The fetish in the past

[Travel]

For those of you who were around before the 2000s and knew about your fetish before, what was it like to have it? How did you find content and how did you connect with other people with the fetish? If you know someone who was in this situation back then and you can share their experiences, feel free! 

[Joal 555]

I was born in 1964, so much of my life has been pre internet.

6 hours ago, Travel said:

how did you connect with other people with the fetish?

I didn't. I had no idea that other people felt like I did and I had no way of finding out. With hindsight, I can see that it was unlikely that I was the only person in the world like this, but it kind of felt like it at the time.

6 hours ago, Travel said:

How did you find content

There was no way of finding the kind of content we have today. Occasionally, a character would sneeze on a TV show or in a film and then I would have to wait a year or more for the show/film to be repeated to get the chance to see it again. This was before the ability to record things, so when I eventually got my first video recorder, that was an exciting moment.

In the main, just someone rubbing their nose on TV was about as much as you could hope for in those days. I remember a music video being played on a UK show called Top Of The Pops where one of the singers cupped her hands round her nose and mouth (which appeals to me because some people sneeze like that) and then hoping the video would be played again in subsequent weeks so i could see it for a second time. It was another age and of course it seems so long ago (because it was).

I will therefore forever be grateful for what we have now.

[NoV]

8 hours ago, Travel said:

what was it like to have it?

Like having something terribly special and unique! Before I turned 18 I was sure i was the only person in the world who had this fetish - although I didn't even think of it as a fetish, more like a thing that was tied inseparably to my sexuality, and therefore not to be talked about with anyone! 

8 hours ago, Travel said:

How did you find content

What content!?  I used to create my own content through drawings and stories that I hid away in my room. Sometimes sneezes would turn up at random on TV or in films - usually embarrassingly when you were watching with your parents. Plus I developed a pretty good fantasy imagination, and an encyclopedic selection of memories of great sneezes I had witnessed irl.

8 hours ago, Travel said:

how did you connect with other people with the fetish?

The first time I realized I was not the only one with the fetish was aged 18 when I first started going on the internet (I gather this will seem crazy to those young 'uns). I discovered what was then described as a Sneezing Web Ring while sat in a crappy little computer room in my first year of university. The revelation hit me like a sledgehammer. However, when I look back I do feel that the now comparative wealth of content has made me somewhat lazy - exposure to too much of anything can take the shine off things I guess. Sometimes I miss those teenage days; the lone sneeze fetishist against the world, creating my own fantasies and content because of course, I was and would be the only one   

Thanks for starting this topic @Travel - I enjoyed the memories

[March Hare]

What an excellent question!

Before the internet happened, I was absolutely certain I was the ONLY one on the PLANET who got... FeEeEeEeEels... from the sound and sight of someone sneezing. I did my own drawings (OHGOD THE ULTRACRINGE when my mother discovered them one day and... laughed a little...? I guess she thought something along the lines of 'children go thru these phases, that's just my silly little Marchlet' or whatever, but I. was. MORTIFIED.) and later I did my own writings and we were on good terms with our neighbours who were doctors and they had all these children's books about how to deal with sicknesses, including allergies, OH MY GOD, TREASURE TROVE. But yeah, one does not simply fap to books in someone else's house and I could never ask them to borrow those books, I mean obviously, right?

So yeah, I tried to write my own stuff, hunted the library for educational books about allergies and colds, sat on continuous high alert in every classroom during pollen and cold seasons, and tried to keep everything THE GREATEST SECRET EVER.

I was twenty when I first Googled, and then... well, then my life started for real.

[Stimuli]

1 hour ago, March Hare said:

OHGOD THE ULTRACRINGE when my mother discovered them one day and... laughed a little...?

Good lord! This kind of happened to me too, and I swear my eyes did that horror-movie zoom-focus thing. Pure panic

[Hajo]

Well, I can only repeat, what others said.... But I guess, its important go repeat it, so that the young generation realizes, how "privileged" it is. 

Many many years I thought, I would be the only one person in the world with this "weird" obsession. I even already imagined sometimes, that I would "confess" it to somebody short before I would die. As a reason for scientists to investigate!. :-)))

Only when the internet came up I realized that there even is a community... 

