Do you ever think about WHY you tickle/ get tickled?

[duderino84]

Basically what I'm saying is, what drives you to it? I mean, beyond it turning us on, which is really more just neurological/ emotional confusion. Like do you think you're vulnerable in this position? Is it kind of like a revenge fantasy? Is it about the lee/Ler, or just yourself?

I think about this sometimes when people get confused about me trying to explain my preferences. I think in a way it's a crutch for building socially, or not being registered socially how I'd like, so in a way it's kind of like a blowing off of anxiety by looking at other people with their guard being flaunted. Like yea I like all the laughing and smiling it causes..... but on a deeper level, I think understanding it is crucial to "growing up" while "growing older". Like if everything is meant to lead to sex, why do I specifically just want this? Why don't I go for that and take that when people literally offer it at times?

I realize life could be so much easier than I've made it by wanting "tickling".

It's a hard pill to take sometimes.

 

[Bellylaughs]

I have depression sometimes, and atypical neurology always, and mostly it helps me regulate both. Surface level, it's totally a stress killer, the most nuclear of nuclear options for me.

 

[GarnettRose]

For me being tickled is extremely intimate. Whether it be a scene where I am tied down and tortured for as long as I can manage or having my sides and underarms played with while in an intimate embrace with my husband. Tickling can playful, sensual; and tormenting both individually and all at once. I generally fall on the more sensual side of BDSM (my pain tolerance is in the trash), but with tickling, I delight in every experience I can with partners I care deeply for.

 

[MikeMenace]

I'm turned on by the control I have as a ler, but not in the sense of humiliating or completely dominating someone. It's more about controlling the lee's body and making her laugh.

I'm fascinated by the laughter, by how the lee's body moves when it's trying to protect the tickled spots. I'm fascinated by exploring my lover's body in search of tickle spots. I'm fascinated by seeing my lee trying to resist the tickling, trying not to laugh or move, and by how certain touches and tickle-talk can break their resistance. And if the lee is getting visibly turned on by my tickling, I just melt.

So, all in all, I think I'm mainly into the playful aspects of tickling.

 

[natscott6282]

I always loved the reactions like how intensively someone could be reacting to the most extreme levels of tickling possible

 

[FFT32]

For me, tickling was a natural and immediate reaction to seeing or having contact with female bare feet I found attractive. Peanut Butter & Jelly for me.

 

[pocketblondie]

I can’t exactly be sure since i never had a session and I have only been fantasising about it a lot (and I can tickle myself everywhere which helps too) but I really enjoy the idea of being made to lose control and let go. I’m often stressed and I don’t get much physical touch in my everyday life, so I crave the idea of having someone exploring my body and playing with it, triggering the ticklish sensation. But I also only love it when the ler love it too for some reason? Like, I need to see that they are enjoying themselves, to hear them tease me about cute and ticklish I am and how much they love tickling my body. And I’m also extremely ticklish so it kind of turns me on to feel so embarrassed at how weak I get just from a few tickles, I enjoy the power play.

 

[brotherted]

Beyond the usual domination/control stuff, I think there's also the psychological element of someone responding involuntarily.

A lot of the sexual cat and mouse game involves pretending we're not as interested in the other person as we are and holding back their action reactions. It's like the Christmas song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" where both people are pretending that there's some other reason the girl might stay. When a lee is poked and jerks involuntarily, by contrast, it's a form of pulling the curtain down on their sophistication game.

To me at least, this is completely different than a pure domination thing. It's about the lee not being able to control their reactions to the stimulus, rather than just being about the stimulus itself.

 

[Wade]

I do sometimes wonder why other people -- most of whom do not, as far as I know, have any overtly sexual interest in tickling -- tickle me, especially the ones who tickle me for a prolonged interval.

I suspect a lot of it just has to do with the inherent entertainment value of the spectacle -- the fun of driving someone else to helpless peals of laughter (a noise humans typically find cheering and engaging anyway) via disproportionately simple and relatively effortless physical maneuvers. It's silly, it's comical, it kind of on some level doesn't make any logical sense whatsoever -- it's fun. It's also harmlessly embarrassing for the ticklee, temporarily subjugated by their own individual trivializing weakness, which is appealing to any perpetrator who has the slightest inclination toward playful teasing or pranks.

 

[MikeMenace]

Beyond the usual domination/control stuff, I think there's also the psychological element of someone responding involuntarily.

A lot of the sexual cat and mouse game involves pretending we're not as interested in the other person as we are and holding back their action reactions. It's like the Christmas song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" where both people are pretending that there's some other reason the girl might stay. When a lee is poked and jerks involuntarily, by contrast, it's a form of pulling the curtain down on their sophistication game.

To me at least, this is completely different than a pure domination thing. It's about the lee not being able to control their reactions to the stimulus, rather than just being about the stimulus itself.

That's a realisation that I had some time ago - there's also an element of a hunt in healthy (i.e. not abusive or predatory) human sexuality. Seduction is essentially two people playing Big Bad Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood.

