Misplaced Pages

Vorarephilia: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively
← Previous editContent deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 23:20, 21 July 2005 edit66.61.71.205 (talk) →See also← Previous edit Latest revision as of 05:35, 18 December 2024 edit undoCannolis (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers40,051 edits Undid revision 1263703719 by 92.10.229.7 (talk) does not appear to be trueTag: Undo 
Line 1: Line 1:
{{short description|Sexual fetish}}
'''Vorarephilia''' (also referred to as '''voraphilia''', '''vore''', '''voreaphilia''' ,and '''phagophilia''') is the interest/] in which a person ] about eating another person and/or creature, or being eaten. Preferences vary, but most prefer to fantasize about being devoured whole and alive. Those who prefer to be torn, chewed, and killed are often referred to as 'shreddies'. This fetish is most commonly found portrayed in stories, or cartoonish drawings, and ] ]. This is typically considered an "imaginary fetish" since practicing the fetish would be difficult, to say the least; although the case of ] in Germany, and possibly ] in the United States, show that it is within the realm of possibility (though most vorarephiles are aware of the inherent silliness of their fetish, and are largely uninterested in the idea of cannibalism). The voreaphile typically has specific preferences concerning what roles they play in vore encounters, and some ] allow them to list these preferences in an accessible table to help match compatible vorarephiles.
{{pp-pc}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=December 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{pp-pc|small=yes}}
{{distinguish|Sexual cannibalism}}
]-style vorarephilic artwork]]
<!-- Do NOT add more example images. The current one does a good job showing what it is and doesn't conflate it with any others. It's independent of i.e. furries.-->


'''Vorarephilia''' (often shortened to '''vore''') is a ] characterized by the erotic desire to be consumed by, or to personally consume, another person or creature, or an erotic attraction to the process of eating in general practice.<ref name="Lykins" /><ref>{{cite book |last=Ågmo |first=Anders |chapter=Hyperactive sexual desire and the paraphilias |url=https://archive.org/details/functionaldysfun0000agmo |title=Functional and dysfunctional sexual behavior: a synthesis of neuroscience and comparative psychology |publisher=Academic Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-12-370590-7 |page=454 |doi=10.1016/B978-012370590-7/50013-X |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="Brundage2002">{{cite journal |last=Brundage |first=Sandy |date=31 July 2002 |title=Fetish Confessions |url=http://www.thewavemag.com/pagegen.php?articleid=22026&pagename=article |url-status=live |journal=The Wave Magazine |volume=2 |issue=15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927061721/http://www.thewavemag.com/pagegen.php?articleid=22026&pagename=article <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date=27 September 2007 |access-date=30 April 2007}}</ref> Soft vore fantasies are separated from sexual fantasies of ], also referred to as "hard vore",<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last= |date=2021-07-25 |title=2021 Vore Survey Results from Eka's Portal |url=https://ia600505.us.archive.org/28/items/2021-vore-survey-results/Eka%27s%20Portal%20Vore%20Survey%20Results.pdf |access-date=4 September 2023 |website=Internet Archive |language=en |publication-date=2023-09-04}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable (]).|date=November 2024}} because the soft vore victim is normally swallowed alive and whole.<ref name="Lykins" /> The word ''vorarephilia'' is derived from the ] ''{{Lang|la|vorare}}'' (to "swallow" or "devour"), and ] {{Lang|grc|φιλία|italic=no}} (''{{Lang|grc-latn|philía}}'', "]").
This fetish is often associated with ] and ] as well as the ] community, where predation is more natural in roleplaying.


