It’s a bizarre scene — a giant blond woman inviting a man to jump inside her mouth before she swallows him whole.
This video, which has clocked up almost 50,000 views, is one of hundreds of “vore” films on YouTube catering to people with an unusual sexual fetish that sees them fantasize about being eaten.
Although it is impossible to know exactly how many voraphiles there are out there as, unsurprisingly, most are secretive about their desires. But the fetish appears to be more common than you’d imagine.
There are hundreds of animated videos on YouTube showing people being chewed or swallowed, with some getting up to 300,000 views.
It’s thought many vorephiles are submissive and enjoy the idea that they are being degraded.
Many say that their fantasies were sparked in childhood when listening to fairy tales about monsters eating people whole.
‘You’ll be sliding around and around my small intestine’
In one of the most popular videos, a woman in lingerie rubs her stomach while she describes how she needs to eat men to feed her “giant body” and pinpoints where her intestines are.
“You’ll be sliding around my small intestine, going around and around – it’s such a long way to travel to the exit,” she says.
“Then you’ll reach my large intestine, where you’ll be nothing but a pile of s–t for me to poop out.”
‘Can you put me in a sandwich and swallow me?’
The comments section is full of men begging to be eaten by her, with one saying “Can you put me in a sandwich and swallow me?”
Another wrote: “Please eat me. It’s my dream.”
Psychologists have looked at the comparisons between hunger and sexual desire in literature and porn and say this may play a part in the popularity of the fetish.
For example, in language people are often referred to as “‘looking good enough to eat,” and sexually appealing people can be described as “sweet” or “tasty.”
‘An intense desire to be consumed by a dominant woman’
There are various sub-groups of vore with the main two being “soft vore,” where people are swallowed painlessly, or “hard vore” – similar to cannabilism – where the videos and drawings feature people being ripped apart and violently eaten.
A major study on vorephiles, published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior in 2013, found that there were links between the fetish and BDSM as devotees enjoyed the fantasy of being dominated by a powerful or stronger woman.
The same study also found it could be motivated by a desire to merge with a powerful other or escape loneliness by becoming part of somebody else.
One case study in the paper, a 45-year-old called Stephen, turned up at a Toronto psychiatric hospital, saying he had an “intense desire to be consumed by a large, dominant woman and then defecated by her” and was worried it was taking over his life.
Another vorephile told LADbible that the fetish could be explained by the fact that at its core “the dynamic is one of domination, objectification, and degradation.”
“Being reduced to nothing more than a quick source of sating a predator’s hunger and lust – this is what I find exciting.”
Researchers said there’s no known treatment for vorephiles and that if people feel ashamed of their fetish they should try to “adjust to, rather than change or suppress their sexual interest.”
Simulating being ‘prey’
Although most of vore involves watching videos or looking at cartoons where a person is consumed and the enlarged belly of the eater is described in great detail, some people have tried to simulate being “prey” – potentially putting their lives at risk in the process.
One Reddit user, who goes by the name of DeltaSolana, even described how they had done this by slathering themselves in lube and getting into an industrial garbage bag, with a “nylon tube” for oxygen and having a safeword to use if they felt they were running out of air.
“I had my partner sit on the bed and pull her shirt over me. I haven’t had that much fun in ages,” they added.
Others have described using a sleeping bag to make it seem like a giant stomach.
Some psychologists have said that those who consider themselves to be the “prey” see the enclosed spaces as being warm and protective.
An Australian study from 2014 found cases of a man fantasizing about being cooked and eaten by the witch in the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale, while another case study, described as “the Turkey man,” would hire dominatrices and ask them to describe how they’d cook and eat him in an oven.
He reportedly could become so aroused by his fantasy that he was able to orgasm without being touched.
‘My knees would make good fertilizer’
One for whom vorarephilia didn’t remain solely a fantasy for was Bernd Brandes, a German man who responded to an advertisement by a man called Armen Meiwes in 2001 on a cannibal website asking for a “young, well-built man who wanted to be eaten.”
Police said that Brandes had “since his youth fantasized about being murdered and eaten,” was “obsessed with sexual mutilation” and had previously offered a former boyfriend $4,200 to cut off and eat his penis.
The pair spoke for some time after Brandes answered Meiwes’ advert, with Meiwes saying: “After you’re dead, I’ll take you out and expertly carve you up. Except for a pair of knees and some fleshy trash (skin, cartilage, tendons), there won’t be much of you left.”
Brandes responded saying he had heard that ground up knees would be “good as fertilizer.”
After Brandes met Meiwes at his house, the cannibal cut off his penis and they fried it and ate it together.
Then, Meiwes killed Brandes, storing his body in the freezer and eating at least 40 pounds of his flesh over time, washed down with glasses of red wine.
Meiwes was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, in January 2004, despite the fact that Brandes had consented to his killing.
‘I’m a husband and father – for me it’s just a fantasy’
For most vorephiles, however, the fetish will remain solely a fantasy.
As one, who goes by the name of “E,” told the Metro: “I am a husband and father who is working his dream job. I am very fortunate to have a wonderful life and I am absolutely not prepared to give that up to live out a sexual fantasy.
“I’ll keep my fingers crossed for technology that can help make the fantasy more realistic, but I don’t want or need it to be anything more than a fantasy.”