The concept of perversion is somewhat subjective, and its application varies depending on culture. As a psychological term it was originally applied especially frequently to homosexual behavior. However, homosexuality is no longer treated as a disorder in mainstream psychiatry (see Homosexuality and psychology).
The verb pervert is less narrow in reference than the related nouns, and may be used with no sexual connotations. One might say, for example, that a modern film version of Romeo and Juliet "perverts" Shakespeare's version of the story.
The noun sometimes occurs in abbreviated slang form as "perv", and the adjective "pervy" also occurs. Both are often, but not exclusively, used non-seriously.
References
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Wednesday October 01, 2008 at 13:31:12 PDT (GMT -0700)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation
Copyright © 2009, Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.