== Content ==
Related to ] in some respects (both are types of ]. How this fetish develops is still currently unknown.)
Usually, vorarephilic fantasies involve a consumer (usually referred to as ''predator'' or ''pred'' for short) ingesting one or multiple victims (sometimes called ''prey'') in some way. Since vorarephilic fantasies cannot be acted out in reality, they are often expressed in stories or drawings as well as ].<ref name="Lykins">{{cite journal|last1=Lykins|first1=Amy D.|last2=Cantor|first2=James M.|title=Vorarephilia: A Case Study in Masochism and Erotic Consumption|journal=Archives of Sexual Behavior|date=21 September 2013|volume=43|issue=1|pages=181–186|doi=10.1007/s10508-013-0185-y|pmid=24057211|s2cid=21413433}}</ref>


Vore is most often enjoyed through pictures, stories, videos, and ], and it can appear in mainstream media.<ref name="brathwaite">{{cite book |last=Brathwaite |first=Brenda |url=http://www.charlesriver.com/resrcs/chapters/1584504595_1stChap.pdf |title=Sex in video games |publisher=Charles River Media |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-58450-459-7 |series=Advances in computer graphics and game development |place=London |page=20 |chapter=Defining sex |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927180711/http://www.charlesriver.com/resrcs/chapters/1584504595_1stChap.pdf |archive-date=27 September 2007}}</ref> Expressions can involve humans, animals, dragons, giant snakes, and other creatures, real or fictional.<ref name="Lykins" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Staughton |first=John |date=2019-11-28 |title=What Is Vorarephilia? |url=https://www.scienceabc.com/social-science/what-is-vorarephilia.html |access-date=2024-09-29 |website=ScienceABC |language=en-US}}</ref> In some cases, vorarephilia may be described as a variation of ] and may combine with other paraphilias.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ceilán |first=Cynthia |url=https://archive.org/details/weirdlybelovedta0000ceil |title=Weirdly Beloved: Tales of Strange Bedfellows, Odd Couplings, and Love Gone Bad |publisher=Globe Pequot |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-59921-403-0 |page=90 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Apart from macrophilia, vore fantasies often have themes of ], ], ], ], and sexual cannibalism.<ref name="Lykins" /><ref name=":1" />{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable (]).|date=November 2024}}
== See also ==
* ]
* ]


Most vorarephiles are not overly interested in ];<ref name=":1" />{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable (]).|date=November 2024}} instead, they may get their pleasure from the psychological aspects, such as the total annihilation of identity. This does not necessarily indicate ] tendencies but is more often linked to general fantasies of ] and ].{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}
]


== Variations ==
]
{{More citations needed section|date=September 2024}}
Introduction
There are several variations to the fantasy, often changing the way in which the victim is ingested. Typically, when the victim is consumed ], artwork may depict what is known as "soft vore", meaning that the victim is swallowed whole and enters the ] of the consumer, then is either left unharmed or ] inside.<ref name=":0" /> If the victim is kept safe (also known as ''endo vore'' or ''endosoma''), the victim can eventually be let out by ] or ], whereas if digestion happens, the victim is usually killed, but may be magically reformed in some cases.<ref name=":1" />{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable (]).|date=November 2024}} The more extreme and less common form of the fetish is "hard vore", in which the victim is chewed and torn apart by the consumer, followed by a more gruesome depiction of digestion.<ref name=":0" />
As a vorarephile, I have always wondered just what the cause of my fetish was. It's a common question among vores, just as common as questions of existence and the nature of life are among most people, and the reason is simply that vore tends to occupy a rather significant portion of my existence. Of fellow vores I've talked to, almost all "feel" deeper connections in the fetish then simply a pleasurable fantasy or kink; likewise, it is almost ubiquitos that the fetish for vore begins before sexual maturation, indicating that it is not a perversion of sexual development but has much deeper and older roots in the psyche.


Aside from oral vore, there are plenty of subcategories, some of which are:
As such, not only does it take on more significance to us, but the origins become more important to most vorarephiles because the fetish seems to stem from the basic self, actually constituting a part of our identity. And, as such, it is desirable to seek out the cause in the pursuit not only of curiosity, but also of reaching an understanding of the pure, un-influenced experience of vore, a basic underlying fantasy that has not been altered by sexual urges and the mutual exchange of other's views.
*Anal vore depicts the victim being ingested through the ] instead of the mouth.
*Unbirth is the ingestion of a victim through the ] of the consumer.
*Cock vore depicts the insertion of a victim into the ] of the consumer (which may be depicted as ]).
*Breast vore depicts the insertion of a victim into the ]s of the consumer.
As there is room for artistic interpretation and niches, there are many other subcategories that may be less commonly seen, but they all more or less amount to a victim being inserted through a consumer's ] in some way.<ref name=":0" />


