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ARTICLE
The sexual side of castration narratives: Fiction written by and
for eunuchs and eunuch ‘‘wannabes’’
Ariel B. Handy,
1
Richard J. Wassersug,
2
James T. J. Ketter,
3
and Thomas W. Johnson
4
1
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
2
Department of Medical Neuroscience, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, and the Australian Research Centre in Sex,
Health and Society, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
3
Independent Scholar, Victoria, BC
4
Department of Anthropology (Emeritus), California State University at Chico, CA
The Eunuch Archive is an online community of individuals with exceptional interest in castration and
penectomy. Here we examine themes related to genital ablation in a sample of fictional stories posted
by members of the Eunuch Archive. Similarities between the contents of these stories and members’
demographic information were found, suggesting that these stories may reflect some of the members’ life
experiences or personal fears. Common themes in both stories and personal histories of voluntarily
castrated men were homosexuality, childhood abuse, and threats of castration. We found that 83% of
stories were explicitly sexual, which was defined as containing physical or mental sexual arousal; sexual
acts such as masturbation, oral sex, or penetrative sex; or attainment of orgasm. Fifty-one percent of
stories described forced castrations, 34% involved minors, and 24% described orgasms related to genital
ablation. Writing these stories may be therapeutic for the authors, as some members have claimed that
writing them has allowed them to work through their extreme castration ideations without acting on them.
Clinicians should be aware that there are men who express profound interest in genital ablation and their
interests and/or concerns should be taken seriously.
KEY WORDS: Castration, eunuch, Eunuch Archive, fiction, sexual
INTRODUCTION
The term eunuch refers to a man who has been castrated,
either chemically or surgically. Cooper (1986) suggests that
thoughts of castration are a part of many men’s lives, whether
through fear or fascination. The Eunuch Archive (EA, see
http://www.eunuch.org) is an online community for indivi-
duals with an explicitly strong interest in castration, penectomy,
and nullification (an EA term referring to the removal/destruc-
tion of both the penis and testicles). Castration is the destruc-
tion of the testicles or their complete removal (medically re-
ferred to as an orchiectomy), while penectomy refers to total
or partial surgical removal of the penis. The EA contains four
sections: a Chat room, Personals, Discussion Board and the
Fiction Archive. The last holds stories written and posted
by the members of the EA community. As of February 2015,
there were 8,726 stories available on the Fiction Archive
(8,101 stories in English and 625 stories in 9 other languages).
Some stories date back to the site’s creation in 1998. Despite
the large size and long history of the EA, there has never been
a thematic analysis of the posted stories or any effort to
correlate the content of these stories with the demographics
of the membership of the EA.
There have been several studies though on the members of
the EA community. While some members of the EA have, in
fact, been voluntarily castrated or penectomized, the majority
of people who post there have not, yet they nevertheless have
an extreme interest in the topic (Roberts et al., 2008). There
are, for example, regular announcements by EA members
that they have finally achieved a desired castration. Although
a few castrated individuals in the community may have Male-
to-Female Gender Dysphoria, most sought emasculation
without the desire to present as female (Vale et al., 2010).
Johnson, Brett, Roberts and Wassersug (2007) investigated
the prevalence of Gender Dysphoria and Body Integrity Iden-
tity Disorder in individuals who frequent the Discussion
Board. Through a survey hosted on the EA with nearly 3000
respondents, they found that, although not formally diagnosed,
over a third of members met criteria for one of these disorders.
In addition, Vale, Siemens, Johnson and Wassersug (2013)
identified several risk factors for following through with ex-
treme castration ideations. Some of these risk factors include
Correspondence concerning this article should be sent to Thomas W. Johnson, PhD, Department of Anthropology (Emeritus), California State
University, Chico, P.O. Box 50, Fulton, CA 95439–0050, USA. E-mail: twj@sonic.net
The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality 24(2), 2015, pp. 151–159; doi:10.3138/cjhs.242-A4 151
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strong parental religiosity, having experienced childhood abuse,
and having participated in animal castration as a child (see
also Jackowich, Vale, Vale, Wassersug, & Johnson, 2014).
