The purging of the body was a medical and philosophical obsession in Europe from the Middle Ages to nearly modern times, as conjecture about the accretion of bile and other supposedly lethal toxins was widely accepted as fact. The theory that the body comprises “humors,” which are subject to lethal imbalances, was described by the Greek physician Galen (circa A.D. 130–200), whose writings were the basis of medieval European medicine. Physicians advised purging, whether through induced vomiting or enemas (and often supplemented by bloodletting), to restore the body to its natural balance. In Chaucer’s “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” a poetic and medically astute chicken recommends that her friend, a nightmare-afflicted rooster, ingest caustic laxatives to purge the black toxin buildup which indubitably caused his problems.
The enema—once also called clyster from the Greek klyster (“to wash out”)—was eventually adopted as a universal panacea.
The “clyster of pipes” is mentioned by Shakespeare (Othello, Act II), and in Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift has his hero punished by being given an enema. During the reigns of Louis XII through Louis XVI, the French court made extensive use of enemas, especially for ladies of fashion and the male court dandies.
—LARRY TOWNSEND2
In France the enema enjoyed a long vogue and became something of an art form. Clystering was an institution at the court of Louis XIV and consequently was imitated throughout society. Pharmacists known as limonadiers des postérieurs3 (a vernacular modern translation would be “soda jerk of the backside”) visited patrons’ homes equipped with an astonishing variety of nozzles and mixtures each morning. Specific clysters were used for specific purposes.
The clyster was like a daily vitamin pill, facial, and high-fiber breakfast. It cleansed and rejuvenated, and during the reign of the Sun King [Louis XIV], a day without an enema was a day without care to health and hygiene. Nobility and royalty typically took three or four clysters a day. Commoners administered their own. Even in French jails, prisoners from the better families were not deprived of their right to a daily clyster. Through advertisements and word of mouth, clysters acquired the reputation of increasing sexual potency and curing impotency, which heightened their appeal.
—CHARLES PANATI4
Although no documentation exists as to what specific erotic pleasure enthusiasts derived from the administration of the clysters, the relish with which enthusiasts—including notables such as Casanova and Cardinal Richelieu, according to Panati—welcomed their multiple daily invasions at least suggests that the sensation was probably not unpleasant.
By the mid-19th Century, the popularity of enemas had greatly declined as the ill effects of their excessive use—particularly impairment of the natural bowel function—became known. Also, since abrasives or caustics were frequently added to the clyster solution, a spectrum of disorders—including weakening and rupturing of the large intestine—resulted. Any irritants in an enema solution are dangerous.
The belief that enemas serve a vital health purpose by purging the body of toxins has not disappeared. Actress Mae West, for one, publicly advocated the regular use of enemas as a foundation of superior health.
The practice of giving enemas to children to combat illness is an old custom that has persisted into this century. Moreover, some parents also administered enemas to children as a form of punishment or control. The superfluity of these measures was noted by Wilhelm Stekel over 40 years ago.
Some mothers imagine themselves to be particularly clever when they administer an enema to the baby whenever he cries. If the child, thanks to the stimulation, quiets down, the proud mother is sure she has helped the baby to get rid of the annoying “gas.” Every bit of stool released by the enema is interpreted as proof that a dangerous accumulation of excrements in the body exists. All superfluous treatments of this kind, as well as too frequent insertions of the thermometer, contribute to the development of anal erotism and may cause constipation and dependence on enemas for an entire lifetime. No child has ever died of constipation. 5
That an enema can be extremely humbling is no secret; nor is the fact that energetic voiding of the bowels may leave one “calm.” The salutary effects on a child’s obstinacy—however cruel the method may seem to us now—undoubtedly persuaded many parents of the enema’s practicality. Many klismaphiliacs assert that their attachment to enemas began in childhood. For some, this was one of the few times when close physical contact between parent and child was permitted.
The continuing use of enemas to purge toxins is the triumph of belief over science. A healthy body is adequately efficient in ridding itself of wastes without the assistance of invasive, albeit well-meaning, technology. While no data are available on the prevalence of home enema administration, Fleet enema kits for adults and children are readily obtainable in every drugstore, suggesting that a fairly sizeable population uses enemas for reasons other than strictly medical. Stekel believed that the use of enemas by adults is a thinly veiled expression of anal eroticism.
Grown people, too, are ridiculously fussy about enemas, purging herbs, and other forms of irrigations, all designed to provide a masturbatory stimulation of the anal zone under the pretext of a hygienic measure. 6
Today professional enema administration is on the decline in hospital settings and on the rise at “colonic irrigation” spas, which tout their services much as the old French limonadiers did, claiming somewhat mystical benefits for regular internal cleansing and promising a relaxation bordering on spiritual serenity. This trend was spoofed in the 1991 film LA. Story.
Many people, however, simply enjoy enemas for their erotic pleasure. These individuals may perceive some health benefit but consciously pursue enhancement of their sexual well-being. Those who accept the erotic aspects of enemas seem to be most at ease with their activity. As a group, klismaphiliacs often remain extremely secretive and guilty. Many fear that their desires may become known and damage their professional or community standing. Fear of disapprobation, even among individuals who do not seek change, may help explain the popularity of colonic irrigation spas: Many find that a medical rationale permits them an otherwise taboo pleasure.
