So I've been chatting to a few people recently about emotional connection and how it relates to sex, and it got me curious about the people here and how you guys see it.
At the extreme ends of the scale, some people see sex as purely mechanical. They can look at a partner for their looks/body, and how they feel about them is completely irrelevant. Sex is a purely mechanical process, without emotions (except for internal emotions of pleasure/satisfaction etc) and they visualise sex as a series of positions, movements, stimulations, events. At the other end of the scale, sex is inextricably linked to emotional connection, and looks/physique are almost irrelevant, as are the stimulations themselves. These people couldn't possibly be with someone they didn't have deep feelings for, and their pleasure is tightly coupled to these feelings. Sex is a series of emotional moments and subtleties which are about emotions.
There are loads of other variations. One of my friends is mostly mechanical, and doesn't connect emotion with sex, and the guy's looks/body aren't important, but she DOES require intellectual stimulation. One of my male friends will literally fuck anything, so long as his cock gets wet, and it's irrelevant if he even likes the person. Then there are a lot of girls especially who won't fuck a guy unless she feels safe with him, and has that comfort level of connection.
I actually see rape fantasy as a form of emotional connection for some. It's a dominance weakness, and the excitement of making a girl cry and suffer is definitely a form of emotional connection, albeit a negative one. If you would rather a girl is struggling and crying, rather than lying totally limp and indifferent, there's an emotional element there.
To answer the question personally, I do require an emotional connection. On the occasions when I've started to have sex with someone I don't particularly like, I find it really hard to enjoy myself. It's just boring for me. I require some sort of mental stimulation, and yes, the darker side of me can be mentally stimulated by rape fantasy .... so I could fuck someone I didn't like if there was some darker connotation going on, definitely. But in normal sex, if I don't enjoy someone's company, and I don't want them around, fucking them is really crap. The best sex is always with people I feel very close to.
How about you guys?