Paraphilia Phriday
There was an old lady who swallowed a fly -- and some people would get off on that! Yep, another paraphilia Friday is upon us and instead of going over a bland, oft-heard-of sexual prediliction, I've decided to venture into something that most people probably haven't heard of and most people probably wouldn't believe: Vorarephilia.
Vore, for those who don't know Latin and can't translate the above, is the sexual paraphilia involving the fantasy of watching something eat something else (voyeuristic); or eating or being eaten (active participation). More often the fantasy involves being eaten alive and in one gulp (soft vore), instead of chewed and torn apart (hard vore). The fantasy can be one in which the vorarephile is eaten by an animal or another human, or could involve being consumed by the genitals of the other. The vorarephile may picture themselves as an animal, too. There is even a
code you can tag yourself with to let other vorarephiles know what gets you going. Artwork is a common pastime of the vorarephile, as are videos of reptiles feeding on prey and anime and cartoons in which swallowing occurs. Remember, this isn't just being interested in the act of swallowing or eating, it's a sexual interest. Vorarephiles are aroused in some way by seeing or fantasizing about this stuff.
There is a good bit of overlap with the "furry" community because they enjoy dressing as animals and animals eat each other. Also, macrophilia and microphilia, the desire and fantasy of being giagantic or tiny is somewhat tied to vore. I can't find any research on this area and stumbled across it when researching other paraphilias some time ago. I view most psychopathology as dimensional, so this would mean that vore is an extension of "normal" behavior. Thus, perhaps it is tied to normal sexuality in that the mouth is very erotic and very useful during sex. If this is an outlier on the dimension of sexuality, milder forms of this may be evident. During sex many find licking, biting, and sucking very enjoyable. If we take this to the extreme and remember that eating food involves these acts, we could think that due to learned behavior these similar acts get tied together in one context and this one context manifests as vore. There is little differentiation between biting to eat and biting in sex, except for the extent and purpose of the bite. Vampirism has erotic qualities; vampires are almost always sexy and sexually alluring and many people play at vampiristic fantasies, too. So, we would have "normal sex" involving biting, sucking, and licking; then vampirism involving the actual penetration of skin and licking of blood (in its hardest form); then vorarephilia. Perhaps vampirism would be farther along the dimension than vore, I have no idea. Maybe super far from normal on this dimension is where sexual predators who cannibalize their victims lies (not imanginary or role-played vore, but actual physical vore).
Other apparent overlaps are seen in the way we talk about certain sex acts -- slang terms for cunnilingus and aspects of fellatio are "eat" and "deep throat" and "swallow." Men often want their partner to swallow their ejaculate even though this seems to result in a fully psychological effect (it doesn't physically feel any better to have your semen swallowed rather than spit out). Women may want a man to penetrate her vagina with his tongue to whatever extent possible, but this rarely produces more sensation than targetting the clitoris. Being as far inside someone else as possible is requested and often strived for, perhaps that is a milder form of gential vore, where the vagina consumes a person whole (or, sometimes, the penis is the consumer).
Further reading:
What is this "Vore" thing, anyway?Wikipedia's Vore entryEka's Vore Portal
Kill me...kill me now...
The relative lack of posts is due to my ever-lasting, vicious, and hateful cold. It's either a cold, strep throat, a sinus infection, or tonsillitis. I think my throat hurts because of sinus drainage and my tonsils don't look weird, so I think it's more than likely a cold or sinusitis.
I actually have a paraphilia post that I intended to put up last Friday, but that's when I started feeling like "blargh."
I hate germs. I also hate whoever was the carrier for this particular germ. I wish them ill will and painful urination.
Paraphilia Phriday
See what I did there? With the 'Ph' instead of the 'F' in Friday? Get it.
Ok, here's my idea: Every Friday I will highlight a paraphilia. I'll probably start with one or two mainstream, boring paraphilias and from there move into the lesser known, interesting paraphilias. For those who don't know, a paraphilia is a sexual predilection or disorder (in most cases where it causes impairment or distress, although some behaviors don't have to cause such distress to be disorder).
For today, we'll cover Exhibitionism. This isn't exhibitionism like people wanting to be seen engaging in sex acts by other voyeristic adults -- it's the surprise exposure of the genitals to an unsuspecting stranger. Exhibitionism is formally, over a period of at least 6 months, the recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving the exposure of one's genitals to an unsuspecting stranger. The person must have acted on these urges, or the sexual urges or fantasies cause marked distress or interpersonal difficulty (DSM-IV TR, 2000).