 

 

 

 

[Travel]

Thanks for all the replies so far! Especially for the kind words. I'd like to add some more questions: I know this has been discussed in other threads, but how many people knew about your fetish and when/how did you tell them? 

[LimeyBlimey]

27 minutes ago, Travel said:

Thanks for all the replies so far! Especially for the kind words. I'd like to add some more questions: I know this has been discussed in other threads, but how many people knew about your fetish and when/how did you tell them? 

For me, NO ONE knew. It was my deepest, darkest secret that I wouldn't tell anyone. Took me ten years of marriage to finally tell my husband, and he is so supportive.

 

16 hours ago, Travel said:

For those of you who were around before the 2000s and knew about your fetish before, what was it like to have it? How did you find content and how did you connect with other people with the fetish? If you know someone who was in this situation back then and you can share their experiences, feel free!

I didn't even know other people had it until I was in my early 20's. I knew it was something while I was growing up, but I thought I was strange and that no one else had it. I took a college course on sexual psychology while I was a psych major and put 2 and 2 together, despite that my teacher never mentioned sneezing in the list of other content we discussed. There are so many fetishes out there, lol. So, I just googled it and this forum came up! Even then it took me several years before I joined it 😄

[Joal 555]

4 hours ago, Travel said:

how many people knew about your fetish and when/how did you tell them? 

Nobody knew and that's still the case, with the exception of one person who I told that I find sneezing cute about 12 years ago. However, I left it that without saying it was a lot more than that and was really a fetish.

[Leas]

On 5/3/2020 at 3:18 AM, Travel said:

How did you find content

I was born in 1994, I got my first personal laptop when I was 14. Before that, I used to look for stuff in our home PC... in our living room. I never used to clear the browser history... before then it was at the cinema or on VHS, though at that point when there was sneezing on a film, if I was watching it on VHS I used to fast forward it, because at the time I thought I was scared of sneezing. 

On 5/3/2020 at 3:18 AM, Travel said:

how did you connect with other people with the fetish?

I didn’t. I thought I was totally alone in the world with these feelings, when I realised what was actually going on. When I first realised, I didn’t dare talk about it with anyone.

14 hours ago, Travel said:

how many people knew about your fetish and when/how did you tell them? 

I remember the first person I told was one of my first boyfriends when I was about 14, he said he thought it was cute. I’ve told 6 people all together. I regret telling 4 of them. I have a suspicion my family may also know, they found something of mine with details, and we’ve never spoken about it, but I’m pretty confident they do. 

[Guest]

Likewise to the above I first realised that I had a liking for sneezing when I was in my early teens ... before the internet and I, as above, was certain that I was the ONLY one in the whole world who got excited from the sight and sound of seeing  someone (mainly girls but some boys ) sneeze   and this was also the time when tissues were not half so popular as now and many used handkerchiefs. It was after university, which was both fun and worrying in equal parts for someone who could react to someone sneezing and the development of the internet that I discovered Tarotgal and her sites and stories - and realise - Thank God - that I was not alone …..

I has confessed to no-one and still have not even though I suspect one or two people have wondered ..especially one old girl friend ??? BUT to realise that there were others and we could communicate was such a relief and so wonderful …. It sure was different back in the "old" days 

Hank 

 

[RinTinTin]

We definitely shared very similar experiences before the internet came about. Many of you above wrote about the feeling of uniqueness/loneliness and not identifying as a fetishist, rather just considering it a part of your sexuality. Those resonated with my own experience very strongly.

[Travel]

6 hours ago, RinTinTin said:

We definitely shared very similar experiences before the internet came about. Many of you above wrote about the feeling of uniqueness/loneliness and not identifying as a fetishist, rather just considering it a part of your sexuality. Those resonated with my own experience very strongly.

Not exactly related to the topic at hand, because I grew up being aware of my fetishes thanks to the internet but I also went through this long, LONG phase of being unable to identify myself as a fetishist (and even then, I identify it more as a kink) because it just didn't make sense to me. It wasn't until thanks to therapy and this site that I realized how nuanced it can be that it all clicked and that I've come to accept it. 