Based on these studies, it is clear that many members of the
EA have an unusual set of personal characteristics. Here we
investigate the similarities between the demographic profiles
of EA members as found in these prior studies and themes
within a subset of their fictional narratives. We hypothesize
that there are similarities between the themes of the fictional
stories and the unusual personal histories common to EA
members.
The guidelines for posting a story to the EA include that
the story must be related to genital injury and/or ablation
[i.e., ‘‘Genital mutilation is the story theme’’]. Also, authors
must not plagiarize other members’ stories nor add text within
ongoing series without permission from the original author.
However, there are few other restrictions on content.
Since common themes in the EA narratives showed up
as risk factors for castration ideation in previous studies of
the demographic information of EA members (e.g., Vale et
al., 2013), we speculate that these stories may have clinical
relevance. In particular, such narratives may help clinicians
in both diagnosing and developing treatment protocols for
individuals with extreme castration ideations that are disrupt-
ing their lives. In addition, the Fiction Archive suggests strat-
egies for helping individuals with extreme castration ideations
through expressive writing. We believe that healthcare profes-
sionals should be aware that individuals with extreme castra-
tion ideations exist and be able to provide adequate care
should those individuals seek medical attention.
METHODS
All stories posted on the EA are assigned an identification
number (referred to as Story ID) in the chronological order
by which they are posted. The Story IDs are generated auto-
matically through HTML coding and do not appear within
the post itself.
Similar to Story IDs, stories posted on the EA have ‘‘tags’’
associated with them to classify their content. Authors are
supplied with a list of tags to choose from. They can choose
any or all tags that apply to their submitted story:
Gay: Stories focused upon homosexual content.
Bi: Stories focused upon bisexual content.
Straight: Stories focused upon heterosexual content.
TG: Stories focused upon transgender content.
Testicles: Stories in which the testicles are removed or
damaged.
Penectomy: Stories in which the penis is removed or
damaged.
Nullification: Stories in which the entire genitals are removed.
General Warning: Stories in which the content could be
considered extreme, or violent.
Minor: Stories in which the main or significant characters are
minor children.
Authors can add up to four additional custom tags to best de-
scribe their stories, should the provided tags not fully describe
their submission.
These tags are selected by the author to help readers find
stories of similar interest and tags are sometimes added by
the EA’s fiction editor in addition to the tags selected by the
author to better represent the story’s content. Authors com-
monly use just two tags: one describing what form of genital
ablation is in the story (‘‘testicles,’’ ‘‘nullification,’’ or ‘‘penec-
tomy’’) and the second describing the sexual orientation of
the characters in the story (‘‘gay,’’ ‘‘straight,’’ ‘‘TG’’ (trans-
gender), or ‘‘bi’’). This was the primary distinction for sexual
orientation used for analysis of the stories. Stories involving
minors (tagged as ‘‘minor’’) as well as custom tags such as
‘‘historical’’ (e.g., when writing about the Italian castrati)
were also used for further analysis of the stories’ content and
focus.
We define the ‘‘main characters’’ in the stories in three
ways, depending on the point of view (first, second, or third
person) of the characters in the stories. For stories told in
the first person, the narrator was considered the main charac-
ter. For stories told in the third person, the main character
was the person for whom readers received the most informa-
tion. Among those analyzed, there was only one story told in
the second person and, in that situation, the main character
was the person who was addressed as ‘‘you.’’
Finally, we use the terms ‘‘recipient’’ and ‘‘inflictor’’ through-
out this paper. The ‘‘recipient’’ refers to the character in the
story who received the genital injury or ablation, and the
‘‘inflictor’’ refers to the character who performed the genital
injury or ablation.
By using a random number generator, 134 out of a total
7,968 available narratives as of February 2014 were selected
for inclusion in this study. Of those, four were excluded for
being written in a language other than English (two were
written in French, one in Spanish, and one in German), and
10 were used exclusively in a preliminary analysis. The 120
remaining stories were read and analyzed incrementally by
the first author, who had no prior exposure to the stories
before beginning the analysis. All were read by the third
author as well and no discrepancies in the textual analysis
emerged.
