Eproctophilia is a paraphilia involving sexual arousal from flatulence [1]. This arousal may be connected to one or more characteristics of flatulence such as smell or sound, but it is also frequently integrated into dynamics of domination and humiliation. For others, especially heterosexual men who eroticize female flatulence, the arousal often stems from the taboo of witnessing a socially prohibited behavior [2].
Many people with eproctophilia prefer to experience or explore the fetish in a romantic or otherwise consensual context, often with a caring partner or trusted friend. Others incorporate it into kink settings involving masochism or consensual non-consent, where flatulence becomes an element of a larger play scene.
Understanding why someone enjoys eproctophilia requires the broader question of why anyone develops a particular paraphilia. In many self-reported accounts, individuals trace their discovery of this interest to exposure through online pornographic material. In other cases, where the interest emerged at a very young age, individuals associate it with an early-life experience involving accidental exposure or curiosity [2].
As with all kinks, personalization plays a central role in how someone may want to experience them. In a general sense, eproctophilia will often accompany elements of facesitting, headscissors, breath play (smothering), and body worship. For some, there is an element of power exchange desired, which may be expressed through verbal domination and objectification (human furniture), as well as aspects of humiliation play.
Despite the presumed intimacy of kink activities like facesitting, many of those with eproctophilia actually prefer the Dominant or Top to be clothed. This is typically the case for those who derive arousal from the olfactory aspect of flatulence, since fabric tends to retain the aromas [2]. However, clothing can also influence the auditory aspect as well.
To date, there has only been a single officially published study of a person with eproctophilia [2]; as a result, we're left to analyze the fetish based mostly on personal accounts and anecdotes. Even within the kink community, eproctophilia is not widely known, despite the fact that similar kink elements like watersports and coprophilia are more familiar to a broader segment of BDSM players.
In addition to the sources listed here, the podcast where this page is hosted was created in part to bring more thoughtful, informed, and community-grounded discussion to the subject — an effort to expand the available knowledge in a way that is both serious and accessible.
The sources used on this page have been cited below; if you feel there's a nuance to eproctophilia that this site misses, if there's something you'd like to share, or if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me at eproctophilia@gmail.com
In Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft from 2000, the prolific author recalls an occurrence from his youth:
Eula-Beulah was prone to farts -- the kind that are both loud and smelly. Sometimes when she was so afflicted, she would throw me on the couch, drop her wool-skirted butt on my face, and let loose. 'Pow!' she'd cry in high glee. It was like being buried in marshgas fireworks. I remember the dark, the sense that I was suffocating, and I remember laughing. Because, while what was happening was sort of horrible, it was also sort of funny. In many ways, Eulah-Beulah prepared me for literary criticism. After having a two-hundred-pound babysitter fart on your face and yell, Pow!, the Village Voice holds few terrors. [4]
In one of James Joyce's infamously dirty letters, dated December 8th, 1909, he makes colorful reference to flatulence (censored for language):
At every f--k I gave you your shameless tongue came bursting out through your lips and if a gave you a bigger stronger f--k than usual, fat dirty farts came spluttering out of your backside. You had an arse full of farts that night, darling, and I f--ked them out of you, big fat fellows, long windy ones, quick little merry cracks and a lot of tiny little naughty farties ending in a long gush from your hole. It is wonderful to f--k a farting woman when every f--k drives one out of her. I think I would know Nora's fart anywhere. I think I could pick hers out in a roomful of farting women. It is a rather girlish noise not like the wet windy fart which I imagine fat wives have. It is sudden and dry and dirty like what a bold girl would let off in fun in a school dormitory at night. I hope Nora will let off no end of her farts in my face so that I may know their smell also.
