Editor’s Note: The views expressed in the following column are those of the writer only and do not necessarily represent the views of The Collegian or its editorial board.

Fetishes may seem like a taboo subject, but they’re much more common than we may think. In one Canadian study’s population sample, they found that nearly half of their participants admitted to having a fetish. 

College students’ curiosity and sexual exploration can increase curiosity in fetishism. From a sample of college students in a study conducted by Harvard, 22% said they were interested in fetishes, and 43% said they have or believe they have a fetish.

Fetishism is defined as a form of sexual behavior in which gratification is linked to an abnormal object, activity, part of the body, etc.

A human byproduct fetish is an umbrella term that encapsulates all fetishes associated with excretion from the body. These fetishes are not necessarily the cleanest.

Dacryphilia

Dacryphilia is defined as the sexual arousal from seeing tears or hearing a person, yourself or another, cry.

While it is typically associated with BDSM, that’s not the only reason why people enjoy it. Some may be aroused by crying because it shows the emotional vulnerability of their partner. Some are specifically turned on by crying that happens during intercourse that can be associated with strong feelings of love.

Salirophilia

Salirophilia can be defined as the sexual interest for specifically soiling on or the soiling of the object of one’s desire. This can range from making a partner dirty with mud to covering them in semen. There are no intentions of harm with this fetish, only to make the partner messy.

While this is a moderately umbrella term for everything it encapsulates, bukkake is probably the most well-known type of salirophilia. Bukkake is the term for when one recipient is ejaculated on by two or more other participants.

Emetophilia

Emetophilia is defined as finding sexual pleasure with vomit, whether that’s watching a person vomit, being vomited on or vomiting on someone else.

Some emetophiles can find this pleasure by having their partner vomit on them while performing oral sex. Others like to shove objects, fingers or whatever else down their partner’s throat to trigger their gag reflex and force them to throw up. Alternately, extremists enjoy being vomited on directly and entirely.

Being vomited on or making someone else vomit can be related to domination and submission. Specifically, this type of sexual play would be considered erotic humiliation, which is also popular among the BDSM community.

Coprophilia

Coprophilia is generally known as a feces fetish, where a person derives sexual pleasure from poop. This can range from enjoying watching others poop, pooping on someone or being pooped on.

A study done in the book “Sex and Sexuality: Sexual deviation and sexual offenses“ surveyed men who practiced sadomasochism, and it found that 17.3% of the survey pool had participated in scat play.

Perhaps the most viral example of this fetish is “2 Girls 1 Cup.”

Urolagnia 

Urolagnia is most famously known through golden showers, but much more broadly it is defined as the sexual fascination with urine or urination. Some enjoy being peed on, others enjoy peeing on their partner and some even enjoy watching their partner wet themselves.

Again, this is another crossover fetish that mostly stakes its claim because it is viewed as a dominant/submissive sexual act.

There has been a back-and-forth debate on whether or not fresh urine is sterile enough to be safe to drink or play with. Honestly, just make sure to stay clean in the act.

I’ve only covered the tip of the iceberg on this topic. There are so many famous case references to be made, as well as discussing in-depth the crossovers that occur between fetishes. Take this all with a grain of salt, and feel free to continue educating yourself more deeply on each topic.

Shay Rego can be reached at letters@collegian.com or on Twitter @shay_rego.