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Published as: Griffiths, M.D. (2013). Eproctophilia in a young adult male: A

case study. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 42, 1383-1386.

Eproctophilia in a Young Adult Male

Dr. Mark Griffiths

Psychology Division
School of Social Sciences
Nottingham Trent University
Burton Street
Nottingham
NG1 4BU
United Kingdom

Tel: 0044-115-8482401

mark.griffiths@ntu.ac.uk
 2

Olfactophilia (also known as osmolagnia, osphresiolagnia, and ozolagnia) is a

paraphilia where an individual derives sexual pleasure from smells and odors (Aggrawal,

2009). Given the large body of research on olfaction, it is not surprising that in some cases

there should be an association with sexual behavior. As Bieber (1959) noted, smell is a

powerful sexual stimulus. Furthermore, the erotic focus is most likely to relate to body

odors of a sexual partner, including genital odors. One subtype of olfactophilia is

eproctophilia. This is a paraphilia in which people are sexually aroused by flatulence

(Aggrawal, 2009). Therefore, eproctophiles are said to spend an abnormal amount of time

thinking about farting and flatulence, and have recurring intense sexual urges and fantasies

involving farting and flatulence (Griffiths, 2012a). To date, there has been no academic or

clinical research into eproctophilia. Therefore, the following account presents a brief case

study of an eproctophile and given a pseudonym (Brad). Brad gave full consent for his case

to be written up on the understanding that he could not be identified, and that he was

guaranteed full anonymity and confidentiality.

Demographic information: Brad, was a 22-year old single man from Illinois. His

parents were divorced when he was 6 years old and was an only child. His father remarried

when he was 14 years old and he then gained three step-brothers. He has a Bachelor's

degree in Fine Arts. He was employed in part-time work, but was looking for another job

to help supplement his income. He was engaged in “minimum wage part-time stuff” but

would like to get a job in the arts field, but that it required materials that he does not

currently have. He believes in “God or a Prime Mover” but does not adhere to any

particular religious group.

Brad first approached the author following the publication of an article about

eproctophilia on the author’s website blog. Brad initially posted a comment in response to
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the article and admitted in the response that he was an eproctophile. In fact, Brad’s opening

comment was:

“I am an eproctophile…I am not ashamed of my interest. Mind you, I don't tell people

what I'm into any more than I discuss any other sexual matter in public.”

Sexual orientation: Brad was asked about his sexual orientation. The response was not

straightforward:

“I could be any of three, depending on the perspective. In terms of relationships, I am

straight. I could only date or have romantic feelings towards a female. In terms of
fetishism, I am bisexual. I get aroused thinking of both males and females in these fetish
situations. However, I have no real desire for sexual intercourse, be it penetration or being
penetrated, which would make me asexual. (I should probably mention that the arousal
mentioned above is a desire to masturbate, not to have sex).”

Background relating to eproctophilia: Brad was asked about his first

experience(s) of eproctophilia. He claimed that compared to other eproctophiles who had

“colorful first experiences,” that his experience was “a bit more tame than most, which is

disappointing in a way.” Brad recalled that in middle school he had a crush on a particular

girl. He thought “she was the most beautiful thing [he] had ever seen.” She was very

athletic, ran 10 miles every day, was fit and toned, and was also sweet, shy, and very

attractive (“cute”). When talking with his friends, Brad recalled that one of them

mentioned that the girl he had a crush on had farted in her science class. As Brad said:

“This blew my mind. Prior to that, I'd never really considered it. I knew by simple biology
that girls farted, but hearing that the girl I had been fawning over was capable of such a
thing sparked a strange interest in me.”

Brad first engaged in an eproctophile act at around the age of 16 or 17 years of age. He was

with a male friend and up to that point he had considered himself as heterosexual. This was

until he heard his male friend fart in front of him. Brad recalled:

“It was rather appealing in sound, and I found myself fixating on it. At first, I didn't want
to admit I was into his farting, but eventually I decided to experiment. I set up a bet at
some point and intentionally lost, with the wager being the right to fart in the loser's face
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for a week. I continued to lose such bets once every few weeks for about two years.”