[Roza]

Very interesting topic, I think I would have lived and died in the dark if it wasn't for the internet, I sometimes think of all the people who have never had access to the internet and have lived with the fetish, it's quite a scary thought I must admit!

[Niceguy]

I remember back in 1997-'98-ish, coming across three websites: Tarot of Sneezing, Sneezing Fetish Online and Sneezing Girls. I was in my early-mid 20's and prior to this I had NO IDEA that this was a "fetish" in the sense that it was a fetish that OTHER PEOPLE might have. Even reading about fetishism in a college course on human sexuality never went even CLOSE to anything like THIS one. So I'd kept it a total secret my entire life, and didn't even fully understand it myself. The internet itself was still in it's infancy (well, the internet as we know it today, anyway) and I remember the first time I came across a group chat, not this forum, a much earlier one, I and just about everyone else was like, "OMG... I thought I was the only one!" So prior to THAT? Talking to someone about it? MEETING another fetishist? FORGET ABOUT IT. After all... I was the only one! 

[NoV]

18 hours ago, Niceguy said:

Tarot of Sneezing, Sneezing Fetish Online and Sneezing Girls.

Ah yes, I remember discovering these three sites as well - it was like a revelation  I love how Sneezing Girls is still up - last updated 1998 - and looking like the most retro late 90s website ever  I believe the creator of this site used to post on SFF quite recently - if you read this then I salute you!

[RinTinTin]

Tarot of sneezing was the very first fetishy page I found - so many memories!

[RB]

On 5/7/2020 at 8:00 PM, Niceguy said:

I remember back in 1997-'98-ish, coming across three websites: Tarot of Sneezing, Sneezing Fetish Online and Sneezing Girls. I was in my early-mid 20's and prior to this I had NO IDEA that this was a "fetish" in the sense that it was a fetish that OTHER PEOPLE might have. Even reading about fetishism in a college course on human sexuality never went even CLOSE to anything like THIS one. So I'd kept it a total secret my entire life, and didn't even fully understand it myself. The internet itself was still in it's infancy (well, the internet as we know it today, anyway) and I remember the first time I came across a group chat, not this forum, a much earlier one, I and just about everyone else was like, "OMG... I thought I was the only one!" So prior to THAT? Talking to someone about it? MEETING another fetishist? FORGET ABOUT IT. After all... I was the only one! 

I remember those days. Even before SFO there was the Usenet posts and the newsletter. I probably have one on a now unreadable 3.5” floppy somewhere. What really freaks me out is there are members reading this who weren’t even born yet. 
I do wonder often how my life would be different if the internet existed when I was in my teens. Like everyone else I thought I was the only one. To hide it, I would consider anyone I was dating’s sneezes as taboo, like a family member. I haven’t been able to turn that switch back on even after decades of marriage. A shrink once told me it’s not even possible and shouldn’t bother trying. So I am and always will be closeted. Except here. 

[Joal 555]

On 5/3/2020 at 10:24 AM, Joal 555 said:

Occasionally, a character would sneeze on a TV show or in a film and then I would have to wait a year or more for the show/film to be repeated to get the chance to see it again.

Raquel Welch sneeze in the film Fathom at 1:05:20

For some reason, the above video is at a slightly faster speed than normal, but it still gives you a flavour of what I first saw.

I clearly remember watching this film on TV with my family (I must have been a teenager at the time) and then desperately scouring the TV schedules for a long time, until it was eventually screened again and I could watch it on my own.

[Heathcliff]

32 minutes ago, Joal 555 said:

Raquel Welch sneeze in the film Fathom at 1:05:20

For some reason, the above video is at a slightly faster speed than normal, but it still gives you a flavour of what I first saw.

I clearly remember watching this film on TV with my family (I must have been a teenager at the time) and then desperately scouring the TV schedules for a long time, until it was eventually screened again and I could watch it on my own.

A random thought... I've been watching lot of "Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema" recently on BBC iPlayer - in each episode he picks a film genre (e.g. Horror, Rom-Com, Superheroes) and discusses loads of clips of movies from that genre.

