Another "Why do we like tickling?" theory

[MaleTickleeDC]

I know a lot of folks on here believe that those of us who experience a link between tickling and sexual arousal must have experienced some sort of re-wiring early in life, making it all psychological in a sense, but is it possible that all of this just has to do with the original wiring of our brains? Perhaps those of us who are aroused by tickling simply have brains in which the pleasure and pain centers are fused or crossed or linked in some way that results in a confusion about which is which. This could explain all kinds of sado-masochistic fetishes, which, if you just explore FetLife a little, you'll see are plentiful.

 

[Jagermeistered]

I think the tickler phenomenon, is psychological...

And, the ticklee phenomenon, is physiological...

That's just me though, an idea is just an idea.

 

[MaleTickleeDC]

I think the tickler phenomenon, is psychological...

And, the ticklee phenomenon, is physiological...

That's just me though, an idea is just an idea.

Hmm. That's interesting. And it would make sense, given that the ticklee is actually receiving pleasure from sensations of pain. Well, not really pain, but sensations that cause loss of control, and that the body instinctively tries to prevent from continuing.

 

[fitzh2o]

I don't think enough studies on it have been done to know for sure. Like most people, I believe it to be a learned sexual behavior. But who knows? Homosexuality turned out to to be a product of nature, maybe fetishism/paraphilia is as well.

 

[U.N.Owen]

For what it's worth, here's my theory about myself

I "noticed" girls a lot younger than many guys. I found girls fascinating a long time before puberty, and never went through the "cooties" anti-girl period. I remember being drawn to girls by the time I was 4.

I was also fascinated by tickling by the time I was 4... and my tickle ideas usually featured girls.

So here's my theory. I was attracted to girls very young, but long before I knew what sexual attraction was or what it meant. So I tried to figure out what I wanted to do with girls, and stuck it together with a kid-level body play... tickling... to make sense of my feelings. By the time I hit puberty, that was what I associated with girls, and the idea stuck and got blended with more run-of-the-mill sexuality.

So, that's my idea, about me.

 

[robotickler3000]

Tickling was sexual for me even when I was a little kid.
Everytime I would watch a cartoon that had tickling, I would get an erection.
There was a Fraggle Rock episode about giant tickling caterpillars, and that was one of the most sexually exciting things I'd ever seen at that point. And I was 9. I masturbated to that episode.
Creepier still, I remember sitting on my dad's lap as he read a book to me. The book had a tickling part in it, and I had to hide my erection. I was much younger when that happened.
I think I was just born having a sexual connection to tickling.

I "noticed" girls a lot younger than many guys. I found girls fascinating a long time before puberty, and never went through the "cooties" anti-girl period. I remember being drawn to girls by the time I was 4. I was also fascinated by tickling by the time I was 4... and my tickle ideas usually featured girls.

Same here.

 

[tickledgirls]

to be honest tickling is not a sexual thing for me. It's a major interest, but I don't feel the need to have it sexual...but that's just me. Maybe its because I believe tickling is for all ages, and should be a fun, playful way of interaction.
That being said, I have often been the subject of thorough tickle torture sessions myself, and I enjoy giving those same sessions to others. I think for me it is because I am a playful person, and I enjoy the whole play wrestle thing. Play wrestle always lead to tickle as a child (well 9 and up...wasn't introduced until then), so I suppose that's why I became so interested in it. Then i learnt of tickle challenges, and started this whole challege/ contest thing in my head, and the idea of tie up tickling originated from there.

 

[U.N.Owen]

Tickling was sexual for me even when I was a little kid.
Everytime I would watch a cartoon that had tickling, I would get an erection.

Actually, that happened to me too, a few years before puberty. I remember asking my mother about it because I was kind of puzzled about it. She said "I guess your body just knows what it likes." Which seems about right.

Its interesting that you also "noticed" girls when you were young, when you're still too young to understand sexual desire. I've wondered if that might be a common feature of guys who are into tickling, and could help explain why we fix sexually on something that would make sense to a kid.

 

[MaleTickleeDC]

Its interesting that you also "noticed" girls when you were young, when you're still too young to understand sexual desire. I've wondered if that might be a common feature of guys who are into tickling, and could help explain why we fix sexually on something that would make sense to a kid.