Eproctophilia experiences: Brad was asked about his thoughts surrounding eproctophilia.

He claims to “enjoy everything about it” and had experienced it directly.

“I'm not sure how graphic of details you would like, but I have had my face farted on by
both men and women, at point blank range. I like the sound and the smell. The ‘worse,’ the
better. In terms of sound, I prefer a deep bubbling sound. In terms of smell, I like acrid
sulfur. I prefer the farter to be clothed. I don't particularly like seeing the anus open. It's not
revolting to me, I just prefer fabric for three reasons. Firstly, the sound tends to be better
with fabric, particularly jeans or nylons. Second, the smell lingers in cloth, whereas in the
nude it is a relatively quick blast of smell. Third, I like the look of butt cheeks better when
they are defined by fabric.”

Brad was specifically asked why he preferred sulfurous farts. He said that they “tended to

be the strongest and most disgusting.” In fact, Brad said that:

“The more disgusting, the more I like it as it heightens the sense of duality. The more
disgusting the fart and the prettier the lady, the more of a schism it is between the societal
expectation and the reality. As for men, it's simply more dominating for it to be a really
gross fart than a mild poot.”

Brad was also asked how he met other like-minded people that shared his

eproctophilic interests. He said that there were several online forums that cater for interests

related to eproctophilia. Although he was happy to engage in online communication with

other eproctophiles, he had no desire to meet them in person. In order to engage in

eproctophilic acts, Brad said that he would explain his fetish to his significant other and

hope they would be willing to do it for him (i.e., fart in his face). Brad was also asked if

there was any difference between men and women farting in his face, and whether male

farting aroused him in the same way as female farting. He responded: “More or less, yes.

It's slightly different, as it's a slightly different mindset. It's more about domination with

males, as they don't have the "dainty" expectation to break.”

Brad was asked whether he was more sexually aroused when engaged in

eproctophile sexual activity than when engaged in "normal" sex. He then said that he may
 5

be “technically asexual” as he had no desire for actual sex (as he preferred masturbation to

sexual intercourse). He was also questioned about the extent to which the eproctiphile acts

were masochistic. He responded:

“Sometimes. One of my more common fantasies is receiving a fart as a reward for

completing a task. I play video games, for instance, and one includes me helping a
girlfriend solve a puzzle in a game. Then, while still playing, she tells me to get ready for
my reward and lets one rip. There's an idea of subservience, not necessarily masochism.
An idea of being there without being the focal point, where she lets me smell her farts and
rub her feet and cuddle up and such, without fussing too much over me. I enjoy all aspects,
really, from the S/M standpoint in which someone dominates me by farting on me, to the
subservient aspect of being like a pet or article of furniture in which she isn't particularly
dominating, just coexisting, to the aspect of dominance for myself in which I learn her
closely guarded secret of what her farts sound and smell like.”

Brad was asked whether he got any sexual pleasure from farting on other people or was it

only the act of receiving. He said he preferred receiving, but would not be opposed to

giving should he have a partner who wanted it. He said he did not have any real desire to

do so, but it would sexually arouse him to know they liked it. In this instance, Brad said it

would be more that he was pleasing his partner than how he was pleasing them. One of the

more interesting things that came from interviewing Brad was that he was very forthright

on what he believed about eproctophilia and other people’s perceptions of it. He said:

“Allow me to shed some light on why farting, of all things, is sexually interesting to us.
First, let me mention that we are not sexually attracted to flatulence, per se. We are
attracted to the person RELEASING the flatulence. Unattractive people farting, to us, is
like seeing unattractive people having sex for you.”

