Popularity of Vore

[Explorer30305]

I was reading a book for my Psychology class, and was shocked to see "vore" turn up in a list of the 100 most popular sexual interests. While I did expect vore to be mentioned in the book in an offhand sort of way, it was still surprising simply see the word "vore" in print in a published book.

The book in question is "A Billion Wicked Thoughts", by Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam. It is about sex and the internet, or rather, using the internet as a source of data for "the world's largest experiment". They compiled statistics based off of what people search for in search engines like Google or Dogpile, and used that and other psychological theorems to try to explain various facets of male and female sexuality. I really enjoyed reading it; every 3-4 pages or so, something would come up that either was fascinating or explained something or was disturbing (and as a fan of vore, it takes a lot to disturb me...).

Anyway, they mention throughout the book this list of the most popular sexual searches from Dogpile (a meta-search engine), and then they give the full list in the Notes section, page 252-255. It's mostly what you'd expect. Youth is in the lead by a huuuuuge margin, then body parts, then specific kinks. Here, I'll type in a few from the list.

#1. Youth (13.54% of all searches)
#2. Gay (4.7%)
#3. MILFs (4.27%)
#4. Breasts (3.95%)
#5. Cheating Wives (3.37%)

then, a few that just stand out from the crowd here and there

#7. Penises (2.41%)
#11. Domination and Submission (2.1%)
#16. Fat (1.62%)
#20. Grannies (1.02%)
#24. Group sex (0.86%)
#37. Squirting (0.47%)
#49. Sleep (0.27%)
#54. Feet (0.24%)
#64. Crossdress (0.15%)
#70. Furries (0.11%)
#81. Small breasts (0.07%)
#85. Vore (0.06%)
#86. Clown (0.06%)
#95. Amputee (0.04%)
#100. Gagging (0.03%)

So, we're sliiiiiightly more popular than clown sex. Go us?

I wonder how many people (if any) went and googled "vore" as a result of this book.... I'm certainly going to google a few of the terms that I don't recognize, just for curiosity's sake. Let's see... I've no clue what cfnm is, nor sybian, nor dogging, nor... actually, that's it. I know all of the rest... wow.

The book also goes into quite a bit of detail on various paraphilias, including futanari, feet, bbw, etc, which I know many members of this site are also fans of... The section of the sexual cue of "transgression" also seemed related to the prey side of sex. The idea of the danger of potentially being digested exciting the sympathetic nervous system (which controls the fight or flight instinct, and apparently orgasms too) which is what leads to the experience being felt as a sexual kink.

... Discuss?

Disclaimer: If this is in the wrong section/already done/should be part of another thread, feel free to move it. I don't use the forums enough to know where this goes.

[LeonFox]

Now perhaps clown sex, I can see why we're ahead....BUT GRANNIES?! What atrocity is this garglemesh?!?

But, still, I see vore as a relatively new fetish that hasn't really seen much since the internet was starting to become popular. Sure it might be a little older, but none the less, a little less widely known. Now I know why they call it "a billion wicked thoughts". The fact that more people search for grannies just makes me feel a little weird. And sleep is now considered a fetish? Dang...that means I've been a porn star every time I went to bed. Oh lordy...what a horrible thought that would be (me as a porn star, that is

[zarpaulus]

If the thought of being prey causes orgasms due to the "fight or flight" response I suspect that means some wires got crossed somewhere.

Because as I recall sex drive is one of those processes that is "put on hold" when your system is flooded with adrenaline.

When you get off to vore does it feel anything like that feeling you get from an intense roller coaster or an accident of any kind?

I suspect that book was full of it.

[Terastas]

Now perhaps clown sex, I can see why we're ahead....BUT GRANNIES?! What atrocity is this garglemesh?!?

I suspect this one will rise in popularity as more old people learn how to use computers.

"Furries" outranking "Small breast" was a surprise for me.

Honestly, however, I wasn't that surprised to see vore in a list of the Top 100 by internet search. Vore is, after all, purely a spectator fetish, so it makes sense that the vast majority (if not the entirety) of the time we spend indulging our vore fetishes would be spent on the internet.

