12 of the Most Unusual Fetishes Out There

Our sexual preferences are just as wide as our culinary preferences. She might like being tied up, you might like mac & cheese. He might love steak, and you love wearing latex clothing. Despite some research into the causation of fetishes, most experts can't agree on a specific reason for any type of paraphilia. There are a bunch of hypothesized reasons - including prenatal development, associations during puberty, and conditioned responses - but, like a lot of things in life, fetishes seem to stem from a mixture of environment and genetics.

That said, there are some pretty unusual fetishes out there. Here are 12 that you've probably never heard of - or even imagined.

(Remember that your personal sexual enjoyment, no matter how abnormal you may think it is, is not a problem unless you're harming yourself or others or find that the fetish causes distress or impairment in your life or with your sexual enjoyment.)

Hybristophilia

Bad boy lust taken to the extreme! Someone with hybristophilia has a sexual attraction to criminals. In extreme cases, this manifests as an attraction to those who have committed horrific crimes. In less extreme cases, it can be an intense attraction to someone who lied or cheated outside of the relationship. Ted Bundy, a famous (and generally considered attractive) serial killer, used to find his courtroom packed full of women vying for his attention.

Mechanophilia

You love your car, but how much do you love your car? People with mechanophilia have a sexual attraction to machinery. While lots of people are machine-specific (such a bicycles, cars, helicopters, motorcycles, or airplanes), some people have a generalized sexual attraction to all types of machinery. In some countries, like the UK, people caught in the act can be placed on a sex offender's list.

Teleiophilia

Sounds out-there, right? Well, statistically, you're probably a teleiophiliac! Teleiophilia is the sexual attraction to reproductive-aged adults. Now go out and impress your friends with this new word to describe yourself.

Somnophilia

If you find it arousing to watch your partner sleep, you might have somnophilia. Somnophiliacs enjoy sexual activity with someone who is sleeping, unconscious, or otherwise unable to participate. While this fetish can be acted out consensually between two people, it can commonly present itself alongside necrophilia (a sexual attraction to the dead).

Coprophilia

Centuries ago, phyisicians used to judge the taste of patient's feces to learn about their patient's health. Modern medicine and cleanliness tends to avoid any contact with feces. Coprophiliacs do the opposite. Aroused by scat, many enjoy watching others defecate or defecating on someone themselves.

Formicophilia

A lot of us freak out when we find a bug or insect crawling on us, but not formicophiliacs. This is an arousal caused by the feeling of small insects crawling on or nibbling on them. This paraphilia tends to focus on the genital area, but other areas of the body may be pleasurable as well.