Hi guys.
I want to preface everything I’m about to type by saying that this might never come to pass and if it does it will not be for some time. This post is a first outward step in a process I’ve long been considering and I’m at the point where I’m wondering the viability, scale, and potential support of such a project.
I’m a filmmaker and artist. A young and unemployed one, but one nonetheless. For the time being this is as much of my personal life as I’ll introduce you to that I haven’t already mentioned in previous responses. Since coming to realize that I had a burp fetish, something which has fundamentally shaped my view of myself and my sexuality (most for the worse), it’s been a part of myself that I’ve hidden away. For many years early on I refused to even refer to myself by such words, and then I’d avoid actually using words like “burp” while describing expereinces tied to the fetish in journals in fear that the documents would be discovered by someone. I don’t think having a certain amount of shame around our fetish is unusual but as an artist, and particularly one who has made extremely personal and revealing works about myself, it’s been a notable omissison from my attempts to expose myself fully to an audience. I’m ashamed of many thing but the specifics of my fetish, even if I have admitted to some close persons that I have some kind of fetish, have been my one secret, knowing that as soon as that pandora’s box is opened, I will no longer be in control of such a secret. Whether I have been so successful is debatable and there have been enough close calls and near references that I feel certain someone that knows me must suspect. But because of the importance of the fetish on my life, that aforementioned shame has been a major undercurrent of artistic works I’ve made even if the source has been abstracted or written around. I’ve always felt that at some point, I would have to finally let out all of the pent-up specifics of my feelings and experiences with the fetish either by trying to document in the persona of an outsider or by essentially “coming out” to discuss these experiences.
I have a few questions for the community here.
First, has anyone ever revealed themselves, at least semi-publically, to have the fetish? I know many have confessed this to a partner, but has anyone, especially people with more of a platform, made that known in a public venue?
Second, if there was to be a documentary of some kind, to what extent would people feel comfortable participating? If it happens, I would love to do interviews with prominent members of the community about their own experiences with the fetish as well as the history of this community and its predecessors. I don’t expect many people would want to join me in announcing their fetish to the world but I was considering degrees of anonymity such as video interviews under aliases, just audio interviews, audio interviews that would be transcribed and rerecorded by actors, or text interviews that would be rerecorded by actors.
Speaking of the history, I’m curious to what extent the history of the fetish has already been documented and archived. I know there are some threads here, especially in the discussion category, of people discussing their experiences, but I’m wondering if there are any longer form projects?
I know there have been a few articles and short form video content from like VICE about the fetish or at least adjacent, but it seems like there hasn’t really been an attempt to engage with the community in an exploratory way. I’m curious what you guys think about someone from our community trying to do that. Are you resistive to more publicity for the fetish which could prevent easier free content? What do you think a potentially documentary about the fetish would need to include?
Curious to hear thoughts and, again, this is all extremely hypothetical for now.
– D.R.