Your clip has me wishing he would do an episode on sneezing in movies! I'm just imagining this knowledgable, film-scholar discussion over dozens of clips of movie stars sneezing. 😀

[Heathcliff]

On 5/3/2020 at 12:25 PM, March Hare said:

What an excellent question!

Before the internet happened, I was absolutely certain I was the ONLY one on the PLANET who got... FeEeEeEeEels... from the sound and sight of someone sneezing. I did my own drawings (OHGOD THE ULTRACRINGE when my mother discovered them one day and... laughed a little...? I guess she thought something along the lines of 'children go thru these phases, that's just my silly little Marchlet' or whatever, but I. was. MORTIFIED.) and later I did my own writings and we were on good terms with our neighbours who were doctors and they had all these children's books about how to deal with sicknesses, including allergies, OH MY GOD, TREASURE TROVE. But yeah, one does not simply fap to books in someone else's house and I could never ask them to borrow those books, I mean obviously, right?

So yeah, I tried to write my own stuff, hunted the library for educational books about allergies and colds, sat on continuous high alert in every classroom during pollen and cold seasons, and tried to keep everything THE GREATEST SECRET EVER.

I was twenty when I first Googled, and then... well, then my life started for real.

I can relate to this a lot. Without going into detail, I would draw cartoon characters sneezing when I was a kid. Though I didn't know what a fetish was then.

Pre-2000 I was aware of my fetish in a way, but didn't fully understand it or put a word to it. And the only "fetish content" I saw was observing people sneeze in real life.

We got the internet in my family's house when I was 18 (strange to think of how generations of people have now grown up with the internet) and also I could use it at university (this was 2001). That was when I discovered early sites online. it was "Diary of a Sneeze Fetishist" that finally let me put a name to my kink. I remember Serotica as well as a definite favourite. Also these odd, crude sites like Sneezing Girls and the Sneezing Web Ring.

I used to browse these late at night in the university computer room- I was so ignorant about the internet (ironic as I now work in web software), I probably left a trail a mile long. 😱 But the college either didn't notice, or more likely didn't care.

Edited May 9, 2020 by Heathcliff

[haymaker]

I'm probably one of the most sneeze obsessed people alive. 

Being fascinated by female sneezing was the subject of my earliest memories and it has remained a complete addiction throughout my life.

That's probably not very healthy, but it's way too late for a change now.

I got myself into the library at around 14, read everything I could about sexuality, and realised that what I had was a fetish, and it was for sneezing, which made me a sneeze fetishist. This was of course before most of you were born. 

Around 20 years went by without any evidence that another person like me existed, until one day I was flicking through a magazine and there before my eyes was a short article about a man who confessed to being turned on by his girlfriend's sneezing fits and he had sought advice from a psychiatrist. It was an incredible moment.

The next incredible moment arrived shortly after I got my first computer around July 1998 and found 'Diary of a sneeze Fetishist'  During the next 3 days I must have read it 15 times and probably shed a tear, not something I do very often. 

Most of the names from that time are inactive now. I'm probably the oldest active member around. Ah well

Edited May 10, 2020 by haymaker

[Glatissant]

I didn't know it was a fetish (I was pretty young), but I wrote Pokemon sneeze fics on paper and hid them in my room. 

[Bless you, Hi]

Don't know how early you mean, but contrary to most responses even as a kid I never believed I was the only one who had the 'kink'. I knew it was a trait I shouldn't share, but I guess the answer would be enjoying what was available to everyone. Shows and movies and books (Goosebumps anyone?). If there was a sneeze I liked I'd search TV guides knowing what was to come. The allergy episode of Gilligan's Island was the first episode I ever saw of it and I hoped the whole show would be like that lmao There was some internet stuff, but my internet was limited. Most of what I enjoyed was what was out in the world like in school. I never attempted to connect with anyone online tho, the internet was too scary for me to reach out to strangers lol

[Joal 555]

9 hours ago, haymaker said:

The next incredible moment arrived shortly after I got my first computer around July 1998 and found 'Diary of a sneeze Fetishist'

I can totally relate to this. It was the first sneeze fetish related thing I found on the internet too.

I remember what an amazing experience it was to read the thoughts of someone who so clearly expressed some of the feelings that I had.