gingrich, n.d.; Matteson, 2016). It is the hub in which
individuals best assert individuality; the place where the division of labor increases. Keeping in mind the
dialectic nature of Simmel’s paradigm, the increase size of the city is accompanied by the increase in
population thus decrease in distance, the task to assert one’s individuality becomes more and more daunting
as objective culture engulfs the subjective. We all have our kinks, but the large population makes it difficult
to be out in the open about it. The socially accepted practice of sex is what suppresses the sexually deviant.

Consider as well the size of the group. We return to the individual and their immediate interactions.
Simmel looked into how the size of the group influenced the kind of interaction occurs. He considers the
dyad and the triad – a pair and a trio. In a dyadic relationship, each actor is able to maintain their
individuality. While a triad has a possibility to lead to competitive relations or even form dyadic alliances.
What is interesting is that as the group grows larger, the more isolated an individual feels. These feelings
of alienation are evident in the city where objective culture has dominated the subjective. Along with the
alienation comes greater individuality. Yet this individuality is challenged by the objective culture.
 A sexual encounter between two people maintains the kinks of the partners, if found unwanted it’s
easy to leave the relationship. The triad – in sexual terms called a ‘threesome’ – would often lead to feelings
of subordination or unequal treatment. In larger society, sexual deviation is forcibly suppressed by the desire
to maintain the normative examples of sexual intercourse. People become more alienated sexually, but
increasingly definite in sexual fetishes. Furthermore, when sexual deviants find a like-minded small
community, their individuality is preserved and even celebrated. Hence, it can be seen how the greater
society affects an individual’s sexual expression and yet smaller, daily interactions also input to their
personal development. Here we see how the individual is first a product of its interactions, how these
interactions form the greater society (sociation), and finally how the society in turn affects the individual.

Sexual deviance is just another manner through which individuals prefer to practice sexual
intercourse. Like normative sex, or any other interaction of emotional exchange, sexually deviant behaviors
serves the function of erotic unity of people. It does not matter that one is into atypical forms of sex, what
is important is that people use these forms to create alliances, exchange love, transmit pleasure. All these
interactions are part of many other kinds of interactions that contribute to the formation of society (White
Fuse Media Lt., 2016). But as the ecology of the society grows in urbanization as well as in population,
culture diverges into the objective and the subjective. Objective sex advocates for normative sex, while
individual’s creativity results to the subjective culture of sexual deviation. In the growth of the metropolis,
it becomes increasingly difficult to express one’s sexuality, thus alienates people, creating shame for one’s
fetishes. But as people discover that there exists a community who appreciates the same culture as they do,
fetishes become celebrated. In an even smaller sense, a dyadic relationship that practices these fetishes best
preserves each other’s preferences or individuality.

In short: we all are kinky, we’re just being kink shamed.

 REFERENCES

American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Sexual Deviance. APA Dictionary of Psychology. Retrieved
from http://dictionary.apa.org/sexual-deviance

Gingrich, P. (n.d.). Notes on Georg Simmel. Sociology 304. Retrieved from

http://uregina.ca/~gingrich/simmel.htm

Gross, M. (2012). ‘Objective Culture’ and the Development of Nonknowledge: Georg Simmel and the
Reverse Side of Knowing. Cultural Sociology. 6. 422-437. 10.1177/1749975512445431.

Matteson, K. (2016, Nov 4) Georg Simmel [PDF File]. Retrieved from

https://www.scribd.com/document/329937077/Georg-Simmel

Simmel, G. (1971). The Problem of Sociology. En Levine, D. (ed.), Georg Simmel on Individuality and
Social Form (pp. 23-35). Chicago, EE. UU.: The University of Chicago Press.

White Fuse Media Ltd. (2016). Social forms. Retrieved November 24, 2019, from
http://routledgesoc.com/category/profile-tags/social-forms.