Most of the time, the act of exposing oneself is not the arousing or sought after goal of the exhibitionist. The response of the victim is key -- any response at all is a desirable response for the exhibitionist. Shock, laughter, blushing, anger -- these responses are usually interpreted by the exhibitionist as the victim
enjoying the experience and being turned on which arouses the exhibitionist, thus creating a cycle that is hard to break. Up until 1994, the DSM listed all aspects of criterion 2 as having to cause distress in the exhibitionist (e.g., guilt, taking up too much time, problems with the law, etc), but many are
not distressed by thier own behaviors (probably nsfw). Often, exhibitionists do not suffer from their disorder -- so, why is it a disorder? Well, it involves non-consenting victims who do not want or agree to see the exhibitionist's genitals. The act does not involve touching other people or rape or anything of that sort, but it still depends on
non-consenting victims. So, if somone flashes you, don't react; ignore the person and walk away quickly.
Music Genome Project
Go
here and enter your favorite band or song and the MGP will create a personal online radio station just for you based on aspects of the band or song you entered. It's a great way to find new music similar to what you like.
Tasty Bacon
I have two different Kevin Bacon numbers, three and four. For those of you living under rocks for the 15 years or so, Kevin Bacon is the subject of a fun little game called "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon." Name any actor; you should be able to connect them to KB in less than six degrees.
In three degrees:
1. I met James Brown (aka, Godfather of Soul, the hardest working man in show business, Soul Brother No. 1, and Mr. Dynamite) at an Augusta Applebees. He was wearing a cowboy hat.
2. James Brown was in Holy Man with Marc Macaulay.
3. Marc Macaulay was in Wild Things with Kevin Bacon!
In four degrees:
1. I went to church with, and know, Mrs. Pope (D's mom).
2. Mrs. Pope met and chatted with Hulk Hogan on a flight years ago.
3. Hulk Hogan was in Muppets From Space with Andie MacDowell.
4. Andie MacDowell was in Beauty Shop with Kevin Bacon!
Awesome.
I can request sex acts in Swedish
Yep, Steve taught me to say some pretty interesting phrases while we were in Stockholm for his wedding almost a year ago.
Here are pictures of
Stockholm, Sweden (I don't have any pictures of sex acts).
Automatons
A few years ago I learned how to make people walk down a hallway much slower than they normally would without them knowing it.
On Automaticity:
As psychologists, we strive to make that which takes great attention and practice more automatic. We teach skills such as relaxation and cognitive restructuring to people so that they may become more adept at enacting those practices in their daily lives -- from starting in the therapy room with controlled diaphragmatic breathing with eyes closed, hands on chest and stomach, to walking or driving down the street breathing correctly without thought. We start clients off in safe, calm rooms and with practice they employ these strategies during stressful or greatly distressing events. They learn to analyze their thoughts and release themselves from the cycle of negative, unhelpful thinking by weighing the evidence for and against their cognitions via writing the precipitating events, resultant emotions, negative thoughts preceeding emotions, and responses to thoughts on sheet after sheet of delineated paper. Then, as time passes, the clients can do this same procedure without paper, without pause, without thinking so much. Thus, automaticity is achieved.
So,
this isn't too surprising to me, but it is still very interesting.
In a very real sense, then, the purpose of consciousness -- why it evolved -- may be for the assemblage of complex nonconscious skills. In harmony with the general plasticity of human brain development, people have the capability of building ever more complex automatic “demons” that fit their own idiosyncratic environment, needs, and purposes. As William James (1890) argued, consciousness drops out of those processes where it is no longer needed, freeing itself for where it is...Intriguingly, then, one of the primary objectives of conscious processing may be to eliminate the need for itself in the future by making learned skills as automatic as possible. It would be ironic indeed if, given the current juxtaposition of automatic and conscious mental processes in the field of psychology, the evolved purpose of consciousness turns out to be the creation of ever more complex nonconscious processes.
For more on the general subject of consciousness and free will:
Influence by CialdiniShifty EbayAdvertising Erodes Free WillHow many events of our daily lives are influenced by processes such as these without our awareness? How much of our behavior is mostly stimulus-response? I don't think any of these explanations give sway to the idea that we can be made to do something totally against our will -- if I'm thirsty I may be made to buy a larger sized beverage, but I was going to purchase a frosty beverage anyway. I may spend a little more than I intended to initially, but within reason. I may choose Coke instead of some other product because of marketing, but I choose to drink. But is that the truth? Or am I reacting to inner stimuli that drive me to want a beverage? Do I choose to drink at all?
Do I choose to give money to charities? Do I choose to do anything or are my behaviors a result of whoever gets to me first, whatever environment I find myself in, a combination of genetics and stimuli? Where is my choice? Where is my autonomy?
Is there a spoon at all, anywhere?
