Navel fetishism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message.
This article has been tagged since July 2006.

This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.

Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the talk page for details.

Navel fetishism is typically a sexual fetish where an individual is strongly attracted to the human navel (also known as, and is referred to by most 'navel fetishists' as the belly button). Navel fetishism is often related to stomach fetishism (alvinolagnia).

A navel fetishist can be sexually aroused by (but not limited to) viewing, licking, tickling, sucking, sniffing or kissing the navel of another person, or by having any of that done to their own navel by another or, to a lesser extent, themselves. Some navel fetishists engage in outercourse involving the navel. The fetishist response to the navel is the same or very similar to arousal at seeing genitals (or the sex-specific features like female breasts).

Most navel fetishists can also exhibit varying levels of sexual stimulation in the brain just by hearing key words, often being “belly button” or “navel”. This is thought to be another phenomenon related to fetishistic behavioral imprinting – the brain associating particular images, or in this case, sounds with impending pleasure and sexual orgasm.

There is also a sub-category of navel fetishism for navel torture – where the objective is to inflict intense sensory stimulation and even pain to a person’s navel. Some more common examples of this include:

Forcing the navel into an outie where the navel that was once an innie is sucked or pulled out. This is often done with the aid of a syringe.

Dripping hot oil or wax into the navel.

Poking pins into the navel, not to be confused with navel piercing.

Other less common navel fetishism is a Gynastic exercise called the "belly-ups", where a kind of stick called a "rod", about three and a half inches long, made of dark plastic is placed upon the navel. It is then usually pressed against the ground when a person is laying face down.

1 Proposed explanations for navel fetishism
2 See also
3 Sources
4 External links

[edit] Proposed explanations for navel fetishism

Although the cause of navel fetishism is largely unknown, studies are being made by anthropologists about whether navel fetishism is a genetic imprint, or has been mentally developed. Most believe that this fetish (along with most other paraphilias) is derived from behavioral imprinting in early childhood, however there have been very rare anecdotal cases of individuals developing this fetish in their teens and adult life. Due to the rarity of this fetish, there have been no known studies on exactly what events can occur in childhood to cause an individual to develop a navel fetish.

Some claim that the navel and genitalia can send sensory information to similar parts of the brain. Several anecdotal reports^[1] including US Big Brother 3 winner Lisa Donahue stating “I can achieve orgasm just from my navel touched the right way”^[2] can add weight to this claim.

The anthropologist Desmond Morris has argued that the bellybutton is a miniature image of the vagina.^[3] This is a disputed idea, partly due to the fact that navel fetishism is present in some homosexual males and heterosexual females.

The abdomen is, in some cultures, a symbol of feminine fertility and sensuality.