Coprophilia (from
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
κόπρος, ''kópros'' 'excrement' and φιλία, ''philía'' 'liking, fondness'), also called scatophilia or scat (
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
: σκατά, ''skatá'' '
feces
Feces (also known as faeces American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, or fæces; : faex) are the solid or semi-solid remains of food that was not digested in the small intestine, and has been broken down by bacteria in the ...
'),
is the
paraphilia
A paraphilia is an experience of recurring or intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, places, situations, fantasies, behaviors, or individuals. It has also been defined as a sexual interest in anything other than a legally consenting human ...
involving
sexual arousal
Sexual arousal (also known as sexual excitement) describes the Physiology, physiological and psychological responses in preparation for sexual intercourse or when exposed to Sexual stimulation, sexual stimuli. A number of physiological response ...
and pleasure from
feces
Feces (also known as faeces American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, or fæces; : faex) are the solid or semi-solid remains of food that was not digested in the small intestine, and has been broken down by bacteria in the ...
.
Research

In the ''
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (''DSM''; latest edition: ''DSM-5-TR'', published in March 2022) is a publication by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for the classification of mental disorders using a com ...
'' (DSM), published by the
American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 39,200 members who are in ...
, it is classified under 302.89—
Paraphilia NOS (Not Otherwise Specified) and has no
diagnostic
Diagnosis (: diagnoses) is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon. Diagnosis is used in a lot of different academic discipline, disciplines, with variations in the use of logic, analytics, and experience, to determine " ...
criteria other than a general statement about paraphilias that says "the diagnosis is made if the behavior, sexual urges, or fantasies cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning". Furthermore, the DSM-IV-TR notes, "Fantasies, behaviors, or objects are paraphilic only when they lead to clinically significant distress or impairment (e.g. are obligatory, result in
sexual dysfunction
Sexual dysfunction is difficulty experienced by an individual or partners during any stage of normal sexual activity, including physical pleasure, desire, preference, arousal, or orgasm. The World Health Organization defines sexual dysfunction ...
, require participation of nonconsenting individuals, lead to legal complications, interfere with social relationships)".
Although there may be no connection between coprophilia and
sadomasochism
Sadism () and masochism (), known collectively as sadomasochism ( ) or S&M, is the derivation of pleasure from acts of respectively inflicting or receiving pain or humiliation. The term is named after the Marquis de Sade, a French author known ...
(SM), the limited data on the former comes from studies of the latter. A 1999 study of 164 males in
Finland
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
from two SM clubs found that 18.2% had engaged in coprophilia; 3% as a sadist only, 6.1% as a masochist only, and 9.1% as both. In the study pool 18% of heterosexuals and 17% of homosexuals had tried coprophilia, showing no statistically significant difference between heterosexuals and homosexuals. In a separate article analyzing 12 men who engaged in
bestiality, an additional analysis of an 11-man subgroup revealed that six had engaged in coprophilic behavior, compared with only one in the matched control group consisting of 12 SM-oriented males who did not engage in bestiality.
Society and culture
A table in
Larry Townsend
Larry Townsend (27 October 1930 – 29 July 2008) was the American author of dozens of books including ''Run, Little Leather Boy'' (1970) and ''The Leatherman's Handbook'' (1972), published by pioneer erotic presses such as Greenleaf Classics a ...
's ''The Leatherman's Handbook II'' (the 1983 second edition; the 1972 first edition did not include this list) which is generally considered authoritative states that a brown handkerchief is a symbol for coprophilia in the
handkerchief code, which is employed usually among gay male casual-sex seekers or
BDSM
BDSM is a variety of often Eroticism, erotic practices or Sexual roleplay, roleplaying involving Bondage (BDSM), bondage, Discipline (BDSM), discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and other related interpersonal dynamics. Given ...
practitioners in the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe. Wearing the handkerchief on the left indicates the top, dominant, or active partner; right the bottom, submissive, or passive partner. However, negotiation with a prospective partner remains important because, as Townsend noted, people may wear hankies of any color "only because the idea of the hankie turns them on" or "may not even know what it means".
Originally the
Mineshaft had a room for coprophilia, but it was soon abandoned as too extreme.
