Paraphilic

Definition: sexual desire to atypical stimuli

This is a loaded term, because sexual desire is very personal, and how does someone define “atypical.” There’s an Overton Window at play here – what used to be atypical, might not be in the future.

Wikipedia has a list of paraphilias which runs from Abasiophilia (sexual arousal to people with impaired mobility) to Zoosadism (sexual arousal to the infliction of pain on animals). I browsed the list, and it’s all pretty weird, but there’s a history of paraphila being used to discuss homosexuality, for which is wouldn’t apply today (though there’s a moral dimension here too: what someone considers “weird” is often based on their framework of belief).

The word comes from “para” which is Greek for “alongside, beyond; altered; contrary; irregular, abnormal.”

Why I Looked It Up

In a summary of an episode of The Head, a murder mystery set in Antarctica:

She claims that she and Akki found illegal paraphilic videos and images on Roman’s phone, and he tried to kill them because of it.

I haven’t seen the show, so I don’t know what the “videos and images” depicted (or if the show even describes them).