What causes kinkiness?

So exactly what causes humans to pursue such wacky, deviant, sexual behavior?

In a textbook example of irony, it is PRECISELY the repressive, Puritan, if-it's-fun-it-must-be-bad attitude that leads to sexual deviation.

Forms of Desire A classic by Doris Kloster

Yes, hilariously, we have the religious nuts to thank for kinky sex. (Kudos, religious tight-asses! Without your misguided and hypocritical sexual repression, there'd be no SM, bondage or Nun fetishes. Internet porn webmasters, everywhere, thank you.)

The Corset: A Cultural History

By convincing people they have to be impossibly good; religion inadvertently creates an equal and opposite bad. (Ever notice that there are virtually no fetishes or sexual deviants among Buddhists? Hmmm...) The better people are expected to behave; the worse they want to behave. Not surprisingly, the activities that really excite people are the ones that are the most wrong. (pre-martial sex, screwing in church, bondage, etc., the list goes on longer than we care to type...) That's why committing a “sin” really gets your blood pumping, and your panties moist. Taboos actually encourage taboo behavior, just as rules lead to rule-breaking.

Fantasies of Fetishism: From Decadence to the Post-Human

Tell someone they can't do something (or someone) and that's exactly what they want to do. That's why marriage and committed relationships kinda suck. The "normalcy" and acceptability of a long-term relationship kills the hot, sexual excitement of doing something "bad." Once it's acceptable to have sex, it's not as much fun (Who hasn't had sex in their parent's bedroom while they were away?) Married couples are always having sex in weird places and unnatural ways just to spice things up a bit. (Adult sex shops aren't going out of business as long as marriage is around.)

Sure, sex inside a committed relationship can be great, but it's a more intimate, personal and fulfilling sex, as opposed to just hot, dirty and animalistic sex. It's probably why a lot of long-term couples eventually start doing anal.