It’s not always easy to have a sexual fetish. Known in the psychiatric community as paraphilias, fetishes are loosely defined as the experience of being sexually aroused by unusual or highly specific stimuli. There's a wide range of fetishes out there, from your standard foot fetish (podophilia) to the more obscure acrotomophilia (attraction to people with amputations), or forniphilia (an attraction to people being used as furniture). They're also surprisingly common: according to one 2016 study, nearly 1 in 6 people has a fetish.

Because fetishes are highly stigmatized, however, many people struggle with coming to terms with them — and that applies doubly if their fetish doesn’t actually exist in the real world. Macrophilia — more commonly known as the "giantess fetish" — falls into this category.

In most cases, macrophilia takes the form of heterosexual men being turned on by the idea of very large women (or, less frequently, men) doing massive things, like destroying cities, crushing people and cars underfoot, and generally wreaking havoc. In the pre-Internet era, macrophiles may have had to rely on repeat viewings of 1958’s Attack of the 50 Foot Woman to get their kicks, but there's now a plethora of online forums like GiantessCity.com, which has more than 92,000 members, as well as more than 2,000 “giantess” videos on xHamster, according to the site’s spokesperson Alex Hawkins. Such videos are often shot from below and feature a woman stomping around, sometimes with tiny toy soldiers or model cities at her feet, as she crushes them or squishes them under her butt or between her breasts. Sometimes, she even eats them.

We don’t really know how common macrophilia is, in part because it’s rarely been studied: to date, there has never been a scholarly paper published on macrophilia. But in general, the roots of fetishes like macrophilia are not entirely clear, though it is believed that they take root during childhood and adolescence. “It could be a case of sexual imprinting (a young boy has a sexually arousing/memorable encounter with a woman who towers over him and that informs his erotic template); or a way of mastering the pain of a trauma and converting into pleasure (a boy is nearly smothered and feels helpless but later in life has this fantasy),” says Ian Kerner, PhD, LMFT, a licensed psychotherapist and author of the book She Comes First.

Dr. Justin Lehmiller, the director of the social psychology graduate program at Ball State University and author of The Psychology of Human Sexuality, speculates that the fetish is “probably tied to a broader interest in dominance and submission, given that most porn and erotica in this area depicts a giant person wielding power over someone much smaller.”

What’s important to note, however, is that while we might not understand the roots of the urges, fetishes like macrophilia are normal, healthy expressions of sexuality. “People often already have a lot of shame around their fetish,” says Los Angeles-based sex therapist Moushumi Ghose. “It's important for folks to try to understand their fetish, and most importantly to try to express it in a healthy, consentual way either alone or with other consenting adults.”

We wondered what it was like to experience the giantess fetish, so we spoke to one of GiantessCity’s most active members, David* (name has been changed to protect his privacy). David is a straight, white, single chef from the American South who has been attracted to giant women (particularly giant women's feet) for as long as he can remember. Here's what he had to say.

MH SEX: The Man's Guide To Kinky Sex:

Men’s Health: When did your interest in giant women start?

David: When I was very young, I played with Matchbox cars a lot, like any other young boy. I noticed that I really liked it when someone would walk by and step on a tiny car or part of what I was building. I always had this unique want to be tiny and inside the car or building, to see what it would be like.

MH: Do you remember when you realized that this wasn’t the norm?

D: I was always a goofy, energetic kid growing up. When I was discovering my foot fetish, I stumbled across some photos of girls stepping on tiny human figurines, and cool pictures of tiny men stuck between toes from the under-the-foot kind of viewpoint. I knew that me liking feet would make people judge me, so I assumed that of course this fantasy would, too.

MH: Did it result in people judging you? Has it been a problem in your life?

D: I absolutely have been picked on and belittled for it, and not in a fun or respectful, playful way. I’ve had a lot of self-confidence issues about it in the past. But no one in my family has alienated me for it, because they love me and the goofy, hard-working person I am. It doesn’t matter what I like, especially if it’s harmless. It’s a really fun escape for me to be in fantasy land.

MH: What is the experience of seeing photos or videos of giantesses like for you? Is it sexual, or more mental?

D: It’s a mix of a sexual rush and a cool mental high from drifting off into fantasyland! The pictures and camera angles, as well as videos, bring the fantasy to life. It’s fun to see the perspective of the tiny man, and while I’ve jerked off a few times to this content, I mostly find it to be really cool. Kind of like an art.

MH: What is it, specifically, about the idea of being a tiny man beneath a huge woman’s foot that is so enticing to you? Can you put it into words?

D: It’s absolutely the powerlessness of it. That’s what this whole fetish revolves around, in my opinion. Being at the whim of a beautiful goddess, whether she’s gigantic and crushing tiny cities under her big toe, or the sole of her flip-flops or sneakers, to a man or multiple people being shrunk down, and crushed or used as foot slaves, or sex slaves. Everything revolves around the giantess’s power and beauty!

I think most men are drawn to the submissive factor. We’re born and raised to be dominant. It absolutely has to do with our patriarchal society. It’s a huge switch to become submissive and the extremeness of this fetish brings that out to the fullest. It’s fun, and I think a lot of men find it fun to be powerless like that. To be used and abused by a woman.

MH: What type of giantess content do you like most? Does your fetish dovetail with other fetishes?

D: My fetish with giantesses revolves around my foot fetish. I’m into submissive and dominant role play [a form of sexual role play in which one partner dominates the other sexually] a bit, pertaining just to feet. And that absolutely has to do with me liking giantess foot porn. I find other aspects of the fetish to be intriguing, but mostly it’s about being stepped on or humiliated by a woman’s foot while I’m tiny.

MH: Do you prefer imagining gigantic women the size of skyscrapers? Or being shrunk down so that regular-sized women are gigantic compared to you?

D: My preference is to be shrunken super tiny, and to be used and almost dehumanized to the point of being a girl’s “human toe jam.” Most find that gross, but some—like me—find it quite amusing, and fitting for the scenario of humiliating a tiny foot man.

MH: What size of giantess are you most interested in? How much bigger than you would your ideal giantess be?

D: In my personal fantasy, I’d be down to a millimeter tall and be a foot slave. Sometimes I’d be tinier. Microscopic fantasies are fun. But I’d say between a millimeter and an inch is the best size.

MH: The giantess fetish, especially, really requires you to escape to fantasy land to indulge it. Is it ever disappointing that you can’t actually make it happen?

D: It’s definitely not disappointing. I love the aspect that it can’t really happen. The world would be a terrifying place if people were actually able to shrink other people. You’ve seen the Godzilla movies—it doesn’t feel good!

I think it gives it a more playful aspect to fantasize about, and escape reality a bit. You can be really creative and innovative with it. It probably helps exercise your mind!

MH: Do you know about other manifestations of the fetish?

D: There are guys who enjoy being put between boobs and squished, sat on, eaten, taped to a toothbrush, covered in spit, being used as a tiny shrunken sex toy, or being cuckolded at that size. There are so many fetishes out there, and people are so wonderfully unique that we’re able to find enjoyment in some of the oddest things!

Not everyone has fetishes, not everyone discovers the ones they do have. But it’s important that we respect everyone for liking what they like, so long as it does no physical or unwanted harm to any other person, or living being.

MH: Has this fetish been beneficial to you in any way?

D: Having the fetish helped me to become more comfortable with myself, and more accepting of others who are just as unique in their own ways. It made me realize that the best part about diversity is how different, and equally wonderful, people are.

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