FOOD, FEEDING, AND FEMALE SEXUAL AROUSAL LESLEY L. TERRY Bachelor of Arts (Honours), St. Francis Xavier University, 2007 A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies of the University of Lethbridge in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF SCIENCE (Psychology) Department of Psychology University of Lethbridge LETHBRIDGE, ALBERTA, CANADA ' Lesley L. Terry, 2010 ABSTRACT Food, Feeding, and Female Sexual Arousal Feederism 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. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During my time at the University of Lethbridge I feel I have grown both 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 research, and my career. You have been an incredible mentor and role model. I only hope I can someday contribute to my field as extensively as you have to yours. I would also like to thank my other two committee members, Drs. Martin LalumiŁre and Shawn Bubel for all of their guidance and support throughout the completion of this project. I give special thanks to Martin for allowing me to use his facilities to conduct my psychophysiological research, which was a major component of my Master(cid:146)s thesis. I would also like to thank Drs. J. Michael Bailey, Kenneth Zucker, Katherine Frank, Anne Lawrence, as well as, one anonymous reviewer for their thoughtful comments on portions of this thesis. To Dr. Margo Watt, thank you for taking me under your wing, teaching me the value of research, and encouraging me to pursue graduate school and clinical training. I would also like to extend my appreciation to my fellow graduate students, Douglas VanderLaan, Kelly Suschinski, Deanna Forrester and Annabree Fairwether. Doug, thank you for your support, advice, and statistical guidance, they have been iv invaluable. Kelly, thank you for teaching me how to conduct psychophysiological research (I couldn(cid:146)t have done it without you), and for your helpful comments on the final draft of this thesis. To Deanna, thank you for all of your assistance this year, you have been a great supporter and friend. Annabree, thank you for assisting in the development of my stimuli and for answering any questions I was too embarrassed to bother Kelly with, yet again. To my friends, Katie Burles, Kerry Chisholm, Gillian Kennedy, and Julia MacIntosh, thank you for supporting me through my busy days, providing me with the perfect distraction just when I needed it, and teaching me that with the right sense of humor we can get through anything. Thank you Lucy and the other men and women who volunteered to participate in this research, I certainly could not have done it without you. To my family, I would like to thank my mother, Ardith, my father, Grant, and my siblings, Angela, Amy, and Kevin, for all the love and support they have given me over the years. I would also like to give a special thanks to my Mom, you have always encouraged me to pursue my dreams and taught me the meaning of determination and hard work, for that I owe you any success I have had. To my partner, Brian Roberts, I cannot begin to thank you for all of your love, patience, and support throughout the past two years. No matter how busy, tired or agitated I became, I could always count on your smile and proud words of encouragement to get me through. Thank you for believing in me. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Title page............................................................................................................................. i Signature Page.................................................................................................................... ii Abstract.............................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements............................................................................................................ iv Table of Contents............................................................................................................... vi List of Tables.................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures.................................................................................................................. viii Chapter 1. The Origins of Feederism............................................................................ p. 1 Chapter 2. Feederism in a Woman: A Case Study.......................................................p. 18 Chapter 3. Feederism: An Exaggeration of a Normative Mate Selection Strategy.....p. 37 Chapter 4. Conclusion..................................................................................................p. 72 References.....................................................................................................................p. 79 Appendix A. Recruitment Poster..................................................................................p. 90 Appendix B. Complete Collection of Neutral, Sexual, and Feeding Short Stories......p. 91 Appendix C. Complete Collection of Neutral, Sexual, and Feeding Still Images......p. 102 Appendix D. Post-Stimuli Questions..........................................................................p. 105 Appendix E. Questionnaire Package..........................................................................p. 106 Appendix F. Telephone Script...................................................................................p. 116 Appendix G. Room Script..........................................................................................p. 119 Appendix H. Consent Form........................................................................................p. 124 Appendix I. Debriefing Form.....................................................................................p. 127 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1. 