A New Intimacy Practice Is On The Rise In A Post-Roe V. Wade World
There are a lot of kinks out there. In fact, anything that's considered "unconventional" when it comes to sex is considered a kink, according to Merriam-Webster. Naturally, this means that many, if not most, of us have a kink or two in us. Unlike fetishes, kinks are fairly common and add an extra something-something to our sex lives.
"Fetish is heavily tied to having a psychological need for those specific objects or acts in order to experience pleasure and or orgasm, whereas kinks can add to a sexual experience but aren't necessarily needed to achieve sexual release," sex educator Dirty Lola tells HuffPost. Of all the kinks, and there are quite a few, the most common is BDSM. An acronym for bondage/discipline, dominance/submission, BDSM can be anything from a little spanking to more intense stuff, like tying each other up and practicing consensual powerplay. BDSM can really run the gamut, which is why it's the most common kink.
But not so far behind BDSM on the list of common kinks is bodily fluids. According to research by Justin Lehmiller, Ph.D., bodily fluids, with ejaculation being at the top of the list, is a kink that a lot of people either fantasize about or have actually put into action. For some, the kink involves a level of dominance and submission because there's a power in ownership or being owned by someone else via fluid play (via Men's Health). Another name for this is the breeding kink, and it's rising in popularity.
What's a breeding kink?
Because the kink revolves around ejaculation, the breeding kink can stem from a couple of different places. There's the idea of ownership, which has its roots in the BDSM community, but there's also the risk factor that comes with possibly getting pregnant. "A lot of it has to do with the fact that you don't really want to get pregnant, which makes it really hot in the moment because you're doing something very dangerous," sex educator Gigi Engle tells Insider. "That's really the erotic charge behind it."
Although the idea of taking such a risk might not be understandable to some, someone's kink isn't really for anyone else to understand. But clearly, a lot of people are interested in it based on the 13.2 million views of "breeding kinks" on TikTok. The breeding kink takes the idea of fluid bonding a step further because it's not just the practice of unprotected sex but rather unprotected sex that could result in something more: a fetus.
Still, that doesn't mean the breeding kink is only something that straight, cis couples engage in. Because it's a fantasy, even those who can't biologically get pregnant can have breeding kinks. Ultimately, it comes down to power, and power looks like different things to different people.
Why people might have a breeding kink
Although there are a lot of reasons why someone might have a breeding kink, the fact that it's on the rise now can possibly be linked to what's currently going on in politics. "Breeding is likely trending due to the overturning of Roe v. Wade," certified sex therapist Sara Rosen, LCSW, tells Bustle. "We tend to eroticize whatever is taboo in society. Having unprotected sex is more dangerous than it's been in a long time, [and] that makes it easier to eroticize... Engaging in breeding kinks can help us feel like we have some kind of control over something we may feel very powerless to. It could be about taking power back."
In a society that has robbed women of their reproductive rights, feeling helpless and wanting to get control over the situation makes perfect sense. In the weeks and months that have followed the overturning of Roe, stress levels have increased across the board. "We know [the overturning of Roe] all is going to lead to an uptick in depression, shame, self-harm and anxiety, all of the predictable outcomes of not having bodily autonomy," gender studies professor Juliet Williams tells USA Today. "Forced pregnancy has terrible mental health outcomes, both for the parents and the child. It's a mental health risk and stressor."
If you've recently been wanting to skip condom usage, now you know why that might be the case. However, it's important to realize, fantasy or not, that unprotected sex can lead not just to pregnancy but also STIs. So, before you ditch the latex, make sure both you and your partner know your STI status.