I’m a pervert. You’re a pervert. We’re all perverts. Okay, maybe not all of us–but pretty darn close. What I mean is, we all have sex interests that are “perversions” of the hetero, vanilla norm. Some of us are gay; some of us are into BDSM; some of us like to roleplay as humanistic animals. To each his/her own: the point is, while it’s all safe, sane, and consensual, none of it’s “normal.” So if we think about perversion as anything that deviates from that norm, we’re all a bit “perverse.”

But do we think of ourselves as “perverts”? Probably not. Well, maybe we should…

Regina Lynn had a post up recently about the way the internet age has changed our usage of the word “pervert.” According to a search through Google News, more than fifty percent of the instances the word were referring specifically to pedophilia. It’s true that (thanks to sensationalist media) when we think “internet + deviant sexuality” we think kiddy porn and scary men luring children from their computer screens. So has this one meaning taken over all others?

Interestingly, one of Regina’s readers commented that he actually uses the term “pervert” as a sort of reclaimed term for anyone practicing non-mainstream sex–similar to the word “queer,” which has been reclaiming by the LGBT community. Personally, I think that’s a great idea. If we’re going to be perverts (and luckily that’s not about to change anytime soon), we might as well be proud!