Internet Grossouts, Spoilered
Since my earliest days on the Internet, in those legendary halcyon Usenet days before dubya-dubya-dubya entered our spoken language, I used to fire up my telephone modem (remember those?), log into whichever ISP was offering a flat-rate deal this month, fire up a news robot, and start downloading all the pictures of one or another Usenet Newsgroup. Generally that lasted until whomever was charged with enforcing the hidden limits on the “unlimited connection” noticed my 47-hour connection in the logs and terminated it with extreme prejudice.
Reviewing the visual plunder at a later time, I quickly learned something: there are images, once seen, that cannot be unseen. No matter how much you wish you could scrub your brain until they were gone.
I think that’s the “fun” behind internet grossout links — once your victim follows the link, it’s to late for them; the psychic damage is done.
Trouble is, once once these things “catches on” and gets talked about, people get curious, so they decide to have a look. Regret it later? Very possibly, but it’s too late.
The march of time being what it is, some of these have gotten almost unimaginably gross. There’s one going around right now — I’m not even going to name it — that’s… no, I’m not going to describe it, either. Seeing the first several seconds of it did not enrich my life, that’s about all I care to say.
So there’s a real service to be done in offering spoilers on these things, so that folks who don’t want to be ignorant can be informed about the current grossout links, without having to, you know, actually look at them.
All of which is by way of explaining this link, to such a collection of spoilers at Gawker. May you find it useful.
Similar Sex Blogging:
Shorter URL for sharing: http://www.erosblog.com/?p=2127
Okay, so maybe I have a very vivid imagination, but the descriptions were enough. Now I have to get rid of the smear on my pscyhe left by those words!
I am a totally sex-positive person – do whatever you like in your own space, consenting adults etc etc. No problems. But those last three, I don’t get it, and I’m making a judgement here. It’s gross.
I understand that the thrill may be in the breaking of a taboo. I get that. I’m open to the butt – both giving and taking. But some taboos are there for a very good reason. How does anybody even perform these acts without being violently ill? How does anybody watch them without the same reaction?
I’m really curious as to why anybody would find this a turn-on, or even amusing.
Much as I try not to be judgmental in this space, SydneyGal, I cannot disagree with you. Those are gross, and I rather suspect that may be the point, even for the hypothetical individuals whose fetish it is.
In some of those videos, the actors “being violently ill” is part of the feature.
I can’t help you on the question of why anybody finds eroticism in such material, though I suspect like any other fetish, it’s a matter of imprinting. I know a urine fetishist who suffered a severe abdominal injury including damage to his bladder when he was a young adolescent; is it so odd that a year in the hospital with every urinary act being tended to by young female nurses with catheters and bedpans colored his sexual psyche? Scat fetishists presumably also have had experiences that imprinted them strongly, though I’m not eager to imagine what those experiences might have been.
Why people would find these sorts of things amusing, on the other hand, is a fair bit simpler, but in my experience it’s a macho guy thing. Simply put, it can be part of the eternal male oneupsmanship. In much the same fashion as bored toughguys standing around on the street corner seeing who can hold a hot cigarette lighter to the back of their hand the longest, you’ll sometimes encounter young men sitting around looking at “oh, my god” internet videos, groaning, yelling, and insulting each other. The ones who can laugh and say “Is that your girlfriend? No wait, I think it’s your MOM!” win, while the ones who turn pale and run barfing for the bathroom would be, obviously, pansy-assed wusses. So of course they all sit around and laugh and diss each other. Whether anybody actually enjoys it is unclear to me — I’ve never been a huge participant in normal male bonding procedures — but the superficial indicia of amusement are present.
I’ve always thought of it as more like a gross out horror film. I’ve never particularly seen the point of them, but I know people who don’t see the point in rollercoasters either. It’s a matter of personal taste.
People like to see how far they can go before they have to stop, with anything. I remember holding my hand under the hot water tap as a child, just out of sheer curiosity on how long I could last. Now I enjoy going on the scariest rollercoasters I can find. I think it’s human instinct to push at any limits you can find. Whether it feels pleasant or not there will be some sort of thrill involved.
Also, you’d be surprised at how easily some people can subvert the squick reaction into academic curiosity. Goatse and tubgirl don’t provoke much of a reaction from me these days – I’ve not tried the videos, but there’s going to be a range of reactions to anything, and I know my boyfriend for example was fairly unfussed by them.
Bacchus – thanks for your patient explanation. Sometimes, I just don’t understand guys, especially young ones! The kind of behaviour you describe is one of the reasons I’ve always preferred older men, even from a young age. Of course, my own relationship with my father is part of that, which is a nod to your explanation of the fetishists. There are many things in a person’s background which contribute to the patchwork which is a psyche.
Incidentally, I can just about get my head around urine fetishes – theoretically Urine is actually pretty clean, when it’s fresh at least. But feces …. nope.
BTW, I appreciate your non-judgmental stance on this blog, it’s one reason I find it so interesting and readable.
S – I saw Goatse quite some time ago, and that one did provoke the academic curiosity. Muscle relaxants surely are involved. I’m not a huge fan of the rollercoaster, but that’s more to do with my propensity to motion sickness than anything else (gee, I’m certainly sharing today, aren’t I?).
Still pretty gross and unsanitary, but is there a possibility that this is actually chocolate pudding that has been pumped in for the performance?
SydneyGal: I believe goatse to be unassisted by drugs of any kind AND authentic. Why? BME has a whole section devoted to anal stretching in BME/Hard. It takes some time/patience to stretch one’s anus to that extent, but it is possible and for some, enjoyable.
I know this post is old, but I wanted to mention that.