ABSTRACT
Sexual fantasies are pleasurable, stimulating, and motivating. Measurement of fantasies remains a problem for the field because people are not forthcoming about personal fantasies they find embarrassing or shameful. Studies repeatedly find that our fantasies tend to include a wide gamut of behaviors, many of which, if performed in real life, would have serious complications, including arrest for a sexual offense. Fantasies involving force, coercion, dominance, and power are so common that researchers are questioning their longstanding definition of “deviant fantasy.” Masturbation, an activity that commonly occurs with fantasies, is likewise considered a normative and healthy behavior that occurs throughout the lifespan. The risk level of male experiencing repeated sexual fantasies of power and domination over others markedly increases when he obtains a promotion to a supervisory position, particularly in a workplace culture supportive of sexist attitudes and the devaluation of females.
