In general, a perverse act is one that deviates

from what is regarded as normal or proper.

Typically perversion carries a pejorative tone—to

say that something is perverse is to at least suggest

that it is bad or wrong. This, though, need not be

the case. Various artistic and especially comedic

acts are deliberately abnormal—e.g., using a fish

as a sword or making a dress out of meat. In such

cases the artistic or comedic force comes precisely

from the perverse nature of the action. Thus in

calling such acts perverse, we might be merely

characterizing or even complimenting rather

than criticizing them.

Perversions, especially sexual perversions, are

often characterized as unnatural. This is to say that

the norm the perverse act flouts is in some sense a

norm of nature. Nature here might mean the natural

world, as opposed to the world of human creations,

but it need not. The nature in question

might instead refer to the nature or essence of the

thing in question. If something is partly defined as

the sort of thing it is by its function or purpose,

then that purpose is part of its nature. In this sense,

any use of the thing that runs counter to that purpose

or ignores it entirely would, in that sense, be

unnatural and perhaps perverse. For example, a

skillet is for cooking—this is its function, and it is

the sort of thing it is in virtue of this function.

Thus using my skillet to hammer nails runs

counter to the essential nature of the skillet. Thus

it is in some sense unnatural and perhaps perverse.