Meaning
What does Teratophilia mean?
There exists a paraphilia for nearly everything, and Teratophilia is one of them.
“Teratophilia” is when a person is attracted to a person with physical deformities, or creatures that look like monsters.
They may get aroused or infatuated by fictive characters that for others look freaky or scary.
Others may be especially attracted to someone with abnormal bodily features.
People who experience “teratophilia” refuse to view it as a kink, but rather as the ability to see past societal beauty standards and expectations of what is acceptable, and rather see within.
Some turn to “teratophilia” as a coping mechanism to trauma they have experienced in the past.
Origin
What's the origin of Teratophilia?
The term is made up of the greek words “terato” meaning monster, and “philia” meaning love.
Hence, “monster-love”.
Psychologists are having a hard time understanding exactly how this modern paraphilia has developed, particularly for women and in women’s fiction, but some suggests that it has to do with very masculine, animalistic traits such as aggressiveness, physical power and boldness.
Spread & Usage
How did Teratophilia spread?
“Teratophilia” is frequently found in Japanese manga and hentai, featuring both female and male monsters.
Reddit has close to 5000 members in its subreddit /Teratophiliacs, where users post erotic images of monsters and humans having sex with monsters.
In 2017 the movie The Shape of Water was released, showing us a woman falling in love with a monster looking merman and at the end, having sex with him in her bathtub.
“Teratophilia” imagery is widespread on the social platform Tumblr as well, often in the form of fan art of various well known monsters, such as Bigfoot, or Pennywise from IT.
External resources
- Kinkly – What is Teratophilia?
- Reddit – r/Teratophiliacs