As for a potential spike in vore due to "WTF?" readers, I wouldn't count on it being very significant. If it listed one hundred, there are probably at least a few things on there that the reader will have never heard of, and probably not have any real interest in looking up.

Especially not if it comes right after "clown." I know a lot, and I mean a LOT of people I went to high school / college with that would have looked at that list and not cared to tell anyone about anything other than "clown" on it.

"OMG-OMG-OMG!!! Clown sex man! Clown!"

"Wow. That's messed up." *pause* ". . .the hell is 'vore.'"

"Eh, who knows. Seriously though, clown sex! Clown!"

[prisoner]

You can listen to the author present this study on youtube for free: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-A8GvUehq4

I have my doubts about how the search queries were counted. For example, only terms which are known to be associated with sex or fetishes can be searched. Maybe the transformation fetishists were overlooked because the people running the study forgot about this fetish. See what I mean? Interesting nonetheless.

Also, What Terastas said. I doubt the average reader will favor a search for vore over clowns, lol.

[Terastas]

Also, What Terastas said. I doubt the average reader will favor a search for vore over clowns, lol.

*nods* I think the subjects more likely to spike due to this research will be the ones that they understand and either A) don't believe are actually real, or B) think would be funny to view and/or make their friends view.

Alternatively, unknown terms might not get looked up because they'll look at some of the things they do recognize and are completely revolted by, and a lot of them will decide they'd probably rather not know what the rest of the list means for fear that it might potentially be even more revolting.

[prisoner]

More the second one. Brought to you by the fine people who will rip ass when they are in control of the power windows in the car.

Somehow, I think anyone willing to buy that book would not live in fear of what is potentially more revolting.

[MissedIt]

huh-interesting. though that's just through a search engine, right? dunno if that means anything. I mean, I saw on the show Manswers that Clowns, oddly enough, were incredibly popular and, based on that, should be higher on that list. still, cool that it showed up lol

[DJFreakshow]

clowns!?! i always knew there was something funny about dem clowns....i dont want to even wonder what they do with those long balloons they use for hats and stuff....LMAO

[Explorer30305]

Re: Missedit

The data was compiled only out of searches that were considered to be sexual in nature. "Sleep" would be waaaaaaaaay higher on the list if they simply used the raw data for the amount of times someone searched for anything sleep related. So with clowns, I'm sure that over 99% of the searches aren't sexual in the slightest, whereas probably almost 100% of the vore searches would be. Furthermore, if they just went by the most popular search, period, one would expect religion and politics to both pop up on the list, and neither did.

Also, is your name Miss Edit, or missed it?

Re: Terastas

Not sure why, but I think it is hilarious that people prefer grannies and furries to small breasts.

Re: Prisoner

Transformation fetish is definitely not overlooked in the book! It actually is featured to a certain degree. Towards the very end, they go into detail about it for several pages.

Re: Zarpaulous

I thought the same thing, but at the same time, I've heard of numerous studies where people were scared in some way, then introduced to new people, and those who had been scared (as compared to a control group) were much more likely to remember the incident with sexual overtones and to think highly of the new people (if said people were nice). One was even mentioned in the book; they had people cross a sturdy bridge or a rickety old bridge, with a member of the opposite sex waiting at the end of the bridge. They talked with the person at the end of the bridge, and then were asked to go write a short story about their experience. Those who had been on the scary bridge were much more likely to write a story that included sexual elements.

[prisoner]

Kingoyaks: It was only intended as an example. As in, IF transformation were not considered by the people conducting the experiment then the results would not be accurate. It would be the same deal if none of them had heard of "vore", for example. If the researchers didn't consider vore sexual then maybe they wouldn't count hits for "eaten", "swallowed", "alive", or "vore" for that matter. It would be the same case if they had neglected to notice foot fetishism. Or maybe I should say, if they had neglected clowns, since it's apparent to all by now that they didn't. You can't count hits for the "clowns" keyword if no one thought clowns were a sexual fetish.

There are other flaws in how the experiment collects data. Language is the first that comes to mind. Due to language barriers, maybe the right keywords were not used. Or there could be double-counting in the system somewhere, such as more prolific internet users. If I search "vore" 1000 times in one month but the average vore enthusiast searches "vore" 10 times, that doesn't make vore more popular despite the increased number of searches. It's also possible that the researchers do not know insider terms. For example, maybe they had heard of vore, but didn't know that unbirth was also associated with vore and so they didn't check the number of searches with the unbirth tag.

