Uncross your legs, boys!

Phone sex operator Lipstick Explosion encounters many unusual interests in her professional life, however until recently, she'd never been exposed to the world of crush.

In her blog, she describes her first experience with this interest when a caller rang to arrange an in-person session. As she ran through a checklist of his needs, he mentioned he had a crush fetish. She writes:

"I asked if that aligned with his interest in CBT. “No,” he explained, “I’m interested in seeing you crush insects.” “Like roaches?” I asked. I admit I was perplexed—when he said “crush,” I envisioned crushing his balls with my feet or heels. “Yes, and other things. If I brought something like a crab, could you crush it?” “You mean step on it?” “Yes, until you crush it.”
I took a deep breath. “No, no, I couldn’t do that.” I kindly explained that I was happy to indulge his other fetishes, but that I couldn’t bring myself to step on a crab. I tried to be the consummate professional, and not judge him while clearly delineating my limits. "

After googling "crush fetish", she writes: " I don’t recommend doing this unless you have a strong stomach. I don’t recommend doing this late at night—I find that if I look up anything that creeps me out past 10pm, I have trouble sleeping. And this definitely creeped me out."

Why is it when we are warned not to look, we can't resist the urge to? Why couldn't I just leave it at reading a blog? Like Pandora with her husband's locked box, I couldn't ...and even worse, Google didn't try to stop me.

Ask most people what a 'crush fetish' is and chances are that they'll think it's a type of sub/dom game. Putting this to the test, I emailed twenty acquaintances last night asking them to define it without the help of the net. While six romantics replied it was a fixation on unrequited love and two affectionate ones replied it was a hug fetish, the majority, 12, thought, like Lipstick Explosion, that it was a fetish involving the crushing of testicles.

While some men do enjoy having their balls stamped by a stiletto as part of BDSM play, crush fetish is an entirely different type of domination game. Jeremy Biles, who teaches Media Aesthetics at the University of Chicago, has researched the virtually unexplored world of the 'crush freak'. In his paper, “I, Insect, or Bataille and the Crush Freaks” he writes: "At the cutting edge of the edgy world of sexual fetishistic practices, the crush freaks are notorious for their enthusiasm for witnessing the crushing death of insects and other, usually invertebrate animals, such as arachnids, crustaceans and worms. More specifically, crush freaks are sexually aroused by the sight of an insect exploded beneath the pressure of a human foot - usually but not necessarily, a relatively large but beautiful female foot."

While most are hesitant to squash a bug or spider for reasons of cruelty or mess, crush freaks are aroused from watching a woman stamp on objects ranging from food to insects to mobile phones. For some, seeing a delicate heel crush a tomato will suffice, however for others crustaceans are popular as they are aurally pleasing - making a loud noise when smashed.

Many experts believe that crush is a subset fetish. However, what it's a subset of is not definite. Perhaps it's necrophilia theme or draws upon BDSM. Katherine Gates, author of Deviant Desires: Incredibly Strange Sex , views the crush fetish as drawing upon the giantess theme of macrophilia and foot fetishism. Jeremy Biles suggests that the use of technology as a sexualised object draws upon technophilia or arousal from technology.

Perhaps only the "crush freak" knows for sure. Alan discovered his passion as a child. The 29-year-old said: "I was out in the back yard with my older brother one morning after a night of rain and we found loads of snails. Seeing my brother crush them awoke something in me. Perhaps it was the sound of the shell cracking or seeing the snails soft body crushed in contrast to the cracked shell, but I just wanted to see him do it again and again." Bachelor Alan, who requested anonymity, has had girlfriends but never been able to express this desire. He admits to telling one ex he was petrified of bugs just to see her forced to crush them. He said: "Seeing her so disgusted yet powerful at those times was a truly erotic experience. I wanted to be that cockroach under her foot and feel the weight of her body on me." While Alan considers himself sexually open and dabbles in BDSM play and foot worship, for him there is no greated buzz to be found than to catch a woman crushing an insect in a white patent-leather heel.

Jeff "The Bug Vilencia", as publisher of The American Journal of Crush Freaks, is considered by many to the be the foremost spokesman on crush fetishism. In an interview with G.A. Pearson for Cultural Entemology Digest, Vilencia describes the crush fetish as a variant of giantessophilism: "The feeling is that of letting go, powerless, helpless, tiny, small, and
buglike. Wanting to see a female crush something with her foot, longing to be a
helpless insect as you squirm around under her foot sole as she squishes your
body into grease."

In a separate interview, "The Bug" describes his ecstasy at the point of orgasm as: "... in my mind all of my guts are being squished out. My eyeballs are popping out, my brain comes shooting out the top of my head, all my blood squirts everywhere...What a release, that imagery really gets me off! Seeing that foot coming down on me, coming into my stomach and pressing all that weight onto me till I burst! Wow!"

With approximately 500 subscribers, The American Journal of Crush Freaks caters to men who find sexual pleasure in the misfortunes of the small, but the net is the primary supplier of crush-related videos. Films such as Vilencia's "Smush" have even gained cult status. Some suggest there are as many 2,000 titles available for this global market as well as websites featuring chat rooms and crush clips.

The popularity of crush videos, which some refer to as "Animal Snuff Films"continues to rise dramatically despite passage of a U.S. federal law in 1999 banning the creation, sale or possession of films featuring crushing or stomping of animals. Organisations such as In Defence of Animals and individuals such as John Schiff have encouraged net vigilance to put an end to crushing of life.

On his website's FAQ's, John draws a line between safe and unsafe crushing. He writes: "In this more tame form that involves only consenting adults and a tube of toothpaste, it's not necessarily a bad thing. There are many websites devoted to non-destructive trampling, foot fetishes, and "giantess worship", and although it may seem odd to those who don't share those particular fascinations, there's nothing inherently unsafe about it. However, when extreme fetishists grow tired of inanimate objects, they may move on to live animals. Once the fetishist resorts to killing living things, he or she has crossed the line into unacceptable (and criminal) behavior."

In extreme fetishism, of whatever type, a line is crossed - however, it is important to bear in mind that fetish runs on a spectrum. While the majority will be satisfied at the crushing of a juicy tomato in some WAM play, a slim minority will move onto living creatures. As G.A. Pearson points out in his article: "Clearly, I just don't get the whole crush predilection. However, there seems to be very few crush freaks, so I don't think the invertebrate world is in great
danger. Crush fetishists represent a fascinating example of the human ability to eroticize just about any activity: in this case, one of interest to entomologists."