This does not apply to me at all. I didn't notice girls until age 12. In fact, I was completely asexual until age 12. No sexual arousal until puberty for me. But I always liked tickling, and found myself fantasizing about it in a non-sexual way prior to puberty, usually involving cartoon characters or whoever I last saw tickling someone else. So I continue to tend towards the belief that our brains are simply wired differently.

 

[Jagermeistered]

Maybe, tickling - like, bondage, is also a catalyst. Can we seperate bondage from tickling? I would say, no... It's dominant('ler) versus submissive('lee). Tickling, I think - allows for more sexual experimentation(without restrictions).

 

[robotickler3000]

Its interesting that you also "noticed" girls when you were young, when you're still too young to understand sexual desire.

I think I started getting sexual desire around age 8, because I masturbated alot thinking about girls at school, and even some of their moms.
One early fantasy I had was having one of those mothers come into my room, pin me down on the bed, and tickle me while I was naked.
That said, I started sleeping in the nude at a very early age.
I think I masturbated before I was really supposed to, because years later when I first ejaculated semen on my bed, it scared the hell out of me. I didn't know what had happened. And that happened after watching Ginger on Gilligan's Island.

 

[U.N.Owen]

I'm more of a Mary Ann guy myself.

These responses are interesting, though. It shows we seem to come to tickling by some very different routes, though many of us had some kind of fascination with it from childhood... for some reason.

 

[robotickler3000]

Just looking at your signature brings back more.
I never got to see that Raggedy Ann & Andy movie with the green tickle monster, but I had the book of the movie, and the book had pictures. And I read that part, where the monster tickles everyone, over and over and over. It was probably the first tickle fiction I'd ever read. It wasn't until I was almost 20 that I saw the movie and the tickle scene.

 

[kopfhorer]

I've always loved being tickled. But it seems to have little sexual significance for me unless I'm already in a potentially sexual situation. (I had one girlfriend who gently tickled me in the ribs, but only while we were fucking!)

That being said, I also become very pleasantly aroused (not conventionally, i.e. not boner-wise) while tickling a woman.

And I am a foot fetishist and have been one since I was but a mere crumb-chewer, but that's for another time! .

 

[Tickler Bart]

BORN FOR TICKLING!
When I was about 5 years old I saw a Popeye cartoon. it was the one where Olive Oyle is dangling by one foot upside down & Bluto peeled back the sole of her shoe & tickled her sole.
I stared at that scene, pointed to the TV & yelled, "THAT'S FOR ME!"
Now other kids (& adults) would watch this scene & just laugh it off or it would have absolutely NO effect on them whatsoever.
Why did that scene ignite my love/passion for bare soles & tickling?
I do NOT remember at all ANYONE discussing or doing ANY kind of tickling.
So WHERE did this 'spark' come from?
From that moment on I would be excited when Popeye would be on TV, most of the time being VERY disappointed because there were no more tickling scenes shown for a LONG time.
Tickling & bare soles (I also have a passion for female bare soles) have been 'ingrained' in my memory since then.
I just KNEW that this would be my destiny. It was already there, but that first exposure to female feet and tickling had awakened my passions.

 

[kopfhorer]

BORN FOR TICKLING!
When I was about 5 years old I saw a Popeye cartoon. it was the one where Olive Oyle is dangling by one foot upside down & Bluto peeled back the sole of her shoe & tickled her sole.
I stared at that scene, pointed to the TV & yelled, "THAT'S FOR ME!"

I felt much the same way when I saw another cartoon in which Popeye is being examined by several doctors, when one decides to check Popeye's "tickle system". He pops off one of his shoes and runs his finger repeatedly up and down Popeye's bare sole, saying "Tippy-toe, tippy-toe, tippy-toe!" Popeye for some unexplainable reason didn't even flinch!

 

[tentative_lee]

I don't know, I lean towards thinking it's wired in to our brains. I hated tickling as a kid because even then I saw it as sexual in as much as I could. I guess I can't really answer with authority as I've never experienced it as an adult so far outside my head!