London - More of us are experimenting in our love lives, according to a leading psychotherapist.
Philippa Perry, who is married to transvestite and Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry, says that sexual taboos are being broken down and that “kinky sex” is becoming more mainstream.
The 58-year-old put the shift down to the huge popularity of the Fifty Shades Of Grey erotic series by EL James, which has sold more than 125 million copies worldwide. The first book in the trilogy was the fastest selling paperback ever in the UK.
Perry highlights our changing attitudes in a Channel 4 show, The Great British Sex Survey, which commissioned a nationwide poll into the population’s sexual fantasies.
The results of the survey seem to back up her beliefs that bondage and other fantasies are becoming more common place and sex toys more popular.
Perry said: “Kinky sex has become mainstream. We are definitely more sexually accepting. Trailblazers like David Bowie gave my generation the permission to be who they were. I don’t think anybody has to feel ashamed now because they like being tied up.”
In an interview with Radio Times about the show, she also said the reason some people have sexual fantasies is because the right side of our brain, where we make relationships, is also responsible for imagination.
The Fifty Shades books are about billionaire Christian Grey and his sadomasochistic relationship with university student Anastasia Steele. The subsequent film, starring Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson, was a box office hit despite receiving mixed reviews.
Perry married her 55-year-old artist husband, who is known mainly for his ceramics, in 1992 and they have one daughter, 22-year-old Florence.
Daily Mail