The stories were analyzed for the following themes: 1) spe-
cific ways by which genital ablation was achieved; 2) recipient
and/or inflictor sexual arousal; 3) whether either the recipient
and/or inflictor achieved orgasm; 4) recipient and/or inflictor
age (minor or adult); 5) consent for genital ablation by the
recipient; and 6) recipient and/or inflictor sex (male, female,
or male-to-female). None of the sampled stories contained
female-to-male transsexuals.
The major thematic categories were developed through a
preliminary analysis of 10 stories, which were then excluded
from the final analysis. After 50 more stories were analyzed,
the thematic categories were expanded (e.g., breaking the
category ‘recipient and/or inflictor sexual arousal’ into ‘arousal
due to sex’ and ‘arousal due to genital injury’). A second set
of 50 stories was read and analyzed, and neither common
Ariel B. Handy et al.
152 The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality 24(2), 2015, pp. 151–159; doi:10.3138/cjhs.242-A4
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themes nor the results varied. A final 20 stories were read and
the frequency of themes still did not change, so no further
data collection was undertaken.
RESULTS
Authors and Word Count
The stories analyzed were posted under 89 different pseudo-
nyms, 75 of which were associated with only one story. The
remaining 14 pseudonyms were associated with multiple
stories. The average number of stories per pseudonym was
1.35, with a range of 1 to 7. The average story analyzed was
4,260 e379 words long with a range of 137–17,866 and a
median length of 2,649 words (roughly the same length as
the Book of Job in the King James Bible). There are much
longer (unanalyzed) stories that are roughly 50,000 words.
Castration, Penectomy, and Nullification
Of the 120 stories, 10 contained themes other than genital
removal or destruction (e.g., ‘‘cock and ball torture’’ that did
not end in castration/penectomy/nullification [in its early
years the website accepted almost any story that was sub-
mitted]) and 11 contained plans for future genital ablations.
The majority of stories (70%) contained at least one scene of
genital ablation written in the present tense and 14% referred
back to one or more past genital ablations. Castration was the
dominant form of genital ablation, and was described in 68%
of the stories (Table 1).
Process of Genital Ablation
All but 26 stories provided a description of the process of the
genital ablation (n¼94). The detail that authors included
pertaining to the injuries varied widely, with some stories
showing a solid understanding of testicular anatomy and
wound care [#13451, RC: ‘‘He made an incision 1 ½’’ long on
the left side of Aaron’s scrotum. . . nudged that testicle out
and severed its cord, quickly tying off the end he returned
[it] to the scrotum. He sutured the incision closed. . . Twice
each day, Tony cleaned and re-bandaged the wounds after
applying an antibiotic’’]. Some stories, on the other hand,
gave much less detail on what was happening and were un-
realistic or anatomically impossible (e.g., a penis being able
to reach orgasm and ejaculate after complete ablation).
Physical castration and/or penectomy was the most com-
monly depicted process for genital ablation within the stories
(physical: 93%, chemical: 7%), and the most common physi-
cal way for genital removal was a complete surgical dissection
of the testicles or penis (castration: 49 stories, penectomy: 23
stories; Table 2). The process of genital injury is often de-
scribed in great detail and the pain is often explicit [#4588,
Pueros: ‘‘. . . As breath was expelled in an excruciating manner
from the 12 year-old’s beautiful body, before sufficient air was
retrieved for a loud anguished scream to be emitted.’’].
Sexual Arousal and Orgasm
Of the 120 stories analyzed, 100 (83%) contained explicitly
sexual themes involving emotional or physical sexual arousal
[#6058, Shortie: ‘‘I was literally out of my head with lust’’;
Table 1. Frequencies of described instances of genital ablation
based on when they were performed within the context of each
story (past, present, and future, n¼112) and form (castration,
penectomy, and nullification, n¼94) within the analyzed
fictional narratives (n¼110).
Total
When the Genital Ablation occurs/occurred
Past 17
Present 84
Future 11
Total
1
110
Form of Genital Ablation
Castration only 58
Penectomy only 12
Nullification 24
Total
2
94
1
Some stories (n¼2) contained multiple castrations and/or penectomies
at different times; therefore, the total number (n¼112) is greater than
the total number of selected stories (n¼110)
2
Some stories (n¼28) did not provide a description as to how genital
ablation occurred.