WHAT DO THEY LIKE AND WHY?
A preponderance of evidence suggests that the contemporary klismaphiliac is typically someone who received enemas in childhood.
Quite frequently, there seems to be some kind of a sensitizing experience in childhood. Usually it’s having some sort of an enema from a mother, a female relative, or a nurse.
—KEVIN C.
This generalization is probably most pertinent to the person who is uniquely aroused by the enema itself and not by the roleplaying which may coincide with it. Often this is a person who self-administers an enema, enjoying the sensation.
There’s a very distinct physical sensation when you’re getting an enema—for a man, the prostate, as I understand it, can be very alluring. Women are not into enemas or ass play as much as men, I think because women don’t have a prostate, so it’s not as enticing.
—NANCY AVA MILLER
Speculation that klismaphilia may have an anatomical basis (for example, that individuals who are aroused by enemas have more nerve endings near the anus than do others) dates back at least to Krafft-Ebing, but no scientific study has tested this assertion. Anecdotal information, however, suggests that klismaphilia is, at least for some men, an “acceptable” (i.e., heterosexual) means of receiving stimulation to the anus.
In addition to the direct anal eroticism, the klismaphiliac may also keenly appreciate the rituals of preparation and administration; he may enjoy touching (as well as smelling or hearing the sound of) the rubber equipment, and he may also enjoy the odor of the solution.
The volume of liquid in the enema is often a key pleasure. (But it can represent a danger—and possibly be fatal—if a person attempts to introduce too great a volume of water.) Many klismaphiliacs feel comforted and aroused by the fullness in their bowels.
Psychodrama is also important
to many klismaphiliacs. While klismaphiliacs may not enjoy any other type of D&S activity—and may firmly reject being labeled dominant or submissive—some power exchange is inherent in a majority of enema fantasies.
I do [enemas] for two reasons. Number one, I enjoy the sensation. I don’t think that enemas are really that much different than any other form of male stimulation. It’s, for me, a turn-on. [Second], I have this little streak in me which enjoys getting into D&S-type activities, and this can fit in real well with that, as well.
—KEVIN C.
For the D&Ser an enema scenario may be a paradigmatic power experience. D&Sers who incorporate enema play into their power exchanges typically discover the erotic possibilities of enemas later in life and presumably without decisive childhood experience.
Enema play can take dozens of forms. According to several professional dominants, three very popular partner-oriented fantasy scenarios exist among D&S klismaphiliacs. In the first, a stern dominant erotically coerces the submissive to accept an enema in a D&S context, usually as punishment or discipline. The submissive may be bound or otherwise restrained, and his or her predicament may be further enhanced by verbal teasing or humiliation, fetish gear, or by a spectrum of ancillary D&S activities.
With my husband, I give him the enema, and sometimes I dress him like a woman or tie him up.
—NANCY AVA MILLER
In the second, an “older relative” insists on administering an enema to the defenseless “child” “for his own good.” This scenario obviously entails ageplay; it may also combine such D&S elements as erotic coercion, erotic humiliation, or an over-the-knee spanking preparatory to the enema. The parent figure may be fully benevolent (such as a “loving mommy” who is showing tender concern for her “little boy’s” health), or the parent may be slightly sinister (such as an “exasperated father” who punishes a “willful and disobedient daughter”).
Finally, many klismaphiles fantasize about a “nurse” who is compelled, for medical reasons, to administer an enema to a hospitalized or helpless patient. Again, fantasies vary. The nurse may be a figure of gentle concern, a merciful angel ministering to the patient’s special needs, or she may be a capricious and austere symbol of institutional cruelty. In the latter case other D&S activities may coincide, including rigid bondage.
I really like [being a top in an enema scene]. I have my nurse uniform that I like to play in, and I play the naughty nanny kind of thing. The sense of control and knowing exactly what it feels like and exactly what I’m doing to the other person—and that person being vulnerable to me in that way—[are] more erotic for me than bottoming in that particular direction. It’s not an area that I play infrequently, but those aspects of my sexuality are a big part of who I am.
—VICTORIA B.
Punishment scenarios, while hardly universal, are prevalent, even among klismaphiliacs who otherwise have no interest in D&S and who do not perceive themselves as being submissive.
A typical [enema] scenario might involve some roleplaying where you have one person [exercising] power over another. It could be a teacher-student, a parent-child, a master-submissive-type relationship, and the person who is submissive has done something which deserves punishment, so the enema itself originates out of that.
—KEVIN C.
For the D&Ser, an erotic enema holds the possibility of acting out vulnerability in a primal form.
I started with enemas after I learned that there was quite a lot of pleasure to be had from my ass. And there’s something very submissive about my partner [making] me take a certain amount of liquid. I feel it in my stomach. I’ll go, “Please, no more!” I’ll beg and beg. And he goes, “I think you can take just a little bit more.”
