New "Adult" Distributor Brings Vorephilia to DVD

In the late 1930s and the 1940s, an intriguing fad swept through American college campuses. After starting at Harvard, of all places, the act of swallowing live goldfish became a staple of college life for decades thereafter. Now, almost 70 years later, the fad lives on in a somewhat more, uhm, mature format.

GirlsDelicious.com, a new "adult" DVD distributor, is attempting to bring the act of swallowing live fish into mainstream culture. Based in Orlando, Florida, the company draws on the enormous student populations of nearby University of Central Florida, University of South Florida and University of Florida to supply a steady stream of fresh faces to their endeavor. Capitalizing on this talent, the company has made an array of sensual goldfish and item swallowing videos available through either instant online download or delivery of a more traditional adult DVD.

The word "adult," though, may be somewhat of a misnomer. Although the company's website offers their own brand of traditional skin flicks, the "vorephilia" videos feature no nudity and no explicit sexual acts. Instead, the success of the DVDs relies on what the company calls, "the most erotic, most sensuous acts a girl is capable of performing." This act, the simple act of swallowing, is one that attracts fans of the vorephilia fetish from around the globe.

Vorephilia, defined as an esoteric fetish in which the viewer enjoys seeing live creatures or inanimate objects swallowed, and often shortened to simply "vore," is certainly nothing new. Semi-erotic commercial advertisements have depicted sensuous women dropping everything from fruits to candies into their lipstick-covered mouths for decades, and erotic artwork featuring women with various items in their mouths dates back to at least the middle ages. "Fear Factor" generated tremendous buzz when attractive youngsters chowed down on various insects and other inedibles. Both young men and women have been swallowing things for fun, money and on dares for well over half a century. Is the material, though, suitable for distribution through adult entertainment channels?

While the vore niche is unique and accounts for less than 1% of the total adult entertainment market, GirlsDelicious.com does have competition. At least two sites, which will not be linked from this article due to their full-nudity policies, offer monthly subscription options that allow members to see weekly new videos of girls swallowing everything from goldfish to diamond rings. Of those two sites, one has a complete- though expensive- DVD and video library. In addition, a half dozen vore "communities" of chat rooms and forums dot the Internet. An online magazine, VoreMagazine.com, even chronicles events in the vore community and posts vore-specific stories.

Then, of course, are the huge occurances of the act in movies ranging from "A Fish Called Wanda" to a human-swallowing scene in "Dude, Where's My Car?" YouTube is also in on the action with dozens of goldfish-swallowing videos already available and more being posted on a regular basis.

Despite all this vore, GirlsDelicious.com operates in one of the smallest and highly specialized niches in the adult entertainment industry. What sets it apart from its competitors, though, is its focus solely on the swallowing aspect and complete non-reliance on nudity or sexual action. It should also be clarified that GirlsDelicious.com neither condones nor features torture of the subjects to be ingested.

Vorephiles, those who follow and seek out vorephilia material, resent any connection between themselves and animal cruelty. One vorephile interviewed for this article but, for obvious reasons, who wished to remain anonymous, discussed the "crush" videos that surfaced several years ago with disdain. Vorephiles, it seems, are not disproportionately more tolerant of animal cruelty. To them, the experience of being swallowed is something to be desired, an experience to be envied. Dieing inside a beautiful woman is viewed as a great honor for the creature swallowed, and many vorephiles imagine themselves taking the place of the swallowed subject.

When rationalized by the logic of a vorephile, the content of GirlsDelicious.com seems almost appropriate enough for mainstream entertainment. Given the absence of sexual acts and complete nudity in its products, the company's DVDs may even be less controversial than some products pitched on late-night TV. The success of the DVD endeavor, though, hinges on whether society is ready for this closet fetish to jump into mainstream culture.