Why Gen Z Is the Kinkiest Generation Yet

Source: Colin Lloyd / Unsplash

It is well documented that today’s young adults are having less sex than generations past. However, while they may be less sexually active overall, the sex that they are having is different in a key way: It’s kinkier.

In fact, it’s not a stretch to argue that Gen Z is perhaps the kinkiest generation yet. So why is that? In this post, we’ll explore some of the potential reasons. First, however, let’s dive into some of the data supporting the idea that young adults are especially drawn to kink.

Kink Across the Lifespan

This month, the Kinsey Institute and Feeld released The State of Dating Report: How Gen Z is Redefining Sexuality and Relationships. This report examines how generational factors influence sexual preferences and behaviors through an analysis of recent research that has come out of the Kinsey Institute, coupled with a survey of 3,310 members of Feeld, a dating app for the curious.

Beginning with the Feeld survey, one of the key questions participants were asked was whether they had discovered any new kinks since joining the app. A majority of Gen Zers (55 percent) said they had, which was higher than any other generation. For comparison, the numbers were 49 percent for Millennials, 39 percent for Gen X, and 33 percent for Boomers.

What we’re seeing on Feeld mirrors broader population trends. In a nationally representative U.S. survey of 1,500 American adults conducted at the Kinsey Institute, participants were asked about the extent to which they have sexual fantasies involving kink or BDSM. Gen Zers (55 percent) were the most likely to report kinky fantasies, followed by 52 percent of Millennials, 31 percent of Gen X, and 12 percent of Boomers.

Gen Z isn’t just fantasizing about kink, though—they’re also practicing it frequently in real life. As some evidence of this, in a 2021 survey of nearly 5,000 college students, researchers found that among those who currently had a romantic partner, 79 percent reported having engaged in kinky sex with that partner.

So where did Gen Z’s proclivity for kink come from? The State of Dating Report highlights two key factors.

The Role of Porn

The most common explanation you’re likely to hear is that this trend is a product of porn. This makes intuitive sense from the standpoint that porn has become the default form of sex education for many young adults today. Gen Z has easier access to porn than any generation that came before, and much of the porn that’s out there contains elements of kink.

For example, in a 2017 content analysis of videos randomly selected from one of the biggest porn sites in the world, nearly one-third of them contained scenes involving kink, BDSM, or rough sex.

Porn can and does shape our sexual interests to some extent, but it’s an oversimplification to suggest that porn is the only reason that young adults today are kinkier.

The Mainstreaming of Kink

In the last decade or so, kink has permeated our cultural consciousness in a way that it never has before. The 2010s will go down in history as the decade that kink went mainstream. Just consider that the three bestselling books of this time were the Fifty Shades trilogy, which sold a whopping 35 million copies combined. The subsequent film adaptations went on to gross over one billion dollars at the box office. Since then, kink portrayals have become a fixture in television, film, and music.

At the same time, we’ve started to see kink discussed regularly and openly on social media, the term “kink shaming” has become part of our vernacular, and kink has become an identity unto itself. Even the fields of psychiatry and psychology have taken steps to normalize kink, with the latest version of the DSM making clear for the first time that interest in BDSM in and of itself is not inherently disordered.

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Against this backdrop, young adults simply have more freedom than previous generations did to express and explore their kinks, and that is undoubtedly a big part of the story here.

Older generations may find it more challenging to explore their kinky side because they are working against decades of cultural conditioning telling them that kinks were “weird,” “abnormal,” or signs of mental illness. Younger adults aren’t carrying that same baggage around.

Similar reasoning may also help to explain the explosive growth of LGBTQ+ identities among young adults. Representative surveys find that nearly 1 in 5 Gen Zers identify as something other than heterosexual. This figure is magnitudes higher than any other generation, and it’s likely a product of them coming of age in a time when being LGBTQ+ has become widely socially accepted, paving the way for sexual identity exploration.

Put another way, Gen Z isn’t just the kinkiest generation—they’re also the queerest. These changes have occurred in tandem as a result of major shifts in several sexual norms.

Takeaways

Young adults today are kinkier than previous generations. The rise of kink among Gen Z is multifactorial and not simply a product of greater access to porn. The mainstreaming of kink has opened the door for the youngest generation to explore their sexuality in new ways.

On one hand, some may view these changes in a positive light from the standpoint that reduced sexual shame offers more opportunity to pursue pleasure on one's own terms. On the other hand, some may see cause for concern, given that kink is not covered in traditional sex education and some kink activities introduce elements of risk. This points to a need for better consent education to support young adults in their pursuit of safe and healthy sexual relationships.