He went on to say the eproctophiles are aroused by the idea of dominance, and that by

being farted on, they are being put "in their place, much with any sort of S/M type of

fetish.” He was particularly interested in the concept and idea of duality:

“For others, myself included, it is a matter of dualities. Social norm dictates that people in
general, particularly females, do not fart in public, for others to hear. To see a beautiful,
delicate lady passing wind is a breach of those expectations in a profound manner. That a
beautiful woman is capable of producing a "disgusting" sound and smell is what attracts us,
and makes us want to experience it. It can also be a matter of humanization. Again, social
ideologies tend to place the beautiful, particularly women, on a pedestal of what makes a
 6

conceptual or archetypal woman. To hear her pass wind is to hear an admission of

humanity, that she is the same as the rest of us. It is to learn her dark secret, the sounds and
smells of her uncontrollable biological functions. This is more of a dominant matter, as it is
more about wrenching her humanity into focus while society attempts to hide it. Therefore,
it is not always a matter of female dominance. However, due to the internet pornography
market, most producers choose to follow the dominatrix stereotype, as it is a reliable
source of income and a familiar sexy medium.”

Brad was asked if he experienced any sexual pleasure from watching eproctophilia videos

(such as those on YouTube). Given that smell is such an important part, I was interested to

know whether "second-hand" sources were less arousing. Brad responded that he did get

sexual pleasure from watching such films. In fact, he added:

“While smell and the tactile sense of face sitting are important, sound is also another key
factor. Being able to see that girls DO fart, or sort of live the fantasy out vicariously, is
what I have to do. I suppose vanilla porn could be a good analogy. The physical sensation
of sex is obviously very important. People still get aroused watching porn even though
they can't feel it, and I think it's exactly the same with myself. When watching
pornography, it's more about the thought of it.”

Other sexual interests and fetishes: Brad was also asked if he had another sexual

interests and said there were three other specific things he liked that turned him on

sexually. Although he said that he was “not a fan of scat”, the first one appeared to related

to coprophilia as he reported that:

“I am into seeing attractive people (mostly females) pooping their pants. It has obvious
relations to the matter at hand.”

Secondly, he said although it was not fetishistic in any way, he loved giving foot rubs to

people who he was in a relationship with. He claimed that this behavior did not really

sexually arouse him but that he simply liked female feet in a "platonic" way. He described

female feet as “cute” and that he had strong desires to massage them. Finally, Brad claimed

he had “one fetish since birth” and went on to explain further:

“It is one I am not proud of, but it exists and may help your study. I have a crush fetish,
which is essentially arousal from seeing people step on objects or insects. This particular
one has had a lot of bad publicity. As for this one, I can't tell you where it originated. I
 7

remember rubbing myself in my crib as a baby to such thoughts, leading me to believe I

may have literally been born with it. I could have been no older than 2 ½ years old. Keep
in mind, these are very primal memories which are mostly a blur. All I recall is that around
the time of those memories, I would also rub myself to the thought of someone stepping on
an insect, or sometimes a machine made to crush up children like myself. Come to think of
it, that last one may have been caused by seeing an apple cider press as a toddler. I also
seem to recall that, and being afraid of it because of how it "hurt" the apples.”

Brad was also asked if he thought there was any connection between his crush fetish and

eproctophilia. He responded that if there was any connection, it concerned “the idea of the

duality,” i.e., he would not expect to see a woman fart in front of him and similarly, he

would not expect a woman to kill an insect in front of him for no real reason. In relation to

his crush fetish, he also reported:

“It's my oldest fetish with no known origin, and I like it for about the same reason as
eproctophilia. Maybe that I also disliked seeing people kill bugs as a kid, while also
finding it arousing. I was quite the pacifist. Also, when I first discovered ejaculation, I
made the connection that ejaculating was somewhat like when a bug is stepped on. I
thought about a bug squirting under pressure and then I would do the same. May or may
not be relevant, but it was a connection I made as a kid.”

