Food, feeding and female sexual arousal

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dc.contributor.authorTerry, Lesley L.
dc.contributor.authorUniversity of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science
dc.contributor.supervisorVasey, Paul L.
dc.date.accessioned2011-08-19T19:20:18Z
dc.date.available2011-08-19T19:20:18Z
dc.date.issued2010
dc.degree.levelMasters
dc.descriptionviii, 128 leaves : ill. ; 29 cmen_US
dc.description.abstractFeederism 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.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10133/2510
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherLethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Psychology, c2010en_US
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Psychologyen_US
dc.publisher.facultyArts and Scienceen_US
dc.relation.ispartofseriesThesis (University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science)en_US
dc.subjectFetishism (Sexual behavior)en_US
dc.subjectParaphiliasen_US
dc.subjectPsychosexual disordersen_US
dc.subjectFooden_US
dc.subjectOverweight personsen_US
dc.subjectDissertations, Academicen_US
dc.titleFood, feeding and female sexual arousalen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
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