Note that I am not gonna discuss my ‘perversions’, so if you’re reading this post in that hope, you might as well give up now!

Dictionary.com defines perversion as:

1. The act of perverting.

2. The state of perverting.

3. A perverted form of something.

4. Any of various means of obtaining sexual gratification that are generally regarded as being abnormal.

5. Pathology. a change to what is unnatural or abnormal:a perversion of function or structure.

Use the word ‘pervert’ and your mind might go to someone commits lewd acts in public, or spies on people for sexual gratification, stuff like that. A lot of people associate perversion as having a sexual meaning, and some people still (wrongly) attribute the LGBT community as being perverts or perverted. Of course, to pervert something, as defined above, can have other connotations. There’s an expression, ‘perverting the course of justice’, which occurs when a person or persons manipulate the evidence, fail to provide evidence, or outright lie, in a bid to change the outcome of a trial. In scientific terms, creating a hybrid creature (let’s say we inter-breed cats and dogs into a, er, cag. Dat?) could be considered a perversion of nature.

Returning to sex (because I know you all want me to), perversion can be decidedly subjective. Some things certainly aren’t (like flashing or being a peeping tom, those are perverted acts in my view), other things are treated as perverted by people who are, in my view, narrow-minded. Worse, these prudes often try to tell others as to what should be considered acceptable sexual acts. To some, any sexual act that does not lead to reproduction is a perversion of nature, and to be shunned or shamed. Anal sex? It’s apparently perverted. Oral sex? Don’t even think about. Never mind that sex is an expression of love and affection between two consenting adults (and surely love is as natural as can be), if it’s not old-fashioned missionary to get the woman pregnant, it’s perverted.

How boring.

It gets worse when you consider the treatment of the LGBT community. Same-sex partnerships exist throughout the animal kingdom. It stands to reason that it would therefore exist naturally among humans. To call someone ‘perverted’ for this is to actually ignore the natural world completely.