Different Loving: The World of Sexual Dominance and Submission (93 page)

In the second, an “older relative” insists on administering an enema to the defenseless “child” “for his own good.” This scenario obviously entails ageplay; it may also combine such D&S elements as erotic coercion, erotic humiliation, or an over-the-knee spanking preparatory to the enema. The parent figure may be fully benevolent (such as a “loving mommy” who is showing tender concern for her “little boy’s” health), or the parent may be
slightly sinister (such as an “exasperated father” who punishes a “willful and disobedient daughter”).

Finally, many klismaphiles fantasize about a “nurse” who is compelled, for medical reasons, to administer an enema to a hospitalized or helpless patient. Again, fantasies vary. The nurse may be a figure of gentle concern, a merciful angel ministering to the patient’s special needs, or she may be a capricious and austere symbol of institutional cruelty. In the latter case other D&S activities may coincide, including rigid bondage.

Punishment scenarios, while hardly universal, are prevalent, even among klismaphiliacs who otherwise have no interest in D&S and who do not perceive themselves as being submissive.

For the D&Ser, an erotic enema holds the possibility of acting out vulnerability in a primal form.

The erotic enema scenario captures the very nature of the D&S power exchange in a most explicit form. The submissive is nude or partially nude (while the dominant remains dressed); the submissive is often bent over so that his or her anus is prominently exposed both to view and to manipulation; the submissive’s anus is handled (often lubricated) and then penetrated; the
dominant controls the amount of fluid introduced into the rectum; if a Bardex or double Bardex is used, the submissive cannot remove the tube; the release of the fluid is also controlled by the dominant, who may additionally compel the submissive to accept a large quantity or to retain the fluid (in some cases, dominants may remove the nozzle only to replace it with an anal plug, so that the submissive cannot void until it is removed); and, finally, once any obstructions are withdrawn, the submissive has no choice but to relieve the cramping, either in private or in the presence of the dominant.

The emotional charge of each stage of this experience can be profound. Depending on the individual’s attitudes toward privacy, the inability to control one’s bowels can itself be a source of psychosexual excitement. Humiliation seems to be a key erotic pleasure for many klismaphiliacs and certainly contributes to the submissive’s sense of helplessness.

Finally, just as
limonadiers
of historic France once prepared esoteric mixtures (whose contents were jealously guarded secrets), today’s klismaphiliac, too, is known occasionally to use exotic additives. Many early clyster solutions contained tobacco, which caused nearly instantaneous intoxication and, if used regularly, addiction. (
Limonadiers
also used a clyster pipe to blow tobacco smoke into patrons’ bowels. For a time, this was a standard treatment to revive fainted women or victims of drowning.)
⁷
Although tobacco has gone out of fashion, contemporary practitioners are known to add such depressives as wine or stimulants as coffee to their enema solutions. Any stimulants, depressives, or caustic substances added to enema solutions pose potential health risks, some life-threatening. Alcohol, for example, is absorbed into the bloodstream and remains in the blood after the solution is excreted. Further, a much higher degree of absorption may occur than in oral ingestion, posing the threat of a toxic reaction. The rectal mucosa are extremely sensitive and easily irritated. It is also a given that enema equipment must be sterile.

Generally speaking, neither klismaphiliacs nor their partners come into direct contact with feces. Researchers have noted that enema enthusiasts are often extremely concerned with personal cleanliness. Indeed, if the enema is understood as a cleansing ritual, there’s no contradiction between a klismaphiliac’s fastidiousness and his love of enemas. The enema nozzle effectively blocks elimination until it is removed, and, once the nozzle is removed, the recipient generally hastens to relieve him- or herself, usually in private.

Klismaphilia, however, occasionally seems to be confused with the different practices of coprophilia (“brown showers”) and coprolagnia. Although all groups are interested in the anus and feces, the klismaphiliac eroticizes the act of receiving an enema and banishing waste; the coprophile eroticizes stool and desires contact with it; and the coprolagniac wishes to witness defecation.

Coprophilia (also known as
scatology
or
scat
) is rarely perceived by water-sports enthusiasts as being part of their Scene and is often considered too extreme a fantasy to be safely or sanely acted out.

