Lots of unusual sexual fetishes are on the rise in the UK, with vorarephilia making the list of emerging fantasies – but what is it and why is it becoming so popular?
The UK’s trending sexual desires have been revealed – and one of them is considered pretty controversial.
New research by sex and relationship expert Rachel Thompson, in partnership with sex-positive platform Sensuali, has found the declining and rising trends in the world of sexual fantasies and fetishes. Analysis of over 160 million Google searches over the last five years has shown the growth and decline of the UK’s kinky word searches.
While searches for the word ‘dogging’, watching or engaging in sexual acts in public, have declined by 34 percent, searches for ‘fandom’, meaning financial domination, have increased by a staggering 83 percent. Similarly, ‘thirst trap’, a picture posted on social media to attract sexual attention, has shot up by 335 percent in the last half-decade.
One of the most surprising fetishes to make the list of rising trends was ‘vore’, short for vorarephilia, with searches increasing by 26 percent. According to the National Library of Medicine, vore is ‘an infrequently presenting paraphilia, characterised by the erotic desire to consume or be consumed by another person or creature’.
In simple terms, vore is an imaginary fetish that involves being swallowed whole by another person in a sexual way. Sexual wellness expert Hope Flynn told Mail Online: “It’s important to know that vore is only fantasy and doesn’t involve real harm or eating. There’s a distinction between those who like to consume (predators) and those who like to be consumed (prey).”
She continued: “People with vore fantasies might express themselves through stories, artworks, role-playing or online discussions and forums like Reddit.” But why is it becoming more popular? According to the sex expert, the idea of taking a bite out of someone has been “romanticised by films and shows such as Twilight, Vampire Diaries and Venom”.
Hope added: “Cannibalism, which is often considered one of the most inhuman activities has been shown on-screen more and more in recent years, such as in Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and House of Hammer, they both condones literal cannibalistic love or elements of it.” However, she said it is still largely very niche due to its “unconventional nature”.
But despite the controversy, vore is a “personal” fetish, Hope said, advising that people who get involved in the fantasy “communicate openly, establish consent and engage responsibly”. As well as vore, another sexual term that saw huge growth in searches was ‘gooning’, when a person experiences prolonged arousal, which shot up by nearly 800 percent.
Meanwhile, searches for ‘sploshing’, playing with messy food, have declined by 54 percent in the last five years, and searches for ‘cottaging’, engaging in sexual activities in public toilets or outdoor areas, have dropped by 70 percent.