The size of the consumer and/or victim can vary. Macro/micro vore is used to describe art in which the victim is much smaller than the consumer. Same-size vore, on the other hand, depicts a scenario where the victim and consumer are roughly the same size.<ref name="Lykins" />
In my own pursuit, I have come to realize certain insights into the fetish. The first of these are outlined above: that vore goes beyond simple sexual dysfunction and occurs early in life. Later insights, however, deal not with the uniformity of vore but the diversity I have found through observation and conversations with fellow vorarephiles.


== Research ==
The most basic, and most important of these insights is that vore, as the community knows it, is not a single fetish. It is, rather, a conglomeration of different subfetishes which have found the act of vore, living consumption of another creature, to be the means of satisfying the fetish. Thus we have those who, in vore, focus on the experience of the prey, and those who focus on the experience of the predator; those who prefer digestion and those who simply find enclosement enough; those who desire blood letting and those which would rather go down unscathed. Empirically taken, vorarephiles are actually a very diverse group of people, each with their own emphasises, preferences and taboos when it comes to the vore fantasy.
{{More medical citations needed|section|date=October 2023}}


One ] analysis connected the fantasy with ], and suggested that it could be motivated by a desire to merge with a more powerful other or permanently escape loneliness.<ref name="Lykins" /> With "no known treatment" for vorarephiles who feel 'ill' with their sexuality, psychologists at Toronto's ] have recommended trying to "adjust to, rather than change or suppress" the sexual interest.<ref name="NP">{{cite news | author = Brean, Joseph | date = 1 October 2013 | url = https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/man-who-desired-to-be-eaten-by-a-large-dominant-woman-a-baffling-case-for-toronto-psychiatric-hospital-doctors | title = Man who desired to be eaten by a 'large, dominant woman' a baffling case for Toronto psychiatric hospital doctors | work = National Post}}</ref> Medication for ] reduction could be used if deemed necessary.<ref name="Lykins" />
With this in mind, then, I long ago gave up on finding a single root cause for this fetish, and what I write here is by no means an attempt to describe the fetish for all or even most vores. Rather, it is an attempt to describe the causes of my own version of the fetish: that is, a fetish which focuses primarily on the prey, must involve oral intake, and includes full digestion.


==See also==
However, this should not preclude vorarephiles of other "formulas" from the description here; I do my best to follow a logical progression of concepts, from the very broad to the specific, and I believe that most of these have their own values of insight for almost any reader. Although I come to my own, ultimate conclusion, other readers may find that basic concepts presented apply to them as well and may even be able to follow their own, altered progressions.
*] – Sexual arousal by the risk of being killed
*]
*]
*] – Animals' behaviours involving eating their mates during or after copulation
*] – Sexual arousal by situations involving food


==References==
Besides self-discovery on my part, the intent of this essay is to promote a better understanding of vore not only in ourselves but in others as well, so that we may not be so offended or upset by differences in tastes. A further, distant objective is to provide a believable explanation to outsiders, whether interested in the psychology of the fetish or simply ignorant and lacking insight to the nature of this fetish. As a community, we face at the moment very little exposure; however, what exposure has occurred can result in hate or disgust, born out of misunderstandings of what seems to be a bizarre and even sadistic fetish. It is imperitive that we at least have some way of offering an explanation to these people that is logically, scientifically and psychologically solid, and understandable.
{{reflist}}


== External links ==
This is but a single explanation among many.
* {{Wiktionary inline|vorarephilia}}
* {{commons category-inline}}


{{paraphilia}}
{{Sex fetish}}
{{Cannibalism}}


]
"A stand in mother"
]
Vore is assumed to develop in the first stages of life. Evidence for this includes an almost ubiquitos reporting of fantasies during childhood among vorarephiles. Althought voraraphilia (Prey focused) occurs in all manner of people (submissive to dominant), it seems to be localized to people born with a "shy" temperament.

