Thread for those of us uncomfortable with this fetish to commiserate/help each othert

GoForTheLaugh · Sep 16, 2005

As positive and supportive as I try to be on this board, I know that I sometimes need to post about my reservations and discomfort with this fetish. When I try to force myself to be Little Mary Sunshine, I end of posting something that will undoubtedly darken someone's day.

Others have written about reservations as well, both on the board and in messages or e-mail to me. I thought it might be good to have a thread where those of us uncomfortable with this fetish might commiserate and offer advice to each other. Perhaps we can all ghet more comfortable with it together.

Others may feel embarrassed posting but may benefit from reading the posts in this thread anonymously.

Finally, those comfortable with the fetish are also welcome to post in this thread, but only if they are civil and supportive.

I can say that, while I still have a loooooooong way to go, I am getting better at accepting this fetish, something I have hidden all my life and in which I have only indulged myself in a brief, mainstream capacity. In other words, if it wasn't something I could see my non-fetish friends doing, I refused to do it. For this reason, brief tickle horseplay and brief tickle foreplay are all I have ever done--and not nearly as often as I would like.

Tickling is still very theoretical in my mind, and I am torn between accepting it and, perhaps, applying some behavior therapy learned from a book to try to get rid of it. As so many have written in other threads, sex and relationships are hard enough without also having a fetish.

Then again, we are who we are, and if you eliminate something from someone you alter the person in many ways. A person is the sum of his or her parts, and the elimination of a key part changes the sum, often for the worse.

HisFlyinFingers · Sep 16, 2005

Like many people, I'm sure, I find an odd contradiction in how I interact with people. I'm very shy for the first day or so, and I often feel uncomfortable talking to new people unless they start the conversation. On the other hand, once I get going, it quickly becomes easy for me to talk about anything (even topics that make longtime friends blush -- though I'm careful, of course, not to go that far with the wrong people!).

Tickling is the hardest subject to breach, though. Sometimes I force myself to mention it as a way to get it out there and off my mind. Hanging out with some new friends for example, I blurted it out right as a friend was taking a shot at the pool table. He naturally missed his shot, and while questions immediately followed, they were all asked through grins, as opposed to the confused or judgemental looks many of us fear.

On the other hand, I do get uncomfortable when, for example, a male friend tickles another guy. I know how silly it is; neither guy sees the act in the light that I see it. Still, I couldn't do that, even in just horsing around, if only because it carries too much of a sexual connotation for me.

GoForTheLaugh · Sep 16, 2005

I hear you, HisFlyinFingers. (Good way to ruin an opposing player's pool shot, by the way.

) I chose the people I confided in carefully, and I continue to enjoy not having to hide my unusual fetish from them.

A lot of men on this board have expressed discomfort upon seeing one male tickle another, and I fully understand and honor what you wrote. Some of my straight male friends poke at each other on occasion, but I know that it does not mean anything fetishy or sexual to them. If it did, they probably would not do it. I tend to ignore it--as I do all the M/F I see in my circles. But, yes, if tickling is something deeply written into your sexuality, it might seem like two guys going at it in public. You have every right to feel the way you do.