Discussion: The prevalence and incidence of eproctophilia is assumed to be

negligible given that no previous case studies have ever been published. However, other

eproctophiles in addition to this case clearly exist as the topic is discussed by self-

confessed eproctophiles in various online discussion groups (Griffiths, 2012a). Brad’s

account of his early eproctophile experiences are suggestive of behavioral conditioning

and/or sexual imprinting – in this case classical conditioning where being sexually aroused

by an attractive women is paired with something that is not inherently sexual (in this case,

flatulence) and then starts to become an erotic focus in and of itself (Akins, 2004). From

an evolutionary perspective, ‘disgust’ has been argued to be a psychological system for

protecting humans from infection through disease avoidance behavior (Curtis, de Barra &

Aunger, 2011). Most people probably view flatulence as a disgusting behavior yet

eproctophiles do not. This seems to support research that suggests disgust (is in part)
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socially learned (Haidt, McCauley & Rozin, 1994).

In DSM-5, the definition of a paraphilia will be: “any intense and persistent sexual

interest other than sexual interest in genital stimulation or preparatory fondling with

phenotypically normal, physically mature, consenting human partners...There are also

specific paraphilias that are generally better described as preferential sexual interests than

as intense sexual interests.” Brad’s description of his sexual preference for flatulent

individuals along with the seemingly intense sexual urges, fantasies, and behaviors are at

least suggestive of a genuine paraphilia. However, although the behavior may have been

cognitively salient, it was not behaviorally salient as the number of partners willing to

engage in the activity was very limited. Furthermore, Brad had very specific criteria for the

behavior to be sexually arousing (i.e., the person had to fart while fully clothed as it

sounded better, and the smell was longer-lasting, and the farts had to be acrid smelling).

However, there was little evidence that these were recurrent and insistent. Stoller (1975)

asserted that paraphilias originate from childhood traumatic experiences during that are

subsequently relived and overcome by reaching sexual climax. However, the onset of this

particular paraphilia was not associated with any traumatic incident and as mentioned

above.

Cantor, Blanchard, and Barbaree (2009) have noted that paraphilias are often

comorbid. In this particular case, eproctophilia was part of a wider set of fetishistic and/or

paraphilic behavior including crush fetish and (voyeuristic) coprophilia. While there is

some literature on coprophilia (e.g., Hingsburger, 1989; Sandnabba, Santtila, Nordling,

Beetz & Alison, 2002), there has been very little published from an academic and/or

clinical perspective on crush fetishes. Brad himself sees clear similarities between his

interest in eproctophilia and being sexually aroused by watching females defecate (as he

specifically noted that watching defecating females has “obvious relations to the matter in
 9

hand”, i.e., eproctophilia). The co-occurrence of Brad’s eproctophilia with traits of sexual

masochism – such as the deliberate losing of a bet so that resulted in Brad being farted

upon all week by his male friend – demonstrates that the behavior has other paraphilic

elements. A number of times, Brad mentioned the sadomasochistic elements of the

eproctophilic behavior.

According to Terry and Vasey (2011), the scientific value of case studies includes

both their utility in highlighting rare phenomena and their role in the generation of new

research questions and hypotheses. The eproctophile case presented in this article

hopefully fulfils these values. Clearly, this is just one case study and Brad is unlikely to be

representative of the entire eproctophile community. Other developmental routes into

eproctophilia may be possible. Further research is needed to assess the extent to which this

case study is representative of eproctophiles more generally, and whether the etiological

and developmental pathways are more complex than that described in this instance. This

particular case also highlights the need for further research into crush fetishism as there are

no empirical data on this type of fetish (Griffiths, 2012b).

Finally, the article also highlights the importance of the internet in recruitment of

people with sexually paraphilic and/or fetishistic behavior for academic study. Over the

last decade, there have been a number of studies that have reported paraphilic behavior by

using online methodologies such as studies into zoophilia, feederism, hypoxyphilia, and

sexsomnia (Griffiths, 2012c). Without the internet, it is unlikely that present case study

would have come to light. The person would not have been able to contact the researcher

and the researcher would not have been able to carry out the interview online. The online

medium appears to be a particularly good medium for collecting data on unusual sexual

paraphilias and fetishes as online data collection is much better for collecting sensitive

compared to offline methods (Griffiths, 2012c).

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