Aside from the societal taboos, the handling of feces poses definite, serious health risks, which skyrocket if ingestion occurs. The colon is a haven for bacteria which are not necessarily harmful as long as they remain inside the colon. But contact, and particularly ingestion, of another’s or one’s own excreta presents a spectrum of possible infections, some of them life-threatening, as some fecal bacteria may be pathogenic or hemolytic.

Scatology holds a notoriously bizarre place in history: Caligula was reputed to have been a coprophile, and Adolph Hitler a coprolagniac. In D&S pornography coprophilia appears in the guise of descriptions of “toilet slaves,” severely degraded masochists who serve their dominants as human toilets. Between pornographic fantasy and reality lies a chasm difficult to breach. Judging by available videos and erotica (the Germans seem to specialize in scat), toilet slavery is certainly a known fantasy. But its practice has not been well documented. We were unable to locate any D&Sers who described coprophilic encounters, possibly because of awareness of the extreme health risks involved.

Deriving erotic pleasure from viewing elimination seems to be considerably more popular than is direct contact with feces. According to Havelock Ellis,

Jonathan Swift was sufficiently fascinated and repulsed by defecation to write poetry on the topic. James Joyce’s love letters to his wife include explicit descriptions of his erotic interest in watching her defecate.

While documentation of coprophilia is scarce outside of psychiatric studies, and although we were unable to find anecdotal information on this practice, coprolagnia appears to be an occasional feature of some D&Sers’ play, though their motives seem to differ from the clinical coprolagniac’s. A dominant may, for example, control the submissive’s eliminatory habits, including whether or not the submissive may use the toilet at any given moment. Part of this discipline may include the dominant’s free access to the bathroom, even when it is being used by the submissive. The motivation is to deprive the submissive of privacy and thus to add erotic humiliation. We did not speak to any D&Sers who claimed to be aroused by the sight of defecation, but we assume they exist.

I
NTERVIEWS

I came on CompuServe before [the Water Sports section] was created and lurked in the Variations section. I never saw anything about water sports. So one time I just dropped a message saying, “Is anyone else interested in enemas?” I was amazed at the size of the thread that resulted from that. That prompted me to approach [management] about creating my own section [about five years ago]. After my section was created, I knew there would be some interest out there, but I didn’t know how long it would last. I’ve been pleasantly surprised that it has remained a relatively busy section. There is a core of regulars that have been around since day one, as well.

Water sports and golden showers were put together in this section out of convenience more than anything else. In the case of golden showers, there seems to be real strong interest on the part of the participants in the sight aspect of it, the feel of the warmth of the urine hitting you, and the smell seems to be an important factor, too. Golden showers is not an area that I have a whole lot of personal experience in, so I have to pretty much rely on what people on the board [the on-line discussion area] say. Of the many different kinds of people that we get in the section, the golden-shower people are probably the most shy and reticent to speak, so it’s real hard to get a handle on those folks. [Folks into enemas are] definitely less shy.

Soap-suds enemas are very popular. A lot of people will say that [just the smell of] a certain brand of soap turns them on. Usually it’s males who are speaking up and saying they have this interest, and they do have some kind of an experience with an opposite-sex person.

I think the turn-on varies from person to person. I’d say 50 percent of our members use it in some kind of a D&S context. In the case of golden showers, for instance, it can be a humiliating thing, and that can lead to some kind of arousal or interest among the D&S people. The enema people are a little different. I would say some of them also are into [D&S], but people are mostly into the sensations [and] the physical stimulation of it. I think it’s probably the physical sensation to some extent for the other 50 percent, but there seems to be some appeal to doing something that’s taboo.

There are some things that show up on the board occasionally. Some people are into urethral masturbation. There have been some discussions of catheterization. One thing that’s really kind of surprised me—I don’t think anything shocks me anymore—is that people who are into brown showers
and some related activities have popped in. It never dawned on me that anyone would even consider these [to be] water sports. I know that it makes some of the members of the section a little bit nervous. It’s just a little too far out for them.