These are just some pitfalls that I came up with in spur of the moment and is not intended to be a complete list. I do think that the experiment is interesting. I just wanted to point out how the data might misrepresent the truth.

[vintious]

"A Billion Wicked Thoughts" has even been referenced by quite a few futanari(girls with penises) fans for their findings on being aroused by shemales as not being gay

[Jahan]

*Shakes cane* Why, in my day, Vore was hardly 'popular'. There were two major chats, and they were TINY! You were lucky if there were 10 people on, and you had to walk uphill, both ways, in the snow to get eaten! These days, everyone with their new-fangled whispers and ignores and whosi-whatsits. Why, Eka's didn't even exist!

*shakes cane*
*Stops being silly now*

[C-B-A]

Clown sex and grannies?!?!

Anyway, yeah vore is one of the fetishes that's surprisingly popular, but relatively unknown, most people don't know most of the more popular fetishes so vore isn't high on the list of commen knowleg, and voraraphiles will most of the time not know they have the fetish, or don't know that it's an acual fetish to begin with.

[Borealis]

I'm not going to go into the specifics of the data, but I will say that I think vore is far more popular than is sometimes let on.

As fun as it is to think you're an extremely niche needle in a haystack of normality, I believe the "1 in 10,000-100,000 anomaly" sorts of claim that I have seen uttered by vorarephiles on occasion are far off the mark.

Speaking as someone who thought they were the only one with this sexual interest before discovering the internet I think it's fantastic that vore is as popular as it is, and welcome what is likely to be an increased number of people before it peaks.

[superfrownyface]

Vore is in SO MUCH of our culture it's a wonder there aren't more open voreophiles. maybe there are and they just aren't open about it? maybe they just don't know that it's not that weird or maybe they just don't know the word "vore". I didn't until i was 10.

[Whatumacallit]

Clown sex and grannies?!?!
[ http://img.tinychan.org/img/1315362772726190.jpg ]

Yeah...my thoughts exactly. http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h38/mrcrapinson/WTFNO.jpg

[Terastas]

Speaking as someone who thought they were the only one with this sexual interest before discovering the internet I think it's fantastic that vore is as popular as it is, and welcome what is likely to be an increased number of people before it peaks.

Two quotes about sex from comedians come to mind.

The first was Ron White, who, in regards to homosexuality, said it's not a matter of whether or not you are gay, but to what extent you are gay.

The other was Ray Romano, who, in regards to watching pornography, said that once you even so much as entertain the thought, you've effectively just activated the launch sequence.

I think those two quotes together could be used to describe anything sexual, including even the most bizarre and random of fetishes. Only 1/1000 may see vore as being sexually arousing, but the other 999 should be able to look at vore and, though they may not be aroused by it, should be at least be capable of recognizing it as being intended as sexual (or at least erotic).

And once they recognize it as having the potential to be sexual, their desensitization to the subject begins. "OMG that is so horrifying" gradually becomes "Wow, that's weird," then "Meh, whatever," and so on and so forth. Basically, the more someone is able to understand and rationalize it, the more receptive to it they become.

[William]

Okay, I'll drop in a dime's worth of data here...
Back in the eighties, I edited, wrote, and drew the first vore underground comic; first a mini-comic, then in a larger format.
It lasted about five years, twenty-six issues, and in total, sold over fifty thousand copies.
Mind you, that was with VERY limited marketing, no distributors, and through a couple dozen comic book dealers and direct sales at conventions.
Consider for a moment how small the portion of comic book fandom (which ain't big!) attended actual conventions in the 80's.
Which means that an amazingly higher percentage of comic book fans are also vore fetishists, as opposed to the general public, or the actual percentage of folks who are turned on by vore is pretty high.
Given the 'cult' status of various soft core vore movies and shows, as well as the common advertising usage of vore themes, I suspect the low percentage comes from folks not knowing what it is, or never properly associating the name with the twisted little thrill they get from that image...

[Redatheart]

Grannies being more popular than furries? On the Internet?

I think this research is skewed