Balloon fetishism

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Balloon fetishism is a fetish in which a person has an unusual fascination of, or pertaining to, balloons, which provides sexual arousal or stimulation. Many persons with this fetish casually refer to themselves as looners. The fetish itself varies greatly from person to person, some people enjoy only the act of inflation itself or viewing members of their desired sex inflating balloons, while others enjoy the act of popping by various means, while yet others simply find stimulation in the color, clarity, smell, tactile sense, sound, and movement of the balloon itself. There are several known female balloon fetishists, however the vast majority is made up of men.

1 Background
2 The Practice
3 Derivations
4 Scene
5 Treatment
6 External links
7 Communities

[edit] Background

Many theories try explain to explain balloon fetish, but without consensus, because the fetish is set in the psyche at different points of experience and development for each individual. However, there are strands common to all. Many agree this fetish born at childhood with full development at teenage and adult age. The theories bellow are based on community members reports and experiences.

The Fear Factor: People with a balloon fetish often report strong fear of balloons in infancy mixed with the contact with them at moments of strong happy memories at children's parties. The pseudo-overcoming of the fear together with the happy party association then is changed into a sexual fetish. This is also the most-accepted theory and in agreement with Sigmund Freud Psychoanalysis.

The Early Sexual Feeling: Members report that had early sexual identification with balloons in contact with them, often associated with the feeling of skin. In fact, children can mature sexual symbols and try masturbation to excite their genitals using balloons, two providing a potently symbolic cleavage. This is reported by both parents and fetish members.

The Partner Substitute: Members report using big balloons to substitute a sexual partner. Not necessarily the lack of them, they like and excite hugging and touching the balloons, as well as rubbing balloons against his/her genitals. Is very common reports of emotions feelings by balloons in a case of Anthropomorphism.

[edit] The Practice

The life cycle of a balloon has four phases: inflation (blowing it up by some means), admiration (looking at it), interaction (touching, moving, watching), and destruction (deflation, popping, releasing). Any or all of these phases can constitute the primary interest of the balloon fetishist, while the remainder are simply complimentary. The practices of the fetishist falls into two distinct camps, poppers and non-poppers, and their foci are seen as drastically different.

The popper is primarily excited by the bursting of a balloon, both by the anticipation and the sensory experience of the explosion itself. The method by which the balloon is popped, however, can vary dramatically. Some persons enjoy blow-to-pop, in which the balloon is continually inflated until it ultimately bursts, and is commonly most fully enjoyed when executed by a partner or member of the sex to which the popper is attracted. Some persons enjoy viewing various forms of erotic popping by means of objects such as cigarettes and pins, in addition to more physically involved and sexually stimulating methods such as sitting, hugging, squeezing, stomping, clawing, etc. In all these cases the popper's primary interest is in building anticipation and the sexual tension of bursting at any time.

The non-popper, on the other hand, dislikes (often vehemently) destroying the balloon but instead chooses to admire and interact with it. This type of looner is far more varied and individualistic in their preferred interaction. Practices can range from simply blowing up and holding balloons for pleasure, to watching other persons interact with balloons, to placing the balloon underneath the genitals and bouncing on it, known as boinking or riding. A popular sub-group of non-poppers includes persons who enjoy stuffing, an act in which baggy clothing is worn and balloons are blown up inside the clothing as a way to maximize the tactile sensation of contact with the object in addition to the sense of being overcome by the object.

In the German scene a semipopper is known, too. It is an unsharb category of looners that change between non-popper and popper by mood, that like to see how balloons become popped, mostly by women, but they don't like to pop balloons by themselves. Or people that like to inflate balloons to the maximum without wanting to pop them.

The only clear area of similarity in the practices of these groups is the general preference to involve a sexual partner into their preferred activity, either as an observer or as an active participant. Often, with a partner, a sexual event that involves balloons becomes secondary to the act of sex itself and simply foreplay.

[edit] Derivations

Balloon fetishism is related to a great variety of other fetishes, including Breast fetishism (due to the shape and feel that balloons and breasts share), Shoe fetishism (generally by persons who enjoy seeing balloons stomped on), Breast expansion fetish and Inflation fetishism (due to inflation, growth etc.), Macrophilia (for people who prefer huge balloons), Smoking fetishism (generally by people who enjoy seeing balloons popped by cigarettes), and many more. Each looner is unique and therefore may have many other related fetishes or none at all. The only commonality among the vocal community of balloon fetishes in this regard is that balloon fetishism is the focal point and all other fetishes simply enhance their primary interest.

Fetishes involving inflated objects are closely related to balloon fetishism, particularly that of inflatable animals (animal shaped PVC inflatables) and pool toys, such as beach balls, swim rings and pool-rafts or lilos, which can often provide an associations with female anatomy. This is explored further in Inflatable fetishism. To a lesser degree, some balloon fetishists are excited by watching women blowing bubbles with bubble gum.

[edit] Scene

Balloon fetishism seemingly exploded in popularity with the proliferation of the internet, not because fetishists discovered the interest, but because they found that they weren't alone. In particular the group Balloon Buddies, a pen-pal club for balloon fetishists started in 1976, came online in 1994, bringing hundreds of people together in an open forum. Many balloon fetishists feel very uncomfortable and un-masculine because of their preoccupation with balloons, making online forums such as Balloon Buddies a place for people to come to terms with and eventually accept their interest. Ledgendary Balloon Buddies founder, Buster Bill, turned management of the list over to a commercial site owner in 1993 and its popularity and membership has declined.

In the late 90's several US based websites appeared catering specifically to balloon fetishists, most of which exist to this day. Because the sites cater to sexual fetishism these sites are considered pornographic in nature, however several sites offer no nude content at all, while others offer only minimal amounts of nudity, typically clearly deliniated on the given site. Sites typically are populated with images, videos and stories of women

In addition to websites and communities, several stores dedicated to serving the needs of balloon fetishists appeared in the late 90's. Balloon fetishists tend to be very specific about exactly which shapes, colors, and brands of balloons they enjoy. Many are so specific in their preferences that only specific qualities of a balloon are capable of exciting them. Brands such as Qualatex are the most commonly preferred because of their strength and quality. Not only are looners specific about what they buy, but larger sized balloons (16", 24", 36", and beyond) are popular but very hard to find in a conventional party shop. Additionally, these onlines stores typically guarantee anonymity; for many looners, going into a party shop is like going into an adult store and can be nerve racking.

[edit] Treatment

For people who desire treatment for the balloon fetish, is suggested Neuro Linguistic Programming. In fact, due to the very lack of information is observed by the Psychotherapy professionals the fetish is thought to be very obscure. Because of the perceived obscure nature of the fetish, fetishists keeping it secret, it is very common for Psychologists never to have heard about it.