—LINDSAY
The erotic enema scenario captures the very nature of the D&S power exchange in a most explicit form. The submissive is nude or partially nude (while the dominant remains dressed); the submissive is often bent over so that his or her anus is prominently exposed both to view and to manipulation; the submissive’s anus is handled (often lubricated) and then penetrated; the dominant controls the amount of fluid introduced into the rectum; if a Bardex or double Bardex is used, the submissive cannot remove the tube; the release of the fluid is also controlled by the dominant, who may additionally compel the submissive to accept a large quantity or to retain the fluid (in some cases, dominants may remove the nozzle only to replace it with an anal plug, so that the submissive cannot void until it is removed); and, finally, once any obstructions are withdrawn, the submissive has no choice but to relieve the cramping, either in private or in the presence of the dominant.
The emotional charge of each stage of this experience can be profound. Depending on the individual’s attitudes toward privacy, the inability to control one’s bowels can itself be a source of psychosexual excitement. Humiliation seems to be a key erotic pleasure for many klismaphiliacs and certainly contributes to the submissive’s sense of helplessness.
Finally, just as limonadiers of historic France once prepared esoteric mixtures (whose contents were jealously guarded secrets), today’s klismaphiliac, too, is known occasionally to use exotic additives. Many early clyster solutions contained tobacco, which caused nearly instantaneous intoxication and, if used regularly, addiction. (Limonadiers also used a clyster pipe to blow tobacco smoke into patrons’ bowels. For a time, this was a standard treatment to revive fainted women or victims of drowning.)7 Although tobacco has gone out of fashion, contemporary practitioners are known to add such depressives as wine or stimulants as coffee to their enema solutions. Any stimulants, depressives, or caustic substances added to enema solutions pose potential health risks, some life-threatening. Alcohol, for example, is absorbed into the bloodstream and remains in the blood after the solution is excreted. Further, a much higher degree of absorption may occur than in oral ingestion, posing the threat of a toxic reaction. The rectal mucosa are extremely sensitive and easily irritated. It is also a given that enema equipment must be sterile.
WHAT ABOUT CONTACT WITH FECES?
Generally speaking, neither klismaphiliacs nor their partners come into direct contact with feces. Researchers have noted that enema enthusiasts are often extremely concerned with personal cleanliness. Indeed, if the enema is understood as a cleansing ritual, there’s no contradiction between a klismaphiliac’s fastidiousness and his love of enemas. The enema nozzle effectively blocks elimination until it is removed, and, once the nozzle is removed, the recipient generally hastens to relieve him- or herself, usually in private.
Klismaphilia, however, occasionally seems to be confused with the different practices of coprophilia (“brown showers”) and coprolagnia. Although all groups are interested in the anus and feces, the klismaphiliac eroticizes the act of receiving an enema and banishing waste; the coprophile eroticizes stool and desires contact with it; and the coprolagniac wishes to witness defecation.
Coprophilia (also known as scatology or scat) is rarely perceived by water-sports enthusiasts as being part of their Scene and is often considered too extreme a fantasy to be safely or sanely acted out.
Brown showers are very rare—or maybe very rarely admitted. A lot of [men] will say it’s fantasy only; they wouldn’t ever want to experience it. That’s sort of where I’m at. I have brown-shower fantasies, but I don’t think I could ever fulfill [them]. It’s like a rape fantasy: Most women fantasize about rape, but nobody in their right mind truly wants to be raped.
—NANCY AVA MILLER
Aside from the societal taboos, the handling of feces poses definite, serious health risks, which skyrocket if ingestion occurs. The colon is a haven for bacteria which are not necessarily harmful as long as they remain inside the colon. But contact, and particularly ingestion, of another’s or one’s own excreta presents a spectrum of possible infections, some of them life-threatening, as some fecal bacteria may be pathogenic or hemolytic.
Scatology holds a notoriously bizarre place in history: Caligula was rep
uted to have been a coprophile, and Adolph Hitler a coprolagniac. In D&S pornography coprophilia appears in the guise of descriptions of “toilet slaves,” severely degraded masochists who serve their dominants as human toilets. Between pornographic fantasy and reality lies a chasm difficult to breach. Judging by available videos and erotica (the Germans seem to specialize in scat), toilet slavery is certainly a known fantasy. But its practice has not been well documented. We were unable to locate any D&Sers who described coprophilic encounters, possibly because of awareness of the extreme health risks involved.
As to scat, this is the brown-hankie specialty, and one which mercifully few have taken up. Surely the most dangerous of activities from a health standpoint, I’ll explain it but beseech you not to try it.
—LARRY TOWNSEND8
Deriving erotic pleasure from viewing elimination seems to be considerably more popular than is direct contact with feces. According to Havelock Ellis,
In Parisian brothels (according to Taxil and others) provision is made for those who are sexually excited by the spectacle of the act of defecation (without reference to contact or odor) by means of a “tabouret de verre” [glass bench] from under the glass floor of which the spectacle of the defecating women may be closely observed.9
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