Crushed

After a few months of open-mindedly researching sexual preferences, practices and tastes, I couldn't avoid the feeling of "I've seen it all", of being desensitized (like I mentioned on my previous blog). But I wasn't prepared for what I've just read on the Bathroom Wall.

Crush films: films depicting the crushing of animals (either small or large) used as fetishes, inducing sexual arousal.

... what?

After clicking some links, I found this story:

"the death of Bryan, 28, was related to his wife's habit of stomping rabbits and mice for sexual pleasure. (...) Stephanie did not deny that she drove over her husband, but in her own defence she released tapes to the police showing her stomping small mammals to death. (...) Such "crush" videos are sold to people who derive sexual pleasure from the sight of death, especially at the hands of a woman. (...) Stephanie contended that she was an unwilling participant in the videos, and had been beaten many times by her husband prior to his bizarre death. (...) As for her husband, his death under the wheels of his car was presumably a loving sex act between consenting adults."

... what?

Now I'll admit... I'm not a complete stranger to that idea. My game Beautiful Escape: Dungeoneer was built on a very similar premise: love expressed through violence. Anyone with basic understanding of Freudian theories will acknowledge that sadism is a perversion of sexual gratification. In Beautiful Escape, Verge tortures the people he likes. His love affair is ultimately consumed in an act of violence. I knew I wasn't making that up, I believed that some people can derive sexual pleasure from that sort of stuff.

I'm very sensitive when it comes to animal violence (much more than with humans), and that's partially why this crush films thing scares me and crushes my open-mindedness a bit. But considering this Stephanie/Bryan story, it's probably safe to assume that the crushing fetish is animal-oriented only in the basis that it can't be easily fulfilled with people. But the crushing of people is probably... hotter.

I almost dismissed the entire thing as way too uncommon and rare to even consider it as something to be taken into account for the game. But then I remembered the popularity of Beautiful Escape, and how much people enjoyed it, even if such joy was sometimes hidden behind other feelings. Am I saying that there are many more sadists and "crushers" than it would seem at first glance? Yes, sort of. The whole idea of polymorphous perversity (the concept, not the game) is that human beings can take sexual gratification from all sorts of stimulation, though cultural and invididual factors shape practices and behavior to an extent.

What have I gotten myself into?