It’s official: we deviants are the sane ones. A study, published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, reveals that people who indulge in BDSM activities are happier and more contented than those who don’t. The psychiatric community has traditionally assumed that sadomasochistic urges occur as the result of abuse or some deeply entrenched personality disorder, but the study of twenty-thousand people by researchers at the University of New South Wales has debunked this myth. Associate Professor Juliet Richters hopes that these results will change traditional stereotypes. “People with these sexual interests have long been seen by medicine and the law as, at best, damaged and in need of therapy and, at worst, dangerous and in need of legal regulation.”