In individuals who are termed "shy" in psychological studies, the strength of their mother is of the utmost importance. A shy person will be unable to go out into the world alone and independent because of fear, and will often turn back, attempting to get back to the safety of the mother. A shy individual may be helped if the mother is supportive, however, as they gain a sense of security about themselves which they carry as a barrier to the world.

Should a person not have such a supportive mother, however, they will continue to be shy until they find some source of inner security, as in another figure, or eventually in a partner or through counseling. But at a young age, the mother is the only human to find comfort and security in.

An unsupportive mother is one who does not give their baby proper attention and warmth. She therefore does not provide the comfort that a shy baby desperately needs. Similarly, infants with neurological disorders such as Asperger's Syndrome may have "Face Blindness", where perception of the emotion on human faces is significantly limited. In either case, the mother will not provide the comfort which the baby desires, and it will seek out other sources(1)

What they seek out depends wildly, but it will always be something that posesses tactile comfort; it could be a pillow, a blanket, a plush toy. Or, just as commonly, a stuffed animal. Although nearly all infants seek such "tactile comforters", in vorarephilia it may be the case that this object takes the place of the mother as a source of comfort and security, and the infant attaches a maternal significance to the object.

However, whether maternalization is achieved likely depends on the object. A baby is probably more likely to associate a large or long(such as a snake) object than a small one with a maternal figure, and a more humanoid or lifelike object (A stuffed animal) than something not alive (such as a blanket or geometric object).

It is also important to note that this stage may occur in the first years of life and not later, where other stuffed animals replace old or worn out ones. Therefore, although later stuffed animals may be small or non-animal/human, an earlier, larger stuffed animal would provide the experiences needed to plant the foundations of the fetish.

So far, a case of maternal attachment has been established, wherein the infant, finding a cold or inattentive or cold mother seeks a "replacement" and finds it in a stuffed animal. I believe that this replacement may have occurred with myself in the form of a large, soft green dinosaur. My memories are blurred of the dinosaur, although I remember placing great importance on it; it developed a rip in the leg and was taken from me when I was about 2.

The case for vore itself, the act of eating, however, is still required. "A return"

Vore is often referred to as a need to return to the womb. There are obvious reasons for this, including the prevelance of unbirthing in the vore community and the act itself, reminiscent of returning to the mother. If we are to follow such an explanation, it would follow that vore, ie being eaten, is simply one way of returning to the shelter of a larger, maternal figure. This would fit the definition of endosomaphilia, regarding the pleasure of simply being inside another living creature.

But I have found that such a definition is lacking for myself. It does not address the need for oral intake in my fetish, and it does not explain why digestion is a goal.

The "return to the womb" hypothesis also seems inadequate; it is very obvious to me that it is specifically the stomach I end up in in my fantasies, and much more significantly, there is no gender associated to the predator.

But it is wise to at least start with the concept of endosomaphilia, and the need to return to the womb. Generally, I believe that these aspects are the basis to the form of vorarephilia being presented here. Both go beyond the simple need for comfort from the mother, to the desire to return within her and be protected from the outside world. Such a desire is indicative not only of a "shy" personality (Though not necesarily a submissive personality), but a frightening or bad environment that may not be the fault of the mother. For those vores with a specific need for a human female predator, such may be the root cause of it. The concept of endosomaphilia almost certainly has similar causes, likely originating in the desire to be protected from a hostile world within a living creature.

Going beyond the above, however, consider an environment which is not only frightening but physically and actively abusive. In a child, such an environment would almost certainly cause early desires to no longer live. But, as the concept of suicide and the devices of such are not accesible this becomes instead a simple desire for oblivion, and may play a large part in shaping the vore fetish.

In short, a person of a "return to the womb" or endosomaphilic version of the fetish wishes to enter the safety of a living creature, while a person experiencing actual abuse desires oblivion. An individual where endosomaphilia mixes with both, then, may wish to be oblivated within a living creature.


