Patterns of interest or pull towards people, qualities or experiences; attraction may be sexual, romantic, aesthetic, sensual or emotional.
Back to the glossarySexuality foundations
Sexuality
A broad aspect of human life encompassing sex, bodies, gender, orientation, attraction, pleasure, intimacy, fantasy, values, behaviour, relationships and reproduction. A person may experience or express some of these dimensions and not others.
Sexuality foundations
In brief
A whole field of human experience—not a synonym for intercourse.
Sexuality is larger than sexual activity. It includes how people understand bodies, attraction, identity, intimacy, pleasure, relationships and reproductive choices, shaped by personal, social, cultural, health and legal contexts. No single behaviour, fantasy or relationship reveals the whole of a person's sexuality.
Imagined material that may support curiosity or arousal without expressing a wish, plan, identity or consent to enact it.
What a person does in a particular context. Behaviour alone does not establish identity, attraction or future intention.
Words a person chooses to describe themselves. Similar experiences do not require different people to use the same label.
A broad, positive health framework
The World Health Organization describes sexuality as involving sex, gender identities and roles, sexual orientation, eroticism, pleasure, intimacy and reproduction, expressed through thoughts, fantasies, desires, beliefs, attitudes, values, behaviours, practices, roles and relationships.
This breadth matters because education limited to risk or reproduction misses pleasure, communication, identity, rights and relationship wellbeing. It also prevents one unusual interest from being treated as a complete description of a person.
Context, culture and power
Sexuality is influenced by biological, psychological, social, economic, political, cultural, legal, historical, religious and spiritual factors. These influences can create opportunity, meaning, restriction, stigma or unequal power.
Recognising context does not mean that every norm is equally ethical. Consent, equality, freedom from violence and access to accurate information remain central safeguards.
Difference without diagnosis
Variation in orientation, fantasy, desire, relationship structure and consensual adult interests is not itself evidence of illness. Clinical concern depends on the applicable diagnostic framework and matters such as distress, impairment, loss of control, serious risk or non-consenting involvement.
A glossary can clarify language but cannot determine an individual's identity, diagnose a condition or replace an appropriate clinical assessment.
How to use this guide
Start with the dimension relevant to the question: identity, attraction, fantasy, behaviour, relationship, health or law. Then follow the linked definitions rather than assuming one term answers everything.
Medical and legal content is labelled and reviewed separately. Commercial links remain optional and do not determine the educational account.
Non-graphic examples
What the umbrella may include
- Someone experiences romantic and sexual attraction differently.
- A fantasy remains private and is never intended for enactment.
- A person changes an identity label as their understanding develops.
- An adult values intimacy but has little or no interest in sexual activity.
- A consensual kink interest forms one part of a much wider personal life.
Reviewed 30 August 2026
Keep exploring.
This detailed field note uses the best available evidence without treating one community sample as universal. Evidence limits and UK context are stated where relevant.
Prepared by The UK Kink Guide editorial team. Read the evidence and review methodology.
Found an error or important omission? See how to report a correction.
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