And speaking of the Red Riding Hood imagery, The Meteors (OTMAPP 😉 ) had a great song about this: youtu.be/InpYJv-Pe3U (copy-paste the URL)

 

[Mr. Nimbus]

Aside from just enjoying laughing and making others laugh, I think of it as a safe way to explore other fetishes like bondage and foot worship. Like you can incorporate those things in a less overtly sexual manner when tickling is the focus.

 

[laughtermech]

I'm turned on by the control I have as a ler, but not in the sense of humiliating or completely dominating someone. It's more about controlling the lee's body and making her laugh.

I'm fascinated by the laughter, by how the lee's body moves when it's trying to protect the tickled spots. I'm fascinated by exploring my lover's body in search of tickle spots. I'm fascinated by seeing my lee trying to resist the tickling, trying not to laugh or move, and by how certain touches and tickle-talk can break their resistance. And if the lee is getting visibly turned on by my tickling, I just melt.

So, all in all, I think I'm mainly into the playful aspects of tickling.

Well said! I mirror almost everything about this eloquent, articulate comment from @MikeMenace . Thanks Mike for sharing🙏

 

[laughtermech]

I love this question posed by duderino84 about the WHY of tickling. Thanks duderino84. I often ponder the WHY of lots of things. This tickling fetish and my foot fetish for women’s feet are no different. I often however, am left with a simple reasoning that it’s just who I am. Tickling and foot fetishism are just baked deep into my DNA and no one is going to be able to tease out all of the intricacies of how the cake all came together with all its ingredients. It just did. I can’t explain why I am the way that I am. I just am. Kind of like breathing. Kind of like our universe. They’ve just always been there in some form or another.

But, I capitulate that a cake recipe may be found one day and my proverbial ‘cake’ may be deciphered. Until that day…

Tickling and my foot fetish for women’s feet are two hidden parts of me (for the most part…there are some people who know the surface aspects of these two fetishes for me, but no one, except me, really truly knows the full depths that tickling and foot fetishism play in my fantasy and in my real world lives. If you read my short stories…you start to get a glimpse.)

Tickling for me is, and I suspect always will be, an act that is intricately tied to my sexuality. Seeing or hearing a woman being tickled where the woman is seemingly enjoying herself being tickled and she’s not begging and screaming her tickler(s) to stop, is nearly always a very sexually arousing experience. And because it is, because I get very sexually aroused seeing or hearing a woman laughing in this way, I suspect that is also my big WHY. Because I am a sexual being, because I am a human, and as both…I crave sex ergo I crave tickling and women’s feet.

I realize that others here don’t find tickling and a woman’s feet sexy. Tickling and feet can just be fun hobbies to explore. For those folks, the WHYs may be harder or easier to come by. For me though, just to reiterate, the act of a woman laughing by allowing herself to be touched and tickled brings out a sexual response in me that involves arousal. I want to hear and see more of this woman laughing and enjoying herself being tickled. This sexual arousal around tickling is my why. Hope that helps, hope that explains somewhat where I fall in this beautiful continuum of human sexuality.

We’re all so different, yet also in many respects the same.

Thanks again for asking the question, duderino84. Great discussions!

 

[geekyhippie]

So whenever I find something kink related that I like, I'm the kind of person that always stops and analyses, asking myself what it is that I find so appealing about whatever it may be. So for many years, it was just bondage related stuff that I liked, I actually only became aware of my love of tickling during the pandemic lockdown (lots of internet browsing). So at first I thought it was perhaps just an enjoyment thing, so a girl tied up = hot, a girl tied up really enjoying herself = even hotter, a girl laughing herself silly while tied up? Hottest thing around. But I suspect there's more than just that So as others have touched on, there's also no masks during tickling, no pretending one thing or another, it's involuntary and thus about as genuine as it can get. There's a lot of other little bonuses to tickling as well. As foreplay, is there anything better than something which turns both parties on to an extreme degree? And of course, it doesn't have to be sexual (can have a tickling session without ending in sex, not a lot of equivalents on that front. Tie a girl up and look for other stuff to do that's not sex related (or pain related as that's really not for me), and yeah, you'll find it's a pretty short list. And of course last (but by no means least) there's the sound. So the laugh of a girl actually makes the difference for me between a vid that I go 'that's hot' and one I go 'meh' to... It's a personal preference thing of course, just like people have their personal preference for body shapes/attitudes/all that jazz, but yeah, an nice laugh is soooo attractive in a girl, and can be a huge turn on for me, so the idea of being able to control that in the bedroom, hearing it at will, well, that's about as amazing as it's going to get really... My two cents anyway...

 

[tinyticklee]

It in fact isn't always sexual for me. Most of the tickling I dish out or receive is with close friends. Its just a way of showing affection for one another. I do appreciate my friends laughing as well as they appreciate me laughing. Giving or taking control of someone (when the situation overall is fitting of course) is a stress killer. Getting tickled and loosing some control while also knowing that your friend will watch out and cares for you is just a wonderful feeling (atleast for silly me)

So for me it's a combination of stress relief and appreciation for each other that fascinates me.