Year: 2010
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Food, Feeding, and Female Sexual ArousalFeederism is a fat fetish subculture that eroticizes eating, feeding, and gaining weight.This thesis attempts to explain the practice of Feederism using an evolutionary approach.Chapter one examines the historical and cross-cultural meaning of fat and its association with fertility, health, and beauty.Chapter one also reviews the current literature on fat admiration and Feederism, and introduces some possible explanations for what Feederism is, and how it can be conceptualized.Chapter two describes a case study that was conducted on a female member of the Feederism community.The results of this case study add support to the hypothesis that Feederism is paraphilic.Chapter three describes a psychophysiological study that tested how members of the general population respond to and rate feeding stimuli.This study was conducted to determine whether Feederism is an exaggeration of a more normative and functional mate selection strategy.The results of this study demonstrate that males and females both respond to and rate feeding stimuli similarly.No definitive conclusions were drawn with respect to the exaggeration hypothesis, because, although participants did subjectively rate the feeding stimuli as more sexually arousing than neutral stimuli, they did not genitally respond to the feeding stimuli significantly more than to the neutral stimuli.Chapter four summarizes the results of the two studies and discusses how these finding might inform future research on paraphilias, courtship, and intimacy.academically, and as a person.I attribute the positive experiences I have had to the outstanding faculty members in the psychology department, as well as, the other members of my cohort.To Dr. Paul Vasey, my academic supervisor, this experience would not have been possible if you had not agreed to supervise me two years ago.For that I will be eternally grateful.I would also like to express my sincerest appreciation for your unwavering guidance, support, commitment and investment in me, my
Author: Lesley L. Terry
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: University of Lethbridge
OpenAlex ID: W1571288054