Vorarephilia should not be confused with Sexual cannibalism.
Vorarephilia (often shortened to vore) is a paraphilia characterized by the erotic desire to be consumed by, or to personally consume, another person or creature, or an erotic attraction to the process of eating in general practice.[1] [2] Soft vore fantasies are separated from sexual fantasies of cannibalism, also referred to as "hard vore",[3] because the soft vore victim is normally swallowed alive and whole. The word vorarephilia is derived from the Latin (to "swallow" or "devour"), and Ancient Greek (, "love").
Usually, vorarephilic fantasies involve a consumer (usually referred to as predator or pred for short) ingesting one or multiple victims (sometimes called prey) in some way. Since vorarephilic fantasies cannot be acted out in reality, they are often expressed in stories or drawings as well as sexual roleplay.[4]
Vore is most often enjoyed through pictures, stories, videos, and video games, and it can appear in mainstream media.[5] Expressions can involve humans, animals, dragons, giant snakes, and other creatures, real or fictional. In some cases, vorarephilia may be described as a variation of macrophilia and may combine with other paraphilias.[6] Apart from macrophilia, vore fantasies often have themes of BDSM, microphilia, pregnancy fetishism, anthropomorphized animals, and sexual cannibalism.
Most vorarephiles are not overly interested in sadomasochism; instead, they may get their pleasure from the psychological aspects, such as the total annihilation of identity. This does not necessarily indicate suicidal tendencies but is more often linked to general fantasies of escapism and solitude.
There are several variations to the fantasy, often changing the way in which the victim is ingested. Typically, when the victim is consumed orally, artwork may depict what is known as "soft vore", meaning that the victim is swallowed whole and enters the stomach of the consumer, then is either left unharmed or digested inside.[7] If the victim is kept safe (also known as endo vore or endosoma), the victim can eventually be let out by regurgitation or defecation, whereas if digestion happens, the victim is usually killed, but may be magically reformed in some cases. The more extreme and less common form of the fetish is "hard vore", in which the victim is chewed and torn apart by the consumer, followed by a more gruesome depiction of digestion.
Aside from oral vore, there are plenty of subcategories, some of which are:
As there is room for artistic interpretation and niches, there are many other subcategories that may be less commonly seen, but they all more or less amount to a victim being inserted through a consumer's orifice in some way.
The size of the consumer and/or victim can vary. Macro/micro vore is used to describe art in which the victim is much smaller than the consumer. Same-size vore, on the other hand, depicts a scenario where the victim and consumer are roughly the same size.
One case study analysis connected the fantasy with sexual masochism, and suggested that it could be motivated by a desire to merge with a more powerful other or permanently escape loneliness. With "no known treatment" for vorarephiles who feel 'ill' with their sexuality, psychologists at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health have recommended trying to "adjust to, rather than change or suppress" the sexual interest.[8] Medication for libido reduction could be used if deemed necessary.