"A primal solution"
Now, we must consider a synthesis of these two qualities. The first is an individual which finds themselves with a lack of comfort from the mothers, and turns instead to adopting a (genderless) stuffed animal as a maternal figure. The second is an individual which desires to be obliviated within a living creature. Only one last piece to this is required, and that is the oral intake aspect.

Very simply, such an individual as above will desire to return to the maternal figure, to not only seek solace within it from the outside world, but to be obliviated within and returned to unconscious bliss. Inevitably, they will find that the only way animals "intake" things is by eating them, and indeed it is one of the big concepts pushed on us in our youngest years, appearing all over our culture for the obvious reason: the law of nature is eat or be eaten.

To the child, the connection is easy. The way by which its maternal figure may take it in is to eat it, and it finds the thought of being eaten, far from terrifying, to be a positive goal, a means by which to reach the inner solace of its adopted parent. It also must know that food intaken is not allowed back out; it is "Lost" within the predator, and as such escapes the hostile world around it.

That the child cannot experience this, however, leads to an unfulfilled desire. It pops up in dreams, causes strange feelings of need when experienced, and in later years creates sexual arousal. It will also see the physical act of digestion as necessary, as it is the mechanical process by which one is obliviated within the animal.

In the end, a fetish is achieved which desires comfort from the outside world by being eaten by another living creature and digested.


In Closing
I would like to stress that this is only a possible explanation of a single variety of vore. There is also not much evidence for the stuffed animal hypothesis; I primarily derive it from a few pieces of conversation I've seen and from my own experience. It may very well be that most vores find something else to create a maternal object. However, I do believe that the basic maternal aspect is important and fairly common among vores who focus on being eaten or on the experience of the prey. It would be beneficial, however, to know of the stuffed animals owned by these vorarephiles in order to see if any correlation exists.

And if nothing else, this is simply a possible explanation; the only real purpose is the pursuit of the knowledge of one's self. With that, i hope that this essay has given you, if not an explanation, then at least some basic insight into this fetish.

(1) A Rhesus monkey experiment used fake mothers to stimulate actual parents; one was made of wire and the other made of soft felt. Even if the wire mother gave milk, the monkey sought out the more comfortable felt monkey in seeking tactile comfort.

Terminology: Vorarephilia: a fetish in which living consumption creates pleasure Endosomaphilia: a fetish in which the act of being inside another living creature brings comfort Vore: the online community based on living consumption Voraphile: a person who has vorarephilia (shortened for common usage)

This is a good idea of where vore originated from.
to see the original go to

Latest revision as of 05:35, 18 December 2024

Sexual fetish

Not to be confused with Sexual cannibalism.
An example of manga-style vorarephilic artwork

Vorarephilia (often shortened to vore) is a paraphilia characterized by the erotic desire to be consumed by, or to personally consume, another person or creature, or an erotic attraction to the process of eating in general practice. Soft vore fantasies are separated from sexual fantasies of cannibalism, also referred to as "hard vore", because the soft vore victim is normally swallowed alive and whole. The word vorarephilia is derived from the Latin vorare (to "swallow" or "devour"), and Ancient Greek φιλία (philía, "love").

Content

Usually, vorarephilic fantasies involve a consumer (usually referred to as predator or pred for short) ingesting one or multiple victims (sometimes called prey) in some way. Since vorarephilic fantasies cannot be acted out in reality, they are often expressed in stories or drawings as well as sexual roleplay.

Vore is most often enjoyed through pictures, stories, videos, and video games, and it can appear in mainstream media. Expressions can involve humans, animals, dragons, giant snakes, and other creatures, real or fictional. In some cases, vorarephilia may be described as a variation of macrophilia and may combine with other paraphilias. Apart from macrophilia, vore fantasies often have themes of BDSM, microphilia, pregnancy fetishism, anthropomorphized animals, and sexual cannibalism.

Most vorarephiles are not overly interested in sadomasochism; instead, they may get their pleasure from the psychological aspects, such as the total annihilation of identity. This does not necessarily indicate suicidal tendencies but is more often linked to general fantasies of escapism and solitude.