3 (Story: sexual, feeding and neutral) X 3 (Image: sexual, feeding and neutral) experimental design..................................................................p. 45 Table 3.2. Inter-item reliabilities (Cronbach(cid:146)s alpha) for responses to each of the post-stimuli questions.............................................................................p. 53 Table 3.3. Male and female mean (SD) genital arousal by story category.............p. 56 Table 3.4. Combined (i.e., male and female) mean (SD) subjective arousal by story category..................................................................................................p. 59 Table 3.5. Combined (i.e., male and female) mean (SD) subjective arousal by image category..................................................................................................p. 59 Table 3.6. Male and female mean (SD) post-stimuli questions by image category..................................................................................................p. 63 Table 3.7. Mean (SD) and t-tests for sex differences for the Food and Sex Questionnaire.........................................................................................p. 66 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure. 2.1. Self selected non-Feedee-self and Feedee-self relative to current body type.........................................................................................................p. 30 Figure. 2.2. Ratings for most attractive male body type compared to husband(cid:146)s body type.........................................................................................................p. 30 Figure 3.1. Standardized mean genital responses in males and females as a function of stimulus pairing......................................................................................p. 54 Figure 3.2. Standardized mean continuous subjective ratings of arousal in males and females as a function of stimulus pairing...............................................p. 58 viii CHAPTER ONE The Origins of Feederism ABSTRACT According to the World Health Organization (WHO; 2009), fat is an (cid:147)epidemic.(cid:148) Cross- cultural studies indicate that in many parts of the world overweight and obese females are considered to be more beautiful and desirable than average sized or thin females. In Western societies, most females struggle to embody a very different idea of beauty. Tall and thin are the standards of beauty dictated by the media in North America. However, a small group of males and females in Western society have come together to form what is known as the fat admiration community. These individuals are preferentially sexually attracted to fat individuals and/or accept their own fat bodies. Feederism is a fat fetish sub-culture of the fat admiration community that focuses on feeding and erotic weight gain. Possible explanations for why individuals who participate in the Feederism community associate sexual arousal with eating, being fed, and gaining weight are explored. 1 According to the World Health Organization (WHO; 2009), fat is an (cid:147)epidemic.(cid:148) Globally, there are approximately one billion overweight people, 300 million of which are clinically obese. Body Mass Index (BMI) is calculated by dividing an individual(cid:146)s weight by the square of their height. A BMI over 25 kg/m2 is defined as overweight and a BMI of over 30 kg/m2 is defined as obese (Bray, 1998; WHO, 2009). James (2004) reported that in the previous decade, the prevalence of obesity in Western and Westernized countries had more than doubled. With obesity on the rise, it is becoming more important to understand this unique population for possible future clinical purposes. Cross-cultural studies indicate that in many parts of the world overweight and obese females are considered to be more beautiful and desirable than average sized or thin females (Furnham & Baguma, 1994; Nelson & Morrison, 2005; Popenoe, 2004; Singh, 1994; Swami & Tovee, 2007). The desire for fat females in these cultures appears to be correlated with historical resource scarcity (Nelson & Morrison, 2005). As a result, fat females are considered wealthier (Harter, 2004), healthier, and more fertile (Brown & Konner, 1987). Indeed obesity is positively correlated with socio-economic status in non- western cultures (Nelson & Morrison, 2005; Furnham & Baguma, 1994), and it has been suggested that the fattening of young girls hastens the onset of puberty and makes them more docile (Harter, 2004; Popenoe, 2004). Many young girls in the Saharan desert actively try to gain weight or are forced to gain weight by their female relatives to prepare them for marriage (Popenoe, 2004). Mauritania, a small northern country in Africa, is an example of a country where fat females are considered more desirable (Harter, 2004; Soares, 2006). The force feeding practiced in Mauritania is known as gavage, derived from the French word foie gras, a process used to fatten geese (Soares, 2 2006). Females, aged 4 to 19, are force fed bowls of cous cous, and forced to drink litres of camel(cid:146)s milk, often until they vomit (Medina, 2007; Popenoe, 2004). Similar practices exist in the Fat Houses of Nigeria, a country also in Northern Africa (Brink, 1995). Young females are discouraged from engaging in any unnecessary movement, are assigned (cid:147)tutors(cid:148) who prepare seven to eight meals a day for them to eat, and who massage their bodies to ensure the fat is distributed appropriately in the desired areas (Popenoe, 2004). It has been reported that the act of fattening females arouses male desire while suppressing a female(cid:146)s own desires (Popenoe, 2004). In contrast, most females in Western societies struggle to embody a very different idea of beauty. Tall and thin are the standards of beauty dictated by the media in North America (Miller, Rothblum, Felicio, & Brand, 1995). Indeed, some clinicians call it a (cid:147)culture of slenderness(cid:148) (Gamman & Makinen, 1994). To be a fat female in Western society is to be culturally deviant (Kulick, 2005). Research conducted in Australia has shown that females are more vulnerable to criticisms about their weight and appearance. Consequently, they tend to be more critical of themselves and try to exercise more control over their weight (Murray, Touyz, & Beaumont, 1995). Rothblum (1992) reported that females in Western societies often go to great lengths to avoid becoming fat. For example, many females develop eating disorders such as bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa. Both bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa are characterized by an intense fear of becoming fat and a disturbance in the perception of body weight or shape. Females with bulimia often induce vomiting or use laxatives to expel any food they eat. In cases of anorexia, females limit the amount of food they eat or, in the most extreme cases, refuse to eat anything at all (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Ninety 3