Women's sexual fantasies do not always reflect what they want in real life, according to a recently published study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.
For example, while a large proportion of women in the study said they fantasized about being dominated in some way, half of those women specifically indicated that they would not want to live out their fantasy of sexual submission.
The team of researchers who conducted the study asked a pool of 1,516 men and women, living in the province of Quebec and most between the age of 20 to 40, what they fantasize about when it comes to sex. The answers don't come from a comprehensive or culturally diverse group, but they offer an interesting sample.
Of the 717 women studied, 6% said they were homosexual, 12.6% said they were bisexual, and the rest identified as heterosexual. (We covered the full details of the study's findings here.)
In an online survey, the study group responded to 55 statements about their sexual fantasies using a one-to-seven scale that measured the intensity of each fantasy. Seven is the most intense, three is the least intense, and a rating of one or two meant the person did not fantasize about that act.
Here are the ten statements the highest percentage of women in the study said they fantasized about (a rating of three or higher):
Business Insider made from data taken by the University of Quebec.
Overall, sex in "unusual" or "romantic" places was the most common fantasy, and fantasies of sexual submission were also among the most popular. Interestingly, past studies have found that women who reported having sexual fantasies involving submission were more sexually satisfied than women without such fantasies.
Some fantasies were not among the ten most common, but were especially intense for the subset of women who reported having them. Those included:
- Having sex with two women.
- Watching two women have sex.
- Having sex with a stranger.
Some of the less common sexual fantasies women reported in the study were:
- Dominating someone sexually. (46.7%)
- Watching someone undress without him or her knowing. (31.8%)
- Having sex with two men. (30.9%)
- Wearing clothing associated with the opposite sex. (6.9%)
- Having their sexual partner urinate on them. (3.5%)
- Having sex with an animal. (3.0%)
Below is the complete survey of questions with the percentage of women who reported fantasizing about each act.
