Pre-attractors
Most people who have a balloon fetish seem to have felt either some kind of attraction
or a kind of hatred of balloons early in life, prior to the beginning of the fetish.
Whether the feeling for balloons was a pleasant one or not, it was an identifiable
feeling that balloons were somehow special. An early fear of balloons bursting can
lead to a phobia, and the phobia can develop into a fetish - although this could be
considered to have a similar function to early fascination with balloons, these aspects
of pre-attraction are dealt with in the section on the phobia - this page will just
concern early fascination.
When we are children we are attracted so some things and not to others - some things
hold our attention significantly more than others. What makes us do this is more a
matter of theory than of secure knowledge so is not discussed at length here - however,
we are learning about the world through our senses, and balloons have much to offer
all our senses in some way or another. The sight of a balloon may be the most
significant initially - they are usually pleasant, bright colors - and to a child
they appear to be much larger than they appear to an adult, the feel of a soft balloon
can be very pleasant, and several writers have noted the similarity between soft
balloons and breasts. The sound of a balloon being batted into the air is unique
and some children will find the smell pleasant too. Young children have a natural
tendency to put things in their mouths and try to suckle so taste may also be a
factor, and, once more, the similarity between the knotted neck of a balloon and
a natural teat would be hard to deny.
There could also be other points of fascination - the first time a child sees a
helium balloon - everything else which is attached to a piece of string hangs
downwards - helium balloons do the opposite, and the first time a child picks up
a balloon could be a point of amazement - that something so large could be so
light. Another amazing thing to see for the first time would be a balloon being
blown up - the fact that something so small could become so large will not be
understood at such an early age, and it is something that no other object can
do.
Some, or all of these areas may attract us to balloons, and in some people, that
attraction becomes entrenched to the extent that masturbatory play using a balloon
is a natural progression when that person reaches the age when that can occur
anyway. If orgasm is reached for the first time when a balloon is being used in
this way, a subconscious link can easily be made between the sexual act and the use
of the balloon, and this is likely to be the way it will continue - when we find
something enjoyable we normally continue to use the same methods to produce that
pleasure because, at the time, that is the only method we know.
The best description I have seen of this process is by Desmond Morris, so I make
no apology for quoting him once more - he calls this process 'malimprinting' -
suggesting that it is still imprinting but that it has gone wrong in some way. To
take an example from the animal kingdom - at some time we've all seen tv programs
where an animal, often an orphan raised by a human being, thinks that the person
who hand-fed it when it was very young and helpless is its mother, and follows this
person around endlessly. It is well known that ducklings who are raised in the absence
of their natural mother invariably behave this way and they look very amusing when
they closely follow the heals of someone they see as their mother.
Imprinting is part of a survival mechanism - a duckling that doesn't follow its
mother will not get fed - a duckling that is malimprinted with the idea that a human
is its mother in the circumstances described above will still get fed, so although some
types of imprinting seem essential for survival - imprinting can be flexible and
still provide the success that is required.
By the same token, someone who is not imprinted with someone of the opposite
sex will still have a sex drive and it will find fulfilment in some form or
other. Young people who have been imprinted with balloons as an object used for
sexual gratification are likely to make assumptions as they mature about any
similarities they imagine to exist between their fetishistic activity and whatever
they imagine to be 'the real thing'. When such people reach the stage of sexual
maturity where the opposite sex does - or should, become a 'turn on', a number
of different things may happen, but normally the sexual attraction that balloons
hold is carried into adulthood along with the new attraction for the opposite sex
and they normally co-exist side by side.
This is a form of dual sexuality and may or not be comfortable for the person
concerned - it can mean anything from an additional form of play that can be
introduced into a 'normal' relationship, to an essential part of any sexual play.
The more necessary it is for an individual to make balloon play part of any sexual
activity, the more difficult it will be for them to find a suitable life partner
because not everyone is willing to engage in unusual games. This can make a person
inward looking and in the extreme such people may stop looking for partnerships
altogether.
Over time variations in the intensity of feelings for either fetishistic activity
or 'normal' sex may occur, often depending on life circumstances and a partners'
personal preferences.
- 'How did I get this way' pages-
- The fear factor
- How did it happen
- Other pages -
- Fetish FAQs index
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