You say when I go back you will suck me off and you want me to lick your c--t, you little depraved blackguard. I hope you will surprise me some time when I am asleep dressed, steal over to me with a whore's glow in your slumberous eyes, gently undo button after button in the fly of my trousers and gently take out your lover's fat mickey, lap it up in your moist mouth and suck away at it till it gets fatter and stiffer and comes off in your mouth. Sometimes too I shall surprise you asleep, lift up your skirts and open your drawers gently, then lie down gently by you and begin to lick lazily round your bush. You will begin to stir uneasily then I will lick the lips of my darling's c--t. You will begin to groan and grunt and sigh and fart with lust in your sleep. Then I will lick up faster and faster like a ravenous dog until your c--t is a mass of slime and your body wriggling wildly.
Goodnight, my little farting Nora, my dirty little f--kbird! There is one lovely word, darling, you have underlined to make me pull myself off better. Write me more about that and yourself, sweetly, dirtier, dirtier. [5]
The French entertainer Joseph Pujol, better known by his stage name Le Pétomane, was a professional fartist which is also known as a flatulist or fartiste:
It was a common misconception that Pujol passed intestinal gas as part of his stage performance. Rather, he was allegedly able to "inhale" or move air into his rectum and then control the release of that air with his anal sphincter muscles. Evidence of his ability to control those muscles was seen in the early accounts of demonstrations of his abilities to fellow soldiers
....
While serving in the army, he told his fellow soldiers about his special ability, and repeated it for their amusement, sucking up water from a pan into his rectum and then projecting it up to several yards. He found that he could suck in air as well. [11]
Though not necessarily a sexual affinity, Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to the Royal Academy about the importance of farting:
It is universally well known, That in digesting our common Food, there is created or produced in the Bowels of human Creatures, a great Quantity of Wind.
That the permitting this Air to escape and mix with the Atmosphere, is usually offensive to the Company, from the fetid Smell that accompanies it.
That all well-bred People therefore, to avoid giving such Offence, forcibly restrain the Efforts of Nature to discharge that Wind.
That so retain’d contrary to Nature, it not only gives frequently great present Pain, but occasions future Diseases, such as habitual Cholics, Ruptures, Tympanies, &c. often destructive of the Constitution, & sometimes of Life itself.
Were it not for the odiously offensive Smell accompanying such Escapes, polite People would probably be under no more Restraint in discharging such Wind in Company, than they are in spitting, or in blowing their Noses.
My Prize Question therefore should be, To discover some Drug wholesome & not disagreable, to be mix’d with our common Food, or Sauces, that shall render the natural Discharges of Wind from our Bodies, not only inoffensive, but agreable as Perfumes. [9]
The oldest documented reference to farts as humor is seen in Japanese scrolls as noted on Wikipedia regarding He-gassen:
He-Gassen (Japanese: 屁合戦, literally: "Fart competitions"), or Houhi-Gassen (放屁合戦), are titles given to a Japanese art scroll, created during the Edo period (1603–1868) by an unknown artist or several unknown artists depicting flatulence humor.He-Gassen is a subject occasionally depicted in Japanese art, first attested at the end of the Heian Period (794–1185). Toba Sōjō (1053–1140), in addition to his famous Scrolls of Frolicking Animals, is also mentioned as having painted scrolls on themes such as "Phallic Contest" and "He-gassen." [10]
In 2017, PornHub, a notable website for pornographic videos and related content, published their Year in Review for the previous year. The statistics revealed that in Brazil and the Netherlands, while the search terms "fart" and "farting" were not among the top ten for either country, they showed significant year-over-year growth, increasing by 108% and 126% respectively [3]. That same year, PornHub published insights specific to Scotland, which showed that "farting" was searched 82% more frequently in Edinburgh compared to the rest of the country [6].
In 2016, PornHub published data on search habits specific to the Netherlands; in those findings, the term "fart" was found to be more popular in Limburg when compared to the rest of the country [7]. That same year, PornHub published statistics on searches in the United Kingdom, revealing that the term "fart" was searched 32% more often in Bristol than in the rest of the UK [8].
