Actions which are considered to deviate from the normal, proper, or expected course as prescribed by an authoritative group are considered to be aberrant. When discussing aberrant behavior within the realm of sexual activity it can be difficult to make a judgment as to what is truly aberrant and what is not.

Most people equate the term aberrant with something negative and harmful. There are those sexual proclivities which are definitely not appropriate to pursue. But since the term aberrant basically alludes to a difference in perception, not all aberrant sexual activity can be deemed as being wrong by the standards of a single culture. Many would say that those who are homosexual, bisexual and/or transgender are aberrant and given the definition of aberrant and the fact that within our culture heterosexuality is considered the norm, this is true. This does not mean that someone who falls into any of these three categories should be viewed with any sort of negativity whatsoever. They are merely wired differently and are pursuing sexual activities not considered mainstream by many. They are hurting no one.

There are however many forms of sexual activity that have been dubbed as aberrant because they are most definitely different from the accepted, stereotypical norm and they more often than not are hurtful whether the damage caused is physical, emotional or both. An aberrant behavior checklist includes but isn't limited to, the following terms--sexual sadism, sexual masochism, pedophilia, fetishism, exhibitionism, voyeurism, transvestism, zoophilia, cocrophia and necrophilia.

Sadism involves getting sexual kicks from hurting and humiliating ones partner, masochists gain sexual pleasure by experiencing pain and humiliation, fetishism, describes a condition whereby there is an attachment of erotic feelings to a nonsexual object or objects.

All perversions are deeply rooted within the psyche and sexual fetishists are usually-but not always-men eroticizing over body parts. Voyeurism involves watching other couples engaging in sexual activity, transvestism describes those who derive sexual pleasure from dressing in clothes of the opposite sex, zoophilia is feeling sexual excitement and/or gratification from fondling or caressing animals, from observing their sexual activities and/or from a fetish based on animal furs or skins. Coprophilia involves sexual pleasure from interacting with or eating feces, necrophilia describes those sexually attracted to corpses often prompting the necrophiliac to get a job in a funeral home, pedophilia involves sexual activity with pre-pubescent children and those pedophiles who are caught and convicted wind up in jail convicted of sexual child abuse.

As has become readily apparent going over the aberrant behavior checklist the social implications of aberrant sexual behavior can be damaging to both the perpetrators as well as the victims. However, it needs to be kept in mind that not all behaviors that society deems aberrant always result in a negative situation. While some of the above mentioned forms of behavior may seem absolutely disgusting to some societies they may not be deemed inappropriate by others. I am not referring to the obviously hurtful behaviors; anything that causes emotional, physical or mental anguish of any kind shouldn't be condoned.

However, before judging someone by the standards of our societal measures, it behooves us to examine the societal measures of the culture in question and then decide whether something that we might view as aberrant, in other words different from what we consider to be the norm, is actually aberrant to the person in question.