Variations

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

There are several variations to the fantasy, often changing the way in which the victim is ingested. Typically, when the victim is consumed orally, artwork may depict what is known as "soft vore", meaning that the victim is swallowed whole and enters the stomach of the consumer, then is either left unharmed or digested inside. If the victim is kept safe (also known as endo vore or endosoma), the victim can eventually be let out by regurgitation or defecation, whereas if digestion happens, the victim is usually killed, but may be magically reformed in some cases. The more extreme and less common form of the fetish is "hard vore", in which the victim is chewed and torn apart by the consumer, followed by a more gruesome depiction of digestion.

Aside from oral vore, there are plenty of subcategories, some of which are:

  • Anal vore depicts the victim being ingested through the anus instead of the mouth.
  • Unbirth is the ingestion of a victim through the vagina of the consumer.
  • Cock vore depicts the insertion of a victim into the penis of the consumer (which may be depicted as erect).
  • Breast vore depicts the insertion of a victim into the breasts of the consumer.

As there is room for artistic interpretation and niches, there are many other subcategories that may be less commonly seen, but they all more or less amount to a victim being inserted through a consumer's orifice in some way.

The size of the consumer and/or victim can vary. Macro/micro vore is used to describe art in which the victim is much smaller than the consumer. Same-size vore, on the other hand, depicts a scenario where the victim and consumer are roughly the same size.

Research

This section needs more reliable medical references for verification or relies too heavily on primary sources. Please review the contents of the section and add the appropriate references if you can. Unsourced or poorly sourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Vorarephilia" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2023)

One case study analysis connected the fantasy with sexual masochism, and suggested that it could be motivated by a desire to merge with a more powerful other or permanently escape loneliness. With "no known treatment" for vorarephiles who feel 'ill' with their sexuality, psychologists at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health have recommended trying to "adjust to, rather than change or suppress" the sexual interest. Medication for libido reduction could be used if deemed necessary.

See also

References

  1. ^ Lykins, Amy D.; Cantor, James M. (21 September 2013). "Vorarephilia: A Case Study in Masochism and Erotic Consumption". Archives of Sexual Behavior. 43 (1): 181–186. doi:10.1007/s10508-013-0185-y. PMID 24057211. S2CID 21413433.
  2. Ågmo, Anders (2007). "Hyperactive sexual desire and the paraphilias". Functional and dysfunctional sexual behavior: a synthesis of neuroscience and comparative psychology. Academic Press. p. 454. doi:10.1016/B978-012370590-7/50013-X. ISBN 978-0-12-370590-7.
  3. Brundage, Sandy (31 July 2002). "Fetish Confessions". The Wave Magazine. 2 (15). Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 30 April 2007.
  4. ^ "2021 Vore Survey Results from Eka's Portal" (PDF). Internet Archive (published 4 September 2023). 25 July 2021. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  5. Brathwaite, Brenda (2007). "Defining sex". Sex in video games (PDF). Advances in computer graphics and game development. London: Charles River Media. p. 20. ISBN 978-1-58450-459-7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2007.
  6. ^ Staughton, John (28 November 2019). "What Is Vorarephilia?". ScienceABC. Retrieved 29 September 2024.
  7. Ceilán, Cynthia (2008). Weirdly Beloved: Tales of Strange Bedfellows, Odd Couplings, and Love Gone Bad. Globe Pequot. p. 90. ISBN 978-1-59921-403-0.
  8. Brean, Joseph (1 October 2013). "Man who desired to be eaten by a 'large, dominant woman' a baffling case for Toronto psychiatric hospital doctors". National Post.

External links

  • The dictionary definition of vorarephilia at Wiktionary
  • Media related to Vore at Wikimedia Commons
Paraphilias
List
See also
Sexual fetishism
Actions, states
Body parts
Clothing
Objects
Controversial / illegal
Culture / media
Race
Related topics
Cannibalism
By type
In humans
In animals
In fiction
Related concepts
Categories: