Fetishism Discussion, and a question

[Alex Bettinger]

So to follow up on some ideas in another thread:

My view is that no particular fetish can be explained satisfactorily in a general way, since chances are that no two fetishists, even ones who seem to have the "same" fetish, are really alike.

I used the spanking example. Take 4 or 5 guys who are into spanking. They SEEM to have the same fetish. But actually, when you inquire into what each of them is really into, you find that they don't have the same fetish at all.

One of them is really into humiliation. Doesn't care about pain or hard spanking, just loves the way spanking conveys a sense of the humiliation of the victim.

Another of them is really into PAIN, but "safe" pain, the kind that won't cause any damage to the victim. Loves really hard spanking.

Another of them had some kind of experience with spanking as a youngster--like with a babysitter or something--and ever since then has gotten a sexual thrill from spankings. Rousseau talks about this in his Confessions! This one maybe prefers spanking with an instrument or a brush or paddle or something.

Another of them is just an ass man, just really loves the booty and watching it jiggle, and spanking just is a great way to show off the butt.

So you see, even though these guys all like "spanking," really they don't have the same fetish at all. It's a completely different animal in each case.

Now, here is my question for anyone who cares to join. And all are free to chime in!

In my experience, there are two major "sources" for a fetish. First, there is the relatively "benign" source: as a kid, or even as an adult, you see something--in a movie, in a comicbook, on tv, whatever--which for some unknown reason fascinates you erotically (even though it's not sex as such). And for some reason that you never fully understand, it just stays with you.

So for example, although I don't have a bondage fetish really, I do recall very specifically seeing an image, when I was rather young, of Spider Woman...she was tied to a chair, and gagged, and the caption or the title was, "SPIDER WOMAN IS HELPLESS"

I remember that image just profoundly affected me. I still recall it perfectly. But why would that one image, out of the thousands of images I saw as a kid (many of which were just as, or even more, sexually provocative), stay with me? No real reason, really...it just did. It just sort of got lodged in my brain and, in some dim way, continues to inform my fetishes today.

So that's one possible source of a fetish--you just see something, and for some reason you like it, it gets "stuck" in your head. It stays with you. Why? No specific reason. It just does.

The other primary source of a fetish is experiential. You EXPERIENCE something--sometimes something traumatic--and that experience gets stuck in your head and informs your fetishes later in life.

So maybe you're spanked by a babysitter something and for some reason it's an intense experience. Or maybe as a kid you're wrestling with one of your older sister's friends, and suddenly it started to feel weird and good and you didn't know why. Or sometimes, unfortunately, something darker--abuse, trauma, etc. Many psychologists and theorists have suggested that fetishism in certain people is a way of *re-staging* some earlier trauma, re-staging it in a way where it's not traumatic, but pleasurable, etc.

But of course the experiential side doesn't HAVE to be traumatic--sometimes it's a great experience, like your first sexual experience, or the first time you see a naked woman in real life, etc.

SO HERE IS THE QUESTION:

Which, if either of these, best describes you? Do your fetishes come from just seeing something in a movie or comicbook or magazine as a kid? Or do they come from some more immediate experience with other living people? Or neither?

My hunch is that psychiatrists often assume fetishes are always sites of trauma, abuse, suffering. My view is that they are almost always "benign." They come about because you just happen to see an image that affected you in an indefinable way when you were young. Something that somehow got associated with a special erotic meaning--not for any ulterior reason, but much more likely as a result of very random causes and effects. Nothing more momentous than that.

What do you guys think?

[Mr. X]

In my experience, there are two major "sources" for a fetish. First, there is the relatively "benign" source: as a kid, or even as an adult, you see something--in a movie, in a comicbook, on tv, whatever--which for some unknown reason fascinates you erotically (even though it's not sex as such). And for some reason that you never fully understand, it just stays with you.

I call that the baby bird effect. Basically the first thing a baby bird sees it thinks its the mother. So a kid gets his first sexual rush like being tickled and BAM its his fetish. One model I worked with LOVED HOM cause she used to scream as a kid (like all kids) and her mom would cover her mouth. BAM! Fetish.

But I think both the methods you describe are very similar. Sexual rush either in trauma or imagery and its a fetish. I would say mine are all imagery based. Probably things like Gravity Girl being coocooned, Wonder Woman tied up with her own lasso, Daphne tied up. Emma Peel and Tara King KOs and tie ups, Isis HOM-ed by some plant monster. There are others like the imagery of full figured hips and adult females in peril. A lot of the stuff today is all done as anime stick figure or jagged, edgy females with no curve.

Supposedly human males are hardwired to respond sexually to certain shapes (for straight men).

[Alex Bettinger]

I like that term, baby bird effect. I wish more people understood that concept.

What I find rather disturbing is how people with agendas--psychiatrists, feminists, moral conservatives--are always so keen on making it seem like a fetish has some kind of "ulterior" meaning.

So if you're interested in superheroines in peril, or bondage, or unconscious, etc., then it MUST mean that you hate women, or that you were abused, or that you are sick and perverted with rapist tendencies, etc. After all, that's how feminists and psychiatrists and moral conservatives stay in business: By making you believe that there is a huge problem with you, and that you need THEM to get fixed up.

When in reality, fetishes have no such ulterior motive or meaning. They arise from really rather random associations, experiences. No deeper meaning than that.

Who knows, maybe if, instead of seeing Spider Woman tied to a chair, I saw her straddling an unconscious male villain, my fetishes today might be completely different. There's no ulterior meaning to them--they're mostly random.

[Mr. X]

Well they aren't going away cause the baby bird effect isn't going away.

As for the moral aspect there are a lot of dishonest people that label somethings fetish and others not. Like KOs are now some forbidden thing YET Uma Thermon killing like 60 guys with a sword in Kill Bill is somehow NOT fetish. Of course its fetish, just the empowered female slaughtering men fetish. The Dark Angel fetish. The vampire fetish etc etc. Geez call something a vampire show and you can tie women up and have guys run around shirtless every episode.

[Imagineer]

We'll always have Paris...

[EvilDaria]

For me it's all about the imagery where the bondage, gagging and struggling of the [usually] costumed heroine represent the turn on.
Specifics, to do with the restraint of legs wearing boots seem to come from an image I saw as a teenager, I cannot remember the character - possibly Emma Peel.
But as to personal experience, the closest parallel in real life comes with the smell of warm leather - no I don't go around sniffing it! Just a hint of that scent in the notes of someone's perfume would have me melting.
I've just watched a documentary on YouTube about sexuality and shame, some of which is relevant to fetishism -

I believe in each to her or his own. As long as we keep it safe and don't hurt others, it really is something within us to treasure.

[Heroine Addict]

Just to take Alex down Memory Lane...

[Rye]

First I want to apologize for what is going to be a long and probably boring answer. There were just several parts of Alex's post that compelled me to divulge.

I definitely fall into the first category... I remember the moment, the very second it happened. Fuck I can still remember how the movie theatre smelt and I was only 4 years old.

Throughout my life I have given countless hours of thought as to (How, why, and what the hell is this??" After 30 years of reflection and self discovery I actually believe the fetish, kink, obsession, or whatever we want to call it was already there... and what I saw and heard (the sounds were equally as important to me) acted as a light switch... The imagery literally activated something that already existed. That is how I felt and the only thing that makes any sense to me all these years later. I didn't slowly become attracted to Superheroines in peril... I was literally a regular kid one second and obsessed 3 second later.

I also don't use the word obsessed lightly because, at least for me, it really was and still is an obsession. Everyone's level of interest in SHIP is a little different with varying degrees of arousal, but mine always seemed extreme. I am not talking about the types of content I am into, but simply how enthralled I was with SHIP.

Growing up and having no fucking clue why I wanted to see Superheroines lose was troubling at times to say the least. I went several years as a teenager thinking something was wrong with me. Countless trips to the Video rental stores like Block Buster and Hollywood Video scanning movie titles and cover art for anything with even a hint of a powerful girl that might face peril, and then thinking I hit the JACKPOT if there was even 10 freaking seconds of adversity.... HA! There were of course a fairly decent library of titles that were my "go to" rentals if nothing new or interesting came out like Angel of Destruction, Angel Fist, All the Marbles, Supergirl of course, and several others from the good old 80's.

One day my girlfriend at the time was looking for a movie and she came across some VHS tapes with the most random hodgepodge of my favorite peril moments from cartoons and I walked in on her playing the tape! I literally froze in place and turned white as a ghost as she watched TV screen looking slightly confused. I am thinking to myself FUCK how am I going to explain this shit!!! I should just grab all the tapes and toss them so she doesn't freak out!! All she did was laugh and say "oh I remember that show, how fun" and then she moved on to the next tape... /facepalm

At one point I became so confused and worried that someone was going to discover my obsession that I boxed up all my comics, mags, tapes, and headed for the dump. I got half way there and turned around... I couldn't do it. I was a mess to put it mildly.

This all radically changed once I got my first internet connection... I immediately went in search of anything I could find superheroine related, more often than not Supergirl, and for the first time in my life I was like HOLY SHIT... I'm not alone! After a good solid 2 years of searching every night I found the most amazing places like Superheroines.com, SuperheroineCentral, Sooperhero.com, Wizards Lair and then there was all the amazing fan fiction and then all the artists like Danny Ryan, GP, Dr Evil, Mr X, MBEN, COMPLETE CENSORY OVERLOAD AHHHHH!!!

And then it just hit me like a ton of bricks... what an amazing and cool community this is! Around that same time I started dating a girl named Carly and she became the first person I talked to about Superheroines in peril. Fast forward 17 years and the scared worried Rye trying to hide from everyone seems like bad dream from another life.

Over the years my preferences in SHIP haven't changed much... but they definitely expanded.

[Dragon1]

Alex like in life this is more complex, you are correct that childhood events effect our Fetishes but there are also biological predisposition. So it it both Nature and Nurture. There are health Fetishes like what goes on in 90% of the Forums but there are unhealth Fetishes as well. Many on this thread were influnced by the two bid shows one was WonderWomen and the other was Becaue of Batman when Batgirl was introduced and for many it awaked sexual desires during a sexual latency period. It is why WW and BG and then Supergirl are the three main sellers. Then there is a host of reasons why one likes to see the helpless and dominated Heroine realating to the powerless one had as a child and the ability to take control it is a cathartioc service all you producers are providing and health in most cases.

[unmasked05]

@Alex I am glad you started this thread because I find this topic personally interesting. For me it is a 100% benign. When I was a kid I saw Batgirl and I was hooked on seeing her unmasked. Hence my username and also my primary sub-fetish to SHIP. I would always wonder why the villain would go through all the trouble of catching her and not wanting to know who she is. Use to drive me nuts. Even now as my tastes have matured in content I will still always look to purchase a video that offers an unmasking.

The two other shows/videos that hooked me onto this fetish were the WonderWoman Fausta episode which I watched over and over again on VHS. Also Barbarian Queen 2 which had the heroine surrender to save her people and then be bound to something similar to a cross. The villain then came in and tore her top off and verbally humiliated her. Seeing these 3 videos just clicked something on in my brain that really I can't explain why and I have never forgotten them because that is where my fetish started.

@Rye I also came of age as the internet really took off and have been with this fetish since only Superheroine Central and Demise were around. I also remember thinking how great it was that I was not alone and even a sense of embracing and owning my fetish more once I knew others shared my same interest. I also remember when my fetish jumped to the next level of interest. It was when I saw one of your original productions from your paysite. I think it was called Starli but it had the actress actually giving the villain a blowjob to save herself. Watching that just took my SHIP fetish to a whole new level of interest and also @Alex's first video of Crimson Hawk vs Hollywood also greatly influenced the videos I would purchase over the next decade.

I do find it interesting that even as I forget many memories of my childhood I always remember vividly what started my sexual fetish in the SHIP community.

[jlocke]

First I want to apologize for what is going to be a long and probably boring answer. There were just several parts of Alex's post that compelled me to divulge.

Wow Rye! Not boring at all. Your experiences are very similar to mine. Instead of a SG it was seeing a rerun of the old WW show. The Fausta episode. It's been so long that I really forgot how ashamed I used to feel. It was awful trying to separate my feelings for women in the real world and my dark desires in my fantasy world. Thank you for sharing.

I also didn't remember that it was the internet that helped free me. First a yahoo club, then Wizard's Lair, Mr. X. Finally Superheroine Central and few years later PUNISHED HEROINES!

Something cool to ponder. You might be helping lots of young men come to terms with their own fetish, and saving them from experiencing the same shame we did.

I'm glad you met Carly and were able to bring your fantasy into the real world. The only girl I"ve ever shared my fetish with would eventually go on to be my wife. And every few months I break out the suitcase filled with costumes, tie her up, and do bad, bad things my own personal superheroine.

[Danny Ryan]

...Countless trips to the Video rental stores like Block Buster and Hollywood Video scanning movie titles and cover art for anything with even a hint of a powerful girl that might face peril, and then thinking I hit the JACKPOT if there was even 10 freaking seconds of adversity.... HA! There were of course a fairly decent library of titles that were my "go to" rentals if nothing new or interesting came out like Angel of Destruction, Angel Fist, All the Marbles, Supergirl of course, and several others from the good old 80's.

Ah, those were the days... I would have crawled over broken glass for Shannon Tweed back in the day (Or Heather Thomas, who was the only reason I ever watched The Fall Guy.)

I am thinking to myself FUCK how am I going to explain this shit!!! I should just grab all the tapes and toss them so she doesn't freak out!! All she did was laugh and say "oh I remember that show, how fun" and then she moved on to the next tape... /facepalm

As I tried to touch on in another thread, if someone is not aware that a fetish exists, that fetish can be invisible to them. Apparently there's a farting fetish, which I have never been aware of. Mel Brooks' "beans around the campfire" sequence in Blazing Saddles is there because it's funny, and when I see it I still chuckle. But it might mean something else to someone else.

This all radically changed once I got my first internet connection... artists like Danny Ryan, GP, Dr Evil, Mr X, MBEN, COMPLETE CENSORY OVERLOAD AHHHHH!!!

Bollocks. I'd forgotten I was so much older than the internet!

[decendingskulls]

...The imagery literally activated something that already existed...Growing up and having no fucking clue why I wanted to see Superheroines lose was troubling at times to say the least...At one point I became so confused and worried that someone was going to discover my obsession that I boxed up all my comics, mags, tapes, and headed for the dump...I immediately went in search of anything I could find superheroine related, more often than not Supergirl, and for the first time in my life I was like HOLY SHIT... I'm not alone!..And then it just hit me like a ton of bricks... what an amazing and cool community this is!

Rye! I have given much thought to this question and your commentary here is so familiar to my own experiences. Do you know what this sounds like taken out of context? It sounds like how people describe learning that they are gay. That one day a light switch goes off and they realize that they were born this way. From there leads often to excitement but also a bit of confusion and shame, that is until they find like-minded people and a supportive online etc community which comes as a huge relief.

My point is that I have often wondered if I was born this way, or was it something that influenced me from a very early age. Because I have crude drawings I did that date back literally to when I could first pick up a crayon that show heroines in peril, and subsequently went through a very parallel series of experiences to yours.

I am a gentle and kind person. I have no anger towards women and no wish to see harm come to anyone. So it's always a little confusing that I like this fetish so much. I'm the kind of person who if I could choose it would probably choose not to feel this way since it's so counter to how I am in normal life, but I'm also the kind of person who refuses to deny or repress his own true feelings, so I not only allow them but I enjoy them, but my point is that I clearly did not choose this, it just is.

I have read that some psychologists believe that submissive people enjoy being sexually dominant, and dominant people enjoy being sexually submissive (picture a bossy CEO being chained up and whipped for pleasure), because doing the opposite of their normally prescribed role or tendency is both a relief and an exciting arousal taboo. I believe there is some truth to this as well.

[Imagineer]

Damsels in distress everywhere in entertainment. Batman in afternoon reruns. Oh Mighty Isis. That one page in the Sears Catalog. Wonder Woman. The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. The Theiss Titillation Effect. (If that knot came undone, if that fabric slipped, I'd see everything!) Flash Gordon. (Dale Arden. Princess Aura. Oh my.) Dad's Penthouse Magazine collection -- nearly every issue, at least one fantasy roleplay photostory. (Especially Oct '76.) X-Men: Emma Frost. Supergirl. Video box art for 1984's Angel. (Straight-A student by day; prostitute by night. When she's good she's very good; when she's bad she's deadly!) Duran Duran. Barbarella, holy shit, Barbarella. (Birds. Organ.) alt.sex.stories. MCstories.
Adventurous girlfriend. Sporty girlfriend. Submissive girlfriend and skinny neckties and a cast-iron bed.

Yahtzee.

[rizoboy]

Rye,

As I mentioned in a previous post, I, like you, was drawn to the fetish IMMEDIATELY without ever seeing it coming, at a very early age.

I was 7 years old in a bookstore in France. normal, sweet kid with his grandma, when i saw a fetish comic on a lower rack hidden in a corner of the store showing a bruised and bloodied naked woman strapped on a table and whipped by an SS officer. The rush came immediately. I didn't understand it at the time but i started to search for it everywhere. I found it in lots of 70's shows like Charlie's Angels and Wonder Woman and even Logan's Run the series.

There was no abuse in my childhood. No strict religious parenting. No rebellion to anything. It was like some primordial reptilian gland was awakened, something in us that has been dormant for centuries. I don't know.

I've done some therapy and I do bring up the topic with my therapist from time to time. Sometimes he suggests that there is a certain hatred of women that I have in me, an unconscious angst against an older sister who was very bossy, very domineering. But I don't think so really. I love my sister and I consider what i have to be natural but inexplicable.

I know one thing: It's something that will always remain in the realm of fantasy. Ask me now to physically perform the fantasies I have on a female and I would say never. I find it unjustifiable. So whatever it is, and whatever you want to call it in these posts, I'll call it a fetish. Probably something WE ALL have inside of us to a degree, but not everyone has tapped into it.

These discussions have been so freeing for me and I appreciate all of your work, despite the differences that have come up with some producers.

[Leadpoison]

I've really enjoyed reading people's experiences. I saw Heavy Metal when I was maybe 6 years old?



Since then, SHiP was ingrained into my consciousness. My early teens I sought out the Heavy Metal mags, Japanese erotica, mainstream superheroines.

And at the risk of sounding too Freudian, I think anyone with a domineering mother can shape a psyche into seeking out powerful women rendered submissive in fantasy media. Not saying anyone with a healthy childhood can't appreciate SHiP, just that I would be surprised if that wasn't often the case.

[Mr. X]

This all radically changed once I got my first internet connection... I immediately went in search of anything I could find superheroine related, more often than not Supergirl, and for the first time in my life I was like HOLY SHIT... I'm not alone! After a good solid 2 years of searching every night I found the most amazing places like Superheroines.com, SuperheroineCentral, Sooperhero.com, Wizards Lair and then there was all the amazing fan fiction and then all the artists like Danny Ryan, GP, Dr Evil, Mr X, MBEN, COMPLETE CENSORY OVERLOAD AHHHHH!!!

Oooops. Sorry about that.

[Bert]

WW202.jpg (82.71 KiB) Viewed 9972 times

Well here's the image that started things for me, when I was 8 yrs old. Diana, with no powers at this point in the series, goes after this enormous guy and gets slapped down. That image of her, on her knees, touching her face where he hit her, long hair dangling as he prepares to attack again, it just affected me in a way I couldn't understand. She initiated the fight, which was very brave considering his size, and things quickly turned against her.

For me, that's the scenario. Heroic woman willingly faces danger to fight for good, but finds herself at least temporarily on the losing side of the battle. She's brave and skilled, her motives are pure, but the enemy gains the advantage. Can she endure? Turn the tables? What will happen if she loses?

That was 40 years ago. I bought comics at first because that was the only source for HIP. Then Wonder Woman, The Bionic Woman, Isis. Not much peril in these tame shows, but it could spark the imagination. Later I discovered Emma Peel - still a favorite - then She-ra.

This really is the golden age of HIP. We are lucky to have access to so much quality content. I don't take it for granted.

[Alex Bettinger]

Just to take Alex down Memory Lane...

Wow, some really amazing responses here guys, thank you!

And a HUGE thank you to HeroineAddict for posting that Spider Woman picture--yes, that is EXACTLY the image I was referring to. What's great is that I very specifically remember the TEXT being a huge part of why the image affected me so. In fact, in my memory, the picture was slightly different...I remember the "is helpless" part being even smaller and all the way down at the bottom of the page. So that it read: SPIDER WOMAN.... is helpless That text was HUGE for me...and without doubt, that concept of "helplessness" is, I think, what I mostly took from that picture, even more than the picture itself (since I'm not really into bondage).

Then again, my own self-indulgent fetish character, Cyber Blue, I now realize, has a lot of Spider Woman in her, ha ha:

[Alex Bettinger]

Oh, I also wanted to reply to Rizoboy, since he writes of precisely the kind of thing I was talking about above. Rizoboy wrote:

I've done some therapy and I do bring up the topic with my therapist from time to time. Sometimes he suggests that there is a certain hatred of women that I have in me, an unconscious angst against an older sister who was very bossy, very domineering. But I don't think so really. I love my sister and I consider what i have to be natural but inexplicable.

Yes, please remember that, while your therapist might very well be well-meaning, his whole existence as a therapist relies on there being some bad REASON you have this fetish. Whether it be hatred of women, or trauma, or abuse, etc. Because if there is no such reason--if you have your fetish just for completely random reasons, you just happened to see a certain image at a certain moment of your sexual development, etc.--then, at least as far as the fetish goes, he has no purpose. The therapist WANTS you to have issues that he can then uncover, disclose, heal, etc. Because that's his whole racket.

In the 18th century, there were countless doctors--we call them quacks now--who simply MADE UP an illness. The illness they made up was called "masturbation." If you masturbate, they said, then you're sick. You're gonna get worse, in fact, if you keep doing it. You need to STOP masturbating now, or you'll die. SO BUY MY TONIC! IT WILL HELP YOU STOP MASTURBATING!!

Of course the tonic did nothing of the sort, masturbation was not an illness, no one was getting sick or dying from it. It was ALL 100% bullshit. The quacks made money, people took the tonic, maybe felt better about themselves, etc.

We like to think that we live in an age where we are past all that. NOPE. Quacks are all around us, telling us we're sick, that we need their medicine, we need their therapy, there are things wrong with us and we need them to cure us.

Sometimes they are well meaning, sometimes they truly DO help us. Sometimes they're full of shit, and they just want you to THINK you're sick so you'll pay their fee.

The most important thing with regard to fetishes, I think, is that if you're comfortable with them--if you know you don't hate women, don't feel any depraved need to go assault somebody, don't feel like you're mentally ill because you like to fantasize sometimes about superheroines in peril--then chances are you are just fine. Don't ever let anyone convince you you're sick when you're not.

[Dragon1]

Fetish should only be treated by a therapist if it is causing a problem in a persons life.

[decendingskulls]

Fetish should only be treated by a therapist if it is causing a problem in a persons life.

True but remember rizoboy didn't say he went to therapy for specifically that issue - just that he would casually bring it up from time to time - seemed like more of a curiosity to what the therapist would say. Honestly if I was in therapy I might do the same thing just out of curiosity.

[decendingskulls]

Then again, my own self-indulgent fetish character, Cyber Blue, I now realize, has a lot of Spider Woman in her, ha ha:

Dude, what is that? Saved to my hard drive, that's what. I love it Frickin crotch abuse pterodactyls? Where do I sign up?

[Alex Bettinger]

Fetish should only be treated by a therapist if it is causing a problem in a persons life.

True but remember rizoboy didn't say he went to therapy for specifically that issue - just that he would casually bring it up from time to time - seemed like more of a curiosity to what the therapist would say. Honestly if I was in therapy I might do the same thing just out of curiosity.

Oh of course, and I'm not knocking therapy as such! But that reflex of the therapist--Oh you have a fetish? It MUST be because of some underlying trauma or animosity for women, etc.--is something that we might want to be suspicious of.

I was just jumping on that one point because it was a nice illustration of the way that therapists tend to believe that, if there is anything unusual about you, then it's because there must be some underlying bad stuff that you need the therapist to help you uncover.

That's what members of any profession do--they look for reasons to make themselves useful. This is not necessarily evil--it's just what happens sometimes. And sometimes it can be harmful.

[Alex Bettinger]

Then again, my own self-indulgent fetish character, Cyber Blue, I now realize, has a lot of Spider Woman in her, ha ha:

Dude, what is that? Saved to my hard drive, that's what. I love it Frickin crotch abuse pterodactyls? Where do I sign up?

It's the latest in my series of Cyber-Blue-doesn't-even-get-one-punch-in-before-she's-rendered-completely-helpless-by-monsters-who-toy-with-her comic books, ha ha. Not drawn by me--but by some very talented Chinese artists I hire. I just tell them what horrible things ought to happen to Cyber Blue, and they run with it! I'll send you some stuff offline. Or maybe I'll post 'em here as this conversation grows.

[decendingskulls]

Fetish should only be treated by a therapist if it is causing a problem in a persons life.

True but remember rizoboy didn't say he went to therapy for specifically that issue - just that he would casually bring it up from time to time - seemed like more of a curiosity to what the therapist would say. Honestly if I was in therapy I might do the same thing just out of curiosity.

Oh of course, and I'm not knocking therapy as such! But that reflex of the therapist--Oh you have a fetish? It MUST be because of some underlying trauma or animosity for women, etc.--is something that we might want to be suspicious of.

I was just jumping on that one point because it was a nice illustration of the way that therapists tend to believe that, if there is anything unusual about you, then it's because there must be some underlying bad stuff that you need the therapist to help you uncover.

That's what members of any profession do--they look for reasons to make themselves useful. This is not necessarily evil--it's just what happens sometimes. And sometimes it can be harmful.

No, of course, and you're so right about that. Basically you go to a therapist because you have a problem. You "know" this - that's why you arranged the session. The therapist of course "knows" this too. So therein lies the inherent problem in a way. If you go out searching, but already kind of knowing what you'll expect to find - guess what, you tend to find just what you were looking for. Your anticipation of the result unfortunately colors the landscape in a way that leads you in a particular direction, but it's not always the way you were meant to go. Any time there is a situation like that you need to keep your eyes open and take everything with a grain of salt.

[Dragon1]

If a perosn has a Fetsih and it is mentioned to a therapist in passing the therapist can ask a question as to the fetish and it's effect in his life and if there was issues discussed and it realated that would also follow. But if you are seeing a therapist for nothing related to Fetish and his/her response is to pathlogize the fetish it may be due to their own bias and may not be the best person to see.

[rizoboy]

Oh, I also wanted to reply to Rizoboy, since he writes of precisely the kind of thing I was talking about above. Rizoboy wrote:

I've done some therapy and I do bring up the topic with my therapist from time to time. Sometimes he suggests that there is a certain hatred of women that I have in me, an unconscious angst against an older sister who was very bossy, very domineering. But I don't think so really. I love my sister and I consider what i have to be natural but inexplicable.

Yes, please remember that, while your therapist might very well be well-meaning, his whole existence as a therapist relies on there being some bad REASON you have this fetish. Whether it be hatred of women, or trauma, or abuse, etc. Because if there is no such reason--if you have your fetish just for completely random reasons, you just happened to see a certain image at a certain moment of your sexual development, etc.--then, at least as far as the fetish goes, he has no purpose. The therapist WANTS you to have issues that he can then uncover, disclose, heal, etc. Because that's his whole racket.

In the 18th century, there were countless doctors--we call them quacks now--who simply MADE UP an illness. The illness they made up was called "masturbation." If you masturbate, they said, then you're sick. You're gonna get worse, in fact, if you keep doing it. You need to STOP masturbating now, or you'll die. SO BUY MY TONIC! IT WILL HELP YOU STOP MASTURBATING!!

Of course the tonic did nothing of the sort, masturbation was not an illness, no one was getting sick or dying from it. It was ALL 100% bullshit. The quacks made money, people took the tonic, maybe felt better about themselves, etc.

We like to think that we live in an age where we are past all that. NOPE. Quacks are all around us, telling us we're sick, that we need their medicine, we need their therapy, there are things wrong with us and we need them to cure us.

Sometimes they are well meaning, sometimes they truly DO help us. Sometimes they're full of shit, and they just want you to THINK you're sick so you'll pay their fee.

The most important thing with regard to fetishes, I think, is that if you're comfortable with them--if you know you don't hate women, don't feel any depraved need to go assault somebody, don't feel like you're mentally ill because you like to fantasize sometimes about superheroines in peril--then chances are you are just fine. Don't ever let anyone convince you you're sick when you're not.

Alex:

Thanks so much for the words. You don't understand how (ironically) therapeutic all of this is, especially coming from guys like you in the industry.

I don't think therapists have bad intentions by the way. It's just a system that has been in place for over last 70-80 years now.

Here is what my therapist (and most therapists) have to say exactly about my particular aggression and any psychological lets call it "anomaly". The effect of my sister's dominance over my life impacted me from the earliest months of my existence. Things that I probably don't remember have been stored away in my subconscious and needed an exit. Perhaps this is where my "violence" fetish discovered itself. The outlet was that magazine in that French bookstore. But the impact came much earlier. It was waiting to express itself.

This is all theoretical of course. Even the therapist will say this.

Here's what I know and understand: my fetish is merely a fantasy. I tried several times to imagine this aggression divulging itself in reality and was, frankly, horrified.

When I watch your movies or anyone else's, I want to see more done to the heroine. Some of these extremes make me uncomfortable to admit to people. I would see Paris in your videos and think I need more done to her. But when I think of it in the realm of the real world, it's horrifying.

This probably will scare people off. But I deal with it through fantasy, knowing it will never manifest itself. People who would go to such extremes are rare, thankfully. And the fetish world provides, what I think at the end of the day, a healthy outlet to those aggressive fantasies.

They are times I step away from the fetish world. I get tired of it and my own interest in it. But the cycle comes back.

I guess what I'm saying is, after many years struggling with the question, I think it's ok to have a bit of the weird in you like you said.

Sorry for the long rant, and thank you again

[Mr. X]

Then again, my own self-indulgent fetish character, Cyber Blue, I now realize, has a lot of Spider Woman in her, ha ha:

Wow! Would love to see that. Looks like Andes studio or Sedna. I used them a few times.

[maar13]

I didn't want to re-post Rye's statement and generate one as long, but man how similar mi experience has been.

I am actually a big ko fan, mostly chloro but the whole deal didn't start that way, I can remember my first "scene" of this, I was like 7 years old, and on e day I was going to start watching TV on the same channel I always did, because they showed some cartoons there that I liked, when I turned on the TV there was this woman in a sauna, The woman was beautiful, damn right she was, it was Lynda Carter by the way, but still I was like "this is not Transformers" and then the sauna was filled up with gas and Lynda got KOed and I was like I don't know what it was but I liked it and I got hooked to the TV until the episode as done, I found out it was Wonder woman, it was 10 times better when she recovered and kicked everyone's butt. All of the sudden this heroine was my favorite and these were re-runs from 11 years before, but I didn't know that at the time.

Then a few years later I saw an episode of TJ Hooker and I saw Heather Locklear being carried, I asked my mom "what happened?" and she said "Oh, she was drugged because she was undercover... it is a cop's show, maybe you should catch the repeat later" and I actually did, that was my first very short chloro scene view, and for me it was pretty cool.

I think that here we are assuming, I also though it was not normal, but I kind of keep looking for scenes, you know, like Rye said, Blockbuster, also taping shows on the old VCR and when finally got a computer and a 28.8 kbps internet connection (those were the days lol) getting to know a bit more, searching the Internet and all, first it was pictures that took forever to download, but it was pretty cool, then small videos that also took ages to download and let's be honest, you could hardly tell between a white cloth or a whit pixel but it was still fun.

For me it was not only the Ko's thing, but it mostly had to be on a powerful female character, someone who could overcome it, and I guess that lead me to the other part of the liking, Heroines, special women, ones with powers others with out, and that even on distress find out a way to get out of the danger.

Fortunately I have made some good friends on both communities, KO and Heroines. Still, not really into tell everyone else about it or share it with a close person, why? I don't know, in that I might be my own worst enemy, but I don't feel completely comfortable talking about it to someone else that doesn't grasp what I like about it, or maybe I am just too selfish about it, who knows.

[Imagineer]

Therapists often say "maybe it's this" to get you to consider it, to see if there's truth in it. Therapists suggest a lot of things -- that's not a diagnosis. If you ask a "why do I" question, they'll help you try to answer the question. They can have experience and education that makes them an effective resource for answering questions. But questions in therapy cost money -- spend wisely.

[mangog3000]

Mine goes way, way back to when I was about five. There was a beautiful brunette, unconscious and limp as a ragdoll, getting cradle-carried by some villain. (Sadly, I missed the KO scene itself). By the end of the episode, she was fine and had been rescued. Not too much detail in this memory.
Within the next couple of years, I saw Jan, the cartoon character in the old "Space Ghost" show from the 1960s, getting zapped out cold. Also around this time, I saw a Wasp knockout scene in Avengers, Volume 1, Issue #59 (December 1968). That was the first comic book that I bought specifically for the KO scene contained therein. I was pretty much hooked on pretty girl knockout scenes after that! I was still a prepubescent at the time!

I saw the TV-movie "Claw Monsters" which is an edited version of the 1955 serial "Panther Girl of the Kongo" right as I was on the cusp of puberty in the very early 1970s. Seeing the sexy Phyllis Coates getting head-bonked into unconscious oblivion really intensified my fetish beyond the point of no return!

The Fausta scene was first aired when I was a horny teenager, and boy, it his me like a runaway locomotive!

I never thought that I was the only one who got turned on by these scenes. I never felt too much guilt over it, either.

I have never had any hostility towards women. Treat people pretty nicely in real life. No traumatized childhood for me -- I had a ton of fun as a kid!

[Alex Bettinger]

First off, here are a couple more pages from that Cyber Blue comic I've been commissioning. I've already gone on in depth on the backstory of Cyber Blue--suffice it to say that she's a cyborg, pretty much all machine except for her human mind. Which is why she can be pummeled so badly but it never really hurts her, she just gets weak and humiliated, etc.




Second, thanks again to everyone for sharing--I hope this kind of frank discussion of the completely ordinary, banal sources of fetishes will help people to see that it's really just a random thing that happens sometimes. Nothing to be ashamed of--even if you don't necessarily want to go around announcing it to everyone either.

I'll have a fun story to tell about my own fetish history later, but gotta run for now.

Oh, and Mr X, yes, this is Andes Studio, or rather Sedna now. They are AMAZING. I've been buying comics from them for years.

[Alex Bettinger]

Okay, a couple more Cyber Blue pages, and a fetish origins story of my own. This one is pretty funny and also shows just how RANDOM fetishes are.

So as a boy soon to suffer the throes of puberty--or maybe I was already in the thick of it--I saw, at home on HBO, the movie Purple Rain. Now, in that quintessentially 80s film, there is a sex scene with Prince and the amazingly hot and sexy Apollonia. During that sex scene, there is a moment when Prince is behind Apollonia (they are both on their knees) and he is fondling her. She turns her head back to him and kisses him, with her hand in his hair.

THEN, the subtlest little detail happens. As they're kissing, Apollonia's hand, which had been up in Prince's hair, suddenly just....drops. Her whole arm just drops, and then just dangles there. Totally limp. As if to say, "Do whatever you want to me." Like a full-on swoon.

NO idea why, but that detail...that arm just dropping and dangling...was HUGE for me. Huge. And in fact, if you are a serious fan of my videos, you will surely have seen this detail used a lot. Often in the middle of a fight scene--the bad guy/girl will be doing something to the good girl, often just viciously clawing her breasts or something, and the good girl will be trying weakly to pry the villain's hands off. Unable to do so, and realizing she is just too weak to stop the villain, the good girl's arms then just...drop and hang limply at her sides. As if to say, "Just do whatever you want to me..."

Twisted, and funny, and ridiculous! Why would that one detail stay with me?? No clue. It doesn't matter. It's just a random detail that got lodged in my brain, and now I have lots of fun with it.

Anyone else have any fun stories of completely random images like that informing your fetish? Would love to know!

Here's some more Cyber Blue, at the mercy of the crotch-busting Pterosaurs!

[SGWriter]

I don't know if I can pin down when I picked up on my love of seeing superheroines in peril. It just sort of happened, mostly blossoming I'd say during high school. I don't think there was any one thing that did it part of me wants to find out 'what' caused it but its also somewhat irrelevant in the long run. I do know I really picked up on it surfing the net and finding different sites or fan fics by people like Joinar back in the day. Once in college I got my first vids and did my own writings (right here). I consider myself to be on the tamer side of the fetish. Nudity, sex, doesn't really play into it for me there's just something about seeing a superheroine placed into some peril, getting out and saving the day, that I just like to see.

[Mr. X]

Thanks for the pics Alex!

[BIG_MAMA]

Very interesting topic. Don't really have much to add on what's already been said except I agree with most of the above and it got me thinking about my own fetish and how it started. Tbh I can't quite remember, but I think it started in my early teens. I always thought my fetish was one of the most un-popular ones as there don't seem to be many videos/superheroine stories out there that have included it. The fetish in question is seeing a heroine dominated by a much larger villain (either male or a larger woman) by the way of lift and carry. Doesn't matter how, any and all ways will do if I had a favourite way to see a heroine lifted would probs be a front straddle/bearhug or an over the head lift. Like I said I don't seem to come across too many videos or stories where this is one of the key elements of the story. But I know I am very disappointed when I see a helpless heroine facing off against said villain and they do not lift her at all. I don't know like I said I think I'm in the minority with this one. But thought I would put my 2 pence in anyway. Ha

[Ninja J.]

To answer the question, I guess it would be the first one. I don't recall the image that triggered the fetish but I knew I had it at an early age. My fetish evolved since I was a kid. At first I wanted to be the villain (I've always found villains more intriguing than heroes) and would fantasize being the villain and capturing the girl I had a crush on. I never fantasized about hurting anyone. I would imagine capturing them and then a hero defeating me and saving them. From a psychological standpoint, I suppose since the girl never reciprocated any feelings toward me, I decided to play the part of villain, and I enjoyed being the one doing the capturing. I laugh every time I see Professor Chaos from South Park as it reminds me of my early mindset.

That evolved from capturing someone to defeating authority. Whether it was a comic, show or movie I enjoyed seeing the hero lose. I was into comics and a Superhero was the ultimate authoritative hero. Rarely did it ever happen so when a hero lost or got KOed, I was attracted. Being interested in women, I greatly enjoyed seeing any image of a beautiful and powerful woman in any sort of peril or defeat. This was back in the day where the good guys always won (before Game of Thrones), so hero peril was scarce and even more so was heroine peril which made the fetish even more exciting when it happened. Whenever I saw anything remotely perilous for a woman I latched onto it. I became a huge fan of KO scenes, and the miniscule women torture scenes that existed.

One of the images that I really latched onto was the beatdown of Psylocke by Sabretooth in the comics. That was the first time I remember seeing a superheroine not only lose but get her ass kicked. She got beaten (nearly killed) and left for dead. It was awesome from a fetish standpoint, and I not just wanted to see heroines or women lose or get defeated. I wanted them to get beaten down, dominated and/or even killed.

When the internet came out much like everyone else it was sensory overload, and I hit up all the main sites at the time. I never even thought of the sexual content until I saw S.H.C. I was exposed to much more than I even thought of and found myself enjoying it greatly.

The trend for me has gone from capturing fetish to gradually more and more violent stuff which now that I think of it is a little alarming. The point I was trying to make was my fetish has evolved over the years and probably will continue to due to exposure to new things, images and ideas. But now that I notice the violent trend I'm not so sure that I even want it to.

[Mr. X]

The trend for me has gone from capturing fetish to gradually more and more violent stuff which now that I think of it is a little alarming. The point I was trying to make was my fetish has evolved over the years and probably will continue to due to exposure to new things, images and ideas. But now that I notice the violent trend I'm not so sure that I even want it to.

When you eat a sundae and are at the bottom you tend to scrape the bottom of the bowl to get every last ounce of hot fudge possible. So basically your old fetish got boring and you're moving around trying to tap other fetish triggers.

[Shakeshift]

I've definitely noticed the trend in the last five years or so towards darker content with more violence towards women. To me, it's not good or bad. It's just a change. Everything evolves forward, just not always in the direction we expect it to.

[Mr. X]

Is it a move toward darker or that more people have entered the arena and some are from the porn industry. For example SHC used to be pretty dark. Girls being beaten, killed etc. And SHC is over 10 years old now, more even.

[tommy84]

My "superheroine fetish" has nothing to do with superheroines in the first place. It's a genre where you can get great low-blows with long, drawn out reaction scenes. That all started having watched pro-wrestling as a teenager, I liked ECW more than WWE and there was one event where Francine got low-blowed and showed a fantastic reaction in a short white skirt, white knee-high boots and a white top. That reaction went on for ever which was highly unusual for pro-wrestling. But I did not know anything about this fetish at all, I just liked it. Then came the internet, there was a women of wrestling website that had a picture of Francine on the canvas holding her crotch and I clicked a few links and found a forum solely dedicated to low-blows. Now I like several SHIP producers (Logan Cross, Alex Bettinger, Rye), I buy from DT, Ringdivas and Awakening who produces low-blow only videos...

[Alex Bettinger]

On the subject of the evolution of fetishes, I have found that my own fetish fantasies have actually grown LESS violent over the years. I find I'm personally much more into light, damsel in distress types of scenarios than I used to be.

With one interesting exception--the Cyber Blue character (see above), who only appears in comicbook format, is often the victim of horrendous beatings. Though since she is a robot and doesn't feel physical pain, maybe it all evens out.

But the only point I want to make is that, while a fetish may evolve, it's probably not the case that it's getting "more extreme" or "less extreme," etc. It's just...changing. It can move in any number of directions. Sometimes it gets more violent, sometimes it gets lighter, sometimes it gets much more specific, sometimes much more general, etc.

I think no matter which direction it goes, it's just the normal sort of evolution that one's inner sexual life always undergoes...

[SGWriter]

I'm not sure mine has evolved much. I'm probably more comfortable with some sexual stuff than I was earlier but generally its not full borne nudity or anything. A little kissing, touching, and playing by the heroine and villainess is what I like. Having them rip off costumes and stuff just ruins things for me. Generally I maintain the same like of various things, superheroine in peril, leotards, tights, chloroform KOs, weakening type perils ie kryptonite, bondage, a few others.

[lonevillain99]

I guess it started for me when I was around 14 or 15 or so. Maybe earlier, I don't know. You'd watch these cartoons on TV with superheroines getting hypnotized, tied up, wonder woman being chloroformed... I've always been really big into comics (which are already insanely sexualized, don't kid yourself) so it was sort of a natural progression. I started out on antonvideo clips, which seem so softcore compared to a lot of the stuff out there nowadays. I didn't have some bad childhood and no priest diddled my privates as a kid...I don't think I have any raging mental disorders, though to say I don't have some baggage would be a lie I just discovered this stuff on the internet and it slowly became something I liked. It was really that simple/stupid.

For some reason the scenario of an over-confident or arrogant superheroine falling into a perilous trap or getting hypnotized to do something humiliating just amuses me. I guess I also like the bondage aspect, and superheroines being corrupted or enslaved by evil. For me, peril and domination are probably the two core tenants of the superheroine fetish. Like I said before, I have definitely seen a trend of more violence and violent material in the superheroine fetish and I'm not sure it's up my alley. I don't mind a little fighting, but I don't want to see superheroines just simply being beaten on... or anything like that.

I don't think that I hate women. I don't really hate anyone... I don't like violence against women at all, even though the subject matter of a lot of these fetish videos are undeniably dark. There really is no rationalization for it... we're talking about superheroines (women) getting beaten, tied up, violated, de-powered, hypnotized, or whatever. Even though it's fantasy, I don't think anyone can deny the subject matter is dark in this fetish. You're talking about people getting taken advantage of, which to me seems fundamentally wrong. I think there will always be a sort of internal conflict in me over this fact.

I'm not going to try and whitewash anything here. I'm fully aware of the dark subject matter, and I consume it... all I can say is that I understand that it's just fantasy. This is not real and it never will be real. Violence and pain happen to people all the time in the real world, and it's not sexy. I don't want to see anyone get hurt in real life. I feel like I'm a good person and I understand right from wrong, even though I'm into this superheroine thing. That's all I can really say.

[WarGriffin]

I have come late to this thread. But I wanted to pick up on the issue of whether fetishes are genetically prewired (or at least genetically predisposed) or whether they arise randomly some time during childhood based on external circumstances/events/stimuli. I'm curious how many people think one way or the other, or think it's a mix.

I definitely resonate with the experience someone described above whereby the earliest memory of a relevant fetish stimulus was like a switch going on for something that was already there. I also will say that my fetish interest long preceded any other notion or even understanding of sexual arousal, because I was very young. This could make it seem like a genetic predisposition. But on the other hand, my memory only goes back so far, and it's possible that the truly first experience that randomly set the fetish in motion for me was at an age that I simply can't recall, or was an event that simply did not stand out to me at the time and only later revealed its impact in the "light switch" moment at an older age when the stimulus was presented again. It seems to me that in a case like this there is no way to empirically distinguish between genetic predisposition and just a single random experience in early childhood (baby chick imprinting) that I don't recall but without which I might have gone my whole life and never had this fetish appear.

Maybe for other people, it's much clearer in your memory when and how your fetish developed, and you feel confident that it was not something innate?

A related question: At what age did your fetish interest emerge, as far back as you can recall anyway? I'm curious if for most people it's closer to or during pre-adolescence when sexual interests in general are developing. Or whether there are other people like me for whom the interest goes back to much younger ages, at least, say, like the 4, 5, 6 range, well before anything else "sexual" was on my radar AT ALL.

[harriertalon]

I think I agree with the "I don't know if it's art, but I know what I like" camp. Where I don't know the whys and wherefores, but I know what does it for me.

A good example was the Batman (Adam West) show, which I saw at a very young age. I'd seen a few episodes but had not really seen anything that "flipped the switch" until the Joker episode where he's portraying an opera clown and the Dynamic Duo swing in to stop him, only to be thwarted by some hidden sneezing powder. After a bit of roughing up, the duo have their arms held behind them and have to stand there while the Joker moves in to unmask them.

And the switch flipped. There was something about Robin - a powerful, strong (and cute) man - dressed in a very sexy, but utterly un-manly costume - suddenly helpless and unable to do anything about what was about to happen to him. And I had to wait until tomorrow to find out what happened! I recall that night my imagination was working double-duty. So to me, any powerful character defeated and held by someone more powerful...or even tied to a pole with their hands restrained behind them, became a huge fetish. And it only took about 30 seconds for it to develop.

[spectromanx]

Hey Alex,

What about the video that you promisse?

What about Ashley?

I just don't care anymore how, I just want that you do the movie!

Okay, a couple more Cyber Blue pages, and a fetish origins story of my own. This one is pretty funny and also shows just how RANDOM fetishes are.

So as a boy soon to suffer the throes of puberty--or maybe I was already in the thick of it--I saw, at home on HBO, the movie Purple Rain. Now, in that quintessentially 80s film, there is a sex scene with Prince and the amazingly hot and sexy Apollonia. During that sex scene, there is a moment when Prince is behind Apollonia (they are both on their knees) and he is fondling her. She turns her head back to him and kisses him, with her hand in his hair.

THEN, the subtlest little detail happens. As they're kissing, Apollonia's hand, which had been up in Prince's hair, suddenly just....drops. Her whole arm just drops, and then just dangles there. Totally limp. As if to say, "Do whatever you want to me." Like a full-on swoon.

NO idea why, but that detail...that arm just dropping and dangling...was HUGE for me. Huge. And in fact, if you are a serious fan of my videos, you will surely have seen this detail used a lot. Often in the middle of a fight scene--the bad guy/girl will be doing something to the good girl, often just viciously clawing her breasts or something, and the good girl will be trying weakly to pry the villain's hands off. Unable to do so, and realizing she is just too weak to stop the villain, the good girl's arms then just...drop and hang limply at her sides. As if to say, "Just do whatever you want to me..."

Twisted, and funny, and ridiculous! Why would that one detail stay with me?? No clue. It doesn't matter. It's just a random detail that got lodged in my brain, and now I have lots of fun with it.

Anyone else have any fun stories of completely random images like that informing your fetish? Would love to know!

Here's some more Cyber Blue, at the mercy of the crotch-busting Pterosaurs!

[Void]

Really interesting thread. I would be careful of using broad brush strokes in any way when it comes to 'fetishes' and how people perceive them. I guess it won't always be anything, good or bad, but rather be different things for different folks. I agree completely that for most people a fetish like this will simply be a thing they have which, if it comes from anything, probably comes from some benign experience. I can see it coming from things like abuse as well, in some cases, so I would be hesitant to say that it never could - I think there is a really strong correlation, though not a total one, between people who consume child porn and being abused as a child. If someone hates women, they MIGHT enjoy this fetish, but I wouldn't draw any meaningful connection there, just as I wouldn't draw a connection between some who hates the Vietnamese and loves the Rambo films. It is far to broad a thing to be symptomatic of anything.

I also agree too many people look at stuff like this from the outside and come to their own conclusions based on their world view. Politicians, mega-feminists, and maybe psycho-dynamic therapists, are likely guilty of assuming negatives must exist around the fetish for no better reason than they themselves dislike the fetish. A modern day therapist worth their salt wouldn't make any assumptions or judgements - the worst they would do is ask what the fetish means to the person, which may be a fair question as long as it's pertinent to why the person is there to begin with.

For me, I actually can't really point at a beginning thing that got me interested... I remember seeing lots of things growing up that stirred something in me, but there wasn't a light-bulb moment. I think I - and I would wager, most people - am drawn to the exploration of power and powerlessness; so anything that had overt displays concerning that always piqued my interest. Combine that with regular interests like sex and heroic stories, and I guess heroine in peril stuff seemed like a natural destination. I think my tastes have mellowed over the years - at first I was mainly interested in the act taking place, irrespective of what it meant to the heroine or the villain, but now I am all about what it means to the people involved.

Thanks for the thread.