Earlier this week our own Dr. V told us about seven surprising sexual fetishes that perhaps we hadn’t heard about before. A robot fetish, balloons, sneezing? Well, OK. If she says so — whatever floats people’s boats! Then a few days later I was flipping through this week’s Time Out New York and read about yet another odd fetish in the sex column, Get Naked. I’m beginning to wonder if people actually sit around thinking of the strangest fetishes they can imagine with the sole purpose of seeing them end up in some sex advice column they can pass around to all their friends. Because, honestly, I can’t imagine the fetish described in this letter is, like, real. Check it out after the jump.

We all have hot buttons that love to get pushed. Like watching a good movie your new beau picked out, a new sexual partner has the potential to show you something that you love, that you never would have found on your own. Of course, we all agree, getting naked heats things up, but there’s more to sex than bodies. Your brain is your biggest erogenous zone, and there are plenty of folks with creative minds who take their sexy time to places of desire where other people would never dare to go. So, without further adieu, to inspire you, here are seven surprising fetishes you probably haven’t already come up with on your own ... or have you?

I thought I’d had “rough sex” before; I’d been spanked on my butt plenty of times, had my hair pulled, even been caned once while strung up with my hands over my head. That hurt, and I cried, and I liked it, because I’m submissive like that, but it was just a one-time thing. I’d had plenty of encounters with talking dirty, spinning all sorts of nasty fantasies, where, most of the time, I was on the receiving end of some very hot epithets. But I’d never wanted to be choked until I got together with the guy I’m dating now.

The slang “natural born freak” is gaining some expert evidence.  Like to be tied up, rode hard, and left wet…or do that to your lover? Well, some scientific theories are swirling that sadomasochism, whether you’re the dom or the sub, is innate. You’re born wanting to get it on with whips, handcuffs, paddles, gags, and leather or for those S&M vegans, pleather.  While sadomasochistic sex has been portrayed in marriage manuals dating all the way back to ancient India, the roots of the desire are still being debated. In 1948, when renowned sex researcher, Alfred Kinsey, claimed nearly 50% of people like to be bitten during sex, scientists were shocked (or at least pretended to be). Ever since, the studies have been pouring in and people have been putting out, telling their deep, dark, dungeony secrets. Sure, some psychoanalysts think that S&M stems from fears of castrations or early childhood shame, but others have a new idea about the sex play. Vivienne Parry, a self-proclaimed S&M loving columnist with a science background [No relation!—Editor], has done her homework and thinks that just like homosexuality, it’s in your genes if you like to get kinky. That it is in fact nature over nurture. Sounds like people are even more bound to bondage than they imagined! [Times]