Last summer, there was a rumor going around on Twitter that Kevin Durant likes women to fart in his face. He had opened his mentions and was responding candidly to questions and comments from fans when Oklahoma City Thunder superfan @mynameis_kaylee tweeted that she’d heard talk about Durant’s alleged face-farting fetish from women who had slept with him. Durant didn’t confirm or deny these claims, and the rumor faded quickly, but the moment sparked an online conversation about fart fetishes, and whether being turned on by watching women fart is really that weird. In fact, I only know about the Kevin Durant face-farting rumor because, at the time, I was dating a guy who was both a die-hard OKC Thunder fan, and a casual fart-porn enthusiast.
Those with eproctophilia — or an erotic attraction to farts — might represent a very niche group, but having a sexual interest in something that most people find gross in other contexts isn’t that unusual. A 2013 study published in The Journal of Sex Research indicates that sexual arousal may play a role in lowering the threshold for disgust, so that certain sights, smells or sensations that typically trigger gross feelings might not feel as off-putting when someone is turned on. Not to mention, considering how gross sex itself actually is, and how many people do it anyway, it isn’t a huge surprise that something like a fart could be perceived as erotic, or at least not completely gross, in certain contexts.
As for how a fart becomes a turn-on, it’s likely no different than anything else, explains Nicoletta Heidegger, a registered marriage and family therapy intern in L.A. For example, she describes a former client with a strong sexual attraction to red nails and pedicures that he traced back to an embarrassing moment in early puberty, when he was sitting in class trying to hide his surprise boner while the teacher tapped her acrylic red nails on her desk. Someone who’s turned on by farting might have experienced a similar situation, carving a groove into their memory that connects farts with feelings of arousal.
For others, the sexual attraction to farts might have a lot to do with gendered expectations of women. Though it’s entirely possible that some women might be turned on by watching men fart, Heidegger says she hasn’t seen much of this, and that fart porn seems to be far more popular among men. “It’s still a cultural and societal norm for women to be ‘ladylike’ and to be appropriate,” she reasons. The cultural assumption being that guys fart all the time, but for women, “it’s not something you’re supposed to do in front of people. It’s secretive and exciting, and that’s sexy for some people.”
Fart porn also tends to appear on kink sites or in fetish videos, appealing to those who enjoy the idea of being humiliated by a gassy dominant. “There are people who have a fart fetish via a humiliation fetish — either enjoying the embarrassment of farting in an inappropriate situation, or wanting to be humiliated themselves by having someone fart right into your face,” explains Cassie, a 23-year-old online performer who makes fart porn videos under the name CassieScat.
She, however, describes her videos as the “Girlfriend Experience” of fart porn, evoking a mood of “just hanging out watching Netflix with your girl after eating a spicy dinner and hearing her rip a few good ones while lounging and making out. Having a woman do that in front of you and still be cute is both instantly naughty and implies a trust and closeness.”
“A lot of models use pumps or queefs to get BIG and LOUD fart sounds,” she continues. “I do totally natural so many are short or the rushing airy sort of sound rather than the ripping ones. The kinds of farts that you would let loose after holding them in at work all day rather than ‘Porn Farts.’” Still, there is a process: “I’m sensitive to lactose so prepping for a video usually means making myself a big bowl of homemade mac and cheese and eating it with a couple beers. I’ll be farting for the rest of the day!”
Those fumes, however, are intoxicating to her, too. “I have a very conservative and boring day job that brings in great cash but is soul-sucking. Farting and other taboo fetishes satisfy some lust for excitement, fun and ‘danger’ that I’m not getting in my day-to-day. Filming it for the world to see satisfies my big exhibitionism kink in a way that involves making people watch consensually and legally.”
Of course, the biggest hurdle often isn’t figuring out what turns you on — or even coming to terms with it — it’s finding someone to share it with. Sometimes that’s a virtual partner a la Cassie: “For some people, what we like in porn, we don’t often want to happen in reality, so it’s okay to like something like that but not want it in real life,” says Heidegger. But other times, it’s getting real with the one you’re with. “It’s important to find somebody who is willing to explore that with you,” explains Heidegger. “Otherwise you’re living a lie and not being able to express yourself. Normalize it for yourself.”
And as Cassie points out, it’s not that hard to normalize something that’s bound to naturally slip out anyway.