American musician
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, guitarist and songwriter who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and de ...
recorded
videos of himself
urinating on and engaging in coprophilia with women. In one video, a woman
defecates on him after he says "Now it's time for my breakfast." He was also sued for videotaping dozens of women in the restroom of a restaurant he owned, which has been identified as being motivated by his coprophilia fetish.
The Cleveland steamer is a
colloquial
Colloquialism (also called ''colloquial language'', ''colloquial speech'', ''everyday language'', or ''general parlance'') is the linguistic style used for casual and informal communication. It is the most common form of speech in conversation amo ...
term for a form of coprophilia, where someone
defecates on their partner's chest. The term received news attention through its use in a
U.S. Congress
The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both ...
staff
hoax email and being addressed by the
United States Federal Communications Commission.
Hot Karl (also Hot Sasser) is
sexual slang
Sexual slang is a set of linguistics, linguistic terms and phrases used to refer to sexual organs, processes, and activities; they are generally considered colloquialism, colloquial rather than formal or medical, and some may be seen as impolite ...
referring to one of several purported acts involving
feces
Feces (also known as faeces American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, or fæces; : faex) are the solid or semi-solid remains of food that was not digested in the small intestine, and has been broken down by bacteria in the ...
. It variously means an act of defecating on one's sexual partner, defecating on someone who is asleep, or defecating on someone's face while covered in plastic wrap.
[Partridge, Eric; Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry (2008). ''The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English.'' Psychology Press, ] According to psychologist
Anil Aggrawal, it is a
synonym
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...
for a
Cleveland steamer and is part of a coprophilia vocabulary that also includes the
Dirty Sanchez.
[Aggrawal, Anil (2009). ''Forensic And Medico-legal Aspects of Sexual Crimes And Unusual Sexual Practices.'' CRC Press, ] The term was adopted as a name by rapper
Hot Karl.
[Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry (2007). ''Sex Slang.'' Psychology Press, ]
Dirty Sanchez is a purported
sex act which consists of feces purposely being smeared onto a partner's upper lip. The ''
New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English'' says, "This appears to have been contrived with the intention to provoke shock rather than actually as a practice, although, no doubt, some have or will experiment."
[Partridge, Eric; Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry (2006). ''The new Partridge dictionary of slang and unconventional English.'' Taylor & Francis, 9780415259378] Columnist
Gustavo Arellano
Gustavo Arellano (born February 3, 1979) is an American writer and journalist. He is a columnist for the ''Los Angeles Times'' and the former editor of Orange County's alternative weekly '' OC Weekly''. He is most notable as the author of the s ...
of ''
¡Ask a Mexican!'' contends the term evokes the stereotypical mustache of a Mexican.
The term for the sex act entered British gay
cant Polari
Polari () is a form of slang or Cant (language), cant historically used primarily in the United Kingdom by some actors, circus and fairground performers, professional wrestlers, merchant navy sailors, criminals and prostitutes, and particula ...
in the 1960s.
See also
* ''
2 Girls 1 Cup''
*
Anilingus
Anilingus (also spelled analingus) is an oral sex, oral and anal sex act (anal–oral contact or anal–oral sex) in which one person stimulates the human anus, anus of another by using their tongue or lips.
The anus has a relatively high conc ...
*
Ass to mouth — removing the penis from the passive partner's anus followed by its immediate insertion into either their mouth, or another person's.
*
Coprophagia
Coprophagia ( ) or coprophagy ( ) is the consumption of feces. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek "feces" and "to eat". Coprophagy refers to many kinds of feces-eating, including eating feces of other species (heterospecifics), of o ...
— the consumption of feces
*
Scatology
In medicine and biology, scatology or coprology is the study of faeces.
Scatological studies allow one to determine a wide range of biological information about a creature, including its diet (and thus where it has been), health and diseases ...
*
Urolagnia
Urolagnia, also known as urophilia, is a paraphilia in which sexual excitement is associated with urine or urination. Etymologically, the term comes from the Greek , meaning 'urine', and , meaning 'lust'. A golden shower is slang for the practic ...
(also known as urophilia) — a paraphilia involving sexual pleasure from urine
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
*
*
*
{{paraphilia
Feces
Paraphilias
Sexual acts