How much do we really like the term “sneeze fetish”? It doesn’t seem linguistically correct.

[starstorm00]

I’m not sure if this has at all been brought up before, but over the past year or two I’ve been questioning about whether or not this thing that I have come to love and accept wholeheartedly is actually a “fetish”. It doesn’t seem like it’s the right word to accurately describe it.

According to the most recent Merriam-Webster entry a fetish is:

a. an object (such as a small stone carving of an animal) believed to have magical power to protect or aid its owner, or, broadly, a material object regarded with superstitious or extravagant trust or reverence

b. an object of irrational reverence or obsessive devotion

c. an object or bodily part whose real or fantasied presence is psychologically necessary for sexual gratification and that is an object of fixation to the extent that it may interfere with complete sexual expression

It seems to me that all three definitions provided is quite literally going out of its way to define something that is material in nature.

A sneeze is not a material object, nor is it a bodily part. A sneeze is a bodily function designed to protect your body for bacteria. Therefore I’m not sure how much I like being identified in conjunction with a “fetish”. I think a much more preferable term would be “a sexual fixation on sneezing”.

Because of this, it just feels to me that calling this a fetish is derogatory because it does not accurately describe it. It’s like any other slapped on stereotype. What do you all think?

[Chanel_no5]

41 minutes ago, starstorm00 said:

Because of this, it just feels to me that calling this a fetish is derogatory because it does not accurately describe it. It’s like any other slapped on stereotype. What do you all think?

Nah, maybe it's not linguistically correct, but I've called it that for as long as I've known it's an actual concept at all. It works fine for me. Personally, I don't see how it could be seen as derogatory. But if you want to call it something else, a kink, a preference, a "thing", or whatever, you can do that. Hell, you can call it "Dave" if you want.  

[webmeistro]

Also, the strict medical definition of a 'fetish' is that the subject is completely incapable of arousal without the fetish object being present. I don't want to go into too much detail outside the Adult Board, but I get the feeling that this is not true for the majority of the people here.

[TheCakeIsAlive]

Sternutophilia is I believe a better description, but I'm used to the term "sneeze fetish" now so I don't mind too much what we call it.  

 

[credence]

Perhaps not linguistically, but people use kink and fetish so interchangeably now I suppose it doesn't matter

[MikiSan]

1 minute ago, credence said:

Perhaps not linguistically, but people use kink and fetish so interchangeably now I suppose it doesn't matter

Yeah I call it a kink too lol

[BlessMeAchoo]

I kinda agree with you but since i'm a non-english speaker, I do say fetish from translation, I don't really know how to call it otherwise

[Likesn]

13 hours ago, starstorm00 said:

c. an object or bodily part whose real or fantasied presence is psychologically necessary for sexual gratification and that is an object of fixation to the extent that it may interfere with complete sexual expression

I mean, just swap the word "part" with "function" and there goes your problem 😂 On a more serious note, I don't think the people who wrote the dictionary (or any other dictionary) necessarily researched all the subtleties of different fetishes. The world of fetishes is so vast it's practically impossible to include every aspect of it in such a (relatively) short definition. As long as the vast majority of the community feels comfortable with the term "fetish" (or use it interchangeably with "kink", as has been pointed out), I think it's perfectly fine to call it that way.

[Morningsmith]

16 hours ago, MikiSan said:

Yeah I call it a kink too lol

I'm a fan of kink too. I don't have any issue with what I have being called a fetish, but the word "kink" somehow feels sexy, bad in a good way, that captures how the sneeze thing feels for me.

[SneezyHolmes]

I'm not bothered by calling it a fetish, it's what I'm used to at this point but I also call it a kink too, interchangeably.

[bingochamp7]

5 hours ago, Morningsmith said:

I'm a fan of kink too. I don't have any issue with what I have being called a fetish, but the word "kink" somehow feels sexy, bad in a good way, that captures how the sneeze thing feels for me.

Yes this sums up how I feel

[lk]

Clinically, this sexual interest is not classified as a fetish, for the reason cited in the original post: the object of our interest is not an object or body part. It’s classified as a kind of paraphilia. This summary of the most recent DSM language is decent:

https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/paraphilia

In ordinary, non-clinical speech, people don’t use or even know the word ‘paraphilia,’ but they typically understand what a fetish is. So I think it makes perfect sense that we don’t call this the Sneeze Paraphilia Forum.

Both ‘paraphilia’ and ‘fetish’ are purely descriptive terms. There is nothing derogatory about them. Hence the distinction between paraphilia and paraphilic disorder. I don’t see that calling our paraphilia a fetish in the interest of being understood is in any way suggesting that a paraphilia or a fetish is itself a disorder.

‘Kink’ has more recently come into wide and generally positive usage, which is a very welcome development. I don’t think kinks have to be fixations or psychological necessities, though, and so for at least some of us, ‘fetish’ in the non-clinical sense might be more descriptively accurate.
 

 

[Arvani]

4 hours ago, lk said:

Clinically, this sexual interest is not classified as a fetish, for the reason cited in the original post: the object of our interest is not an object or body part. It’s classified as a kind of paraphilia. This summary of the most recent DSM language is decent:

https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/paraphilia

In ordinary, non-clinical speech, people don’t use or even know the word ‘paraphilia,’ but they typically understand what a fetish is. So I think it makes perfect sense that we don’t call this the Sneeze Paraphilia Forum.

 

 

First I just want to express my joy that you went into the clinical descriptions because it made my nerd heart so happy. I also think that this does a great job of clarifying from a psychological perspective what the nuance is. Thinking people who wrote the dictionary definition of fetish probably aren’t that into the clinical side of things. 
 

Second, my opinion is that whatever works for you is what works! I probably prefer the term kink if I had to choose, but also people are familiar with the term fetish and not the way that Webster’s defines it. I think of it much more along the lines of what was outlined in that article - something outside of traditional sexuality that is arousing to an individual. But it doesn’t encompass the entirety of someone’s definition of their own sexuality, rather it’s just a part of it. I would say that’s probably more along the colloquial definition of fetish. 
 

Bottom line is - call it whatever makes you feel good! As Chanel above said, call it Dave if you want to. 😂