1. "Eproctophilia," UCSB Sociology, updated March 2016.
2. "Eproctophilia in a Young Adult Male," Mark D. Griffiths, Archives of Sexual Behavior, epub July 2013.
3. "2016 Year in Review," PornHub, January 2017.
4. On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft, Stephen King, October 2000.
5. "James Joyce's Dirty Letters," Arlindo Correia, date unknown.
6. "Scotland Insights," PornHub, February 2017.
7. "Netherland's Top Searches," PornHub, March 2016.
8. "The United Kingdom Divided," PornHub, February 2016.
9. "A Letter to a Royal Academy About Farting," Benjamin Franklin, 1781
10. "He-gassen," Wikipedia, updated June 2022
11. "Le Pétomane," Wikipedia, updated May 2025
CASE STUDIES
Eproctophilia in a Young Adult Male, Mark D. Griffiths Ph.D. (Paywall)
(also available at Semantic Scholar)
PODCASTS AND MEDIA
Fart Fetish Podcast
Everything About Sex/Porn: "Topic of Eproctophilia"
Watts the Safeword: "You Smelt It You Dealt It"
KinkCast: "Episode 84 Fart Fetish"
Other People's Lives: "The Fart Fetish"
Ask Ezra: "Episode 8 with Raj Asexuality and Fart Fetishism"
Ask Ezra: "Episode 9 with Raj Part 2 Asexuality and Fart Fetishism"
Ask Ezra: "Second Wind: Revisiting Fart Fetishism, Ask Ezra Episode 47 with Raj"
The Rocket Review: "Raj"
The Rocket Review: "Raj pt 2"
Other People's Lives: "I Have A Poop Fetish"
Other People's Lives: "My Fiance Doesn't Know I Eat Poop"
Manwhore Podcast: "Ep. 126: Farts, Shame, & Fantasies—fetish porn darling Kelsey Obsession!"
Howie Does Stuff: "Episode #45: Stephanie Matto Almost Died Selling Her Farts in a Jar for How Much?!"
Depths of the Rated X: "Farts"
Two Hot Takes: "Fiance Told Me About Fart Fetish After He Proposed - Reddit Reactions"
KelseySexInfo: "What's a Fart Fetish? (Girls Farting)"
LexLuther: "How To Find A Girl With A Fart Fetish"
Bastienne Cross: "FART FETISH: EP#7 of The Last Bastienne Podcast!"
Mistress Marley: "QUARANTINE CLIENTS: THEY LOVE FART FETISHES!"
Pick Truth: "Episode 44: Is Having a Fart Fetish Weird"
Subscurity: "Episode 52: Fart Fetishists"
The Basement Yard: "The Fart Smelling Fetish"
Click Bait: "19-2018 - Fart Fetishes & Stinky Sex"
ARTICLES AND BLOGS
Farting company: The strange world of eproctophilia, Mark D. Griffiths Ph.D
Kick-Gas 2: Another look at eproctophilia, Mark D. Griffiths Ph.D
A Brief History of the Fart Community [PDF], Dil
Eproctophilia is Not a Perversion or Paraphilia [PDF], R.S.
The Fart Fetish (aka The Elephant in My Room) [PDF], 5chamberedheart
Eproctophilia Explained, Psychology Today
Eproctophilia, UCSB Sociology
Eproctophilia, Wikipedia
Guys With a Fart Fetish Explain Why Toots Turns Them on, Men's Health
Meet the Men Who Have a Fart Fetish, Vice
We Talked To People Who Get Off On Farts, Dose
What's With Steven King and Farts?, LitReactor
RELATED RESOURCES
Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us, Jesse Bering
What Causes People to Have Sexual Fetishes?, Healthline
Growing Up Kinky: Research Shows How Kink Identity Is Formed, Psychology Today
Oh Those Toes Podcast
Your Kinky Friends
Ask Ezra Podcast
The Rocket Review