Table 2. Frequencies of described physical (n¼118) and
chemical (n¼9) processes for castration and penectomy
within the analyzed fictional narratives (n¼94).
Total
1
Castration Penectomy
Physical Processes
Cut 72 49 23
Strangulation (with elastrator) 6 5 1
Crushed 12 11 1
Eaten/Bitten 7 4 3
Sexual Reassignment Surgery 6 3 3
Other
2
15 11 4
Chemical Processes
Injection 7 7 0
Hormone Therapy 1 1 0
Other
2
10 1
1
Some stories (n¼33) contained multiple castrations and/or
penectomies, therefore the total number of physical and chemical
processes (n¼127) is greater than the total number of selected stories
(n¼94)
2
‘‘Other’’ represents physical and/or chemical processes that were only
described once in all of the selected stories.
Fiction written by and for eunuchs and eunuch ‘‘wannabes’’
The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality 24(2), 2015, pp. 151–159; doi:10.3138/cjhs.242-A4 153
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#3664, Michael: ‘‘My penis becomes rock hard’’], sexual activ-
ities [#7951, Astromancer: ‘‘I kissed Nye full on the mouth’’],
or attainment of orgasm [#2190, Ian: ‘‘I was cumming and
cumming into the sink’’]. Sixty-five stories (54%) contained
emotional or physical arousal that was directly associated
with a sexual act or thought and 44 stories (37%) contained
emotional or physical arousal that was directly associated
with an act or thought of genital injury [#3186, Takarta: ‘‘as
soon as I saw that hammer I became rock hard]. Seventy-
three stories (61%) contained orgasm(s) that were directly
related to a sexual thought or activity, and 29 stories (24%)
contained orgasm(s) that were directly related to an act or
thought of genital injury [#12243, Zipper: ‘‘The boy turned
the knife over a few times, looking at it, and finally reached
out and gently grasped my scrotum, then tightened his grip
and began pulling. I clenched my teeth against the inevitable
pain and closed my eyes. And ejaculated. It was one of the
most powerful and intense orgasms I’d ever experienced. . .’’].
Cumulatively, 49 stories (41%) contained vaginal or anal
sex, 45 stories (38%) contained oral sex, 23 (19%) contained
solo masturbation (masturbating oneself either alone or in the
presence of someone else), and 14 (12%) contained mutual
masturbation (masturbating someone else with or without
reciprocal masturbation).
Adult-Minor Incidences
Although the selected stories predominantly featured adults
(and the EA is an ‘‘over 18’’ restricted site), 41 out of the 120
total selected stories (34%) included characters described by
the authors as ‘‘minors.’’ In 65 stories (54%), both the inflic-
tor(s) and recipient(s) were adults. In eight of the 41 stories
involving minors, an adult injures a minor, in seven stories a
minor injures a minor, and in five stories a minor injuries an
adult (19%, 17%, and 12% of stories involving minors, respec-
tively). Eleven stories did not specify the age of either the
recipient or inflictor.
In 67% of the stories containing sexual content, adults
were the only ones involved in sexual activities or genital
ablation, and in 33% of the sexual stories, at least one of the
main characters was a minor. Eighteen percent of the sexual
stories contained themes of adult-minor sex, which equates
to nearly half of all minor-focused stories (44%). The re-
mainder of the stories that included minors either focused
on partnered sex between two minors or one minor engaging
in solo masturbation.
Sexual Orientation
For stories that did not include author-identified sexual orien-
tation, this information was based on described partnered
sexual activities or sexual thoughts about another partner.
Stories in which the main character(s) sexual thoughts or
activities were directed only toward other men were classified
as homosexual, only toward women were classified as hetero-
sexual, and toward both men and women were classified as
bisexual. Fifty-nine percent of all stories were heterosexual,
29% were homosexual, and 10% were bisexual. Two stories
were unclassifiable, as one solely contained animals with no
given sex, and the other was a non-sexual story with no
orientation defined by the author.
Consent for Genital Ablation
Although many men on the EA express an interest in ob-
taining voluntary castration (Wassersug & Johnson, 2007),
themes of forced castration were most prevalent in the fiction.
The majority of all stories (52%) contained forced genital
ablation (castration, penectomy or nullification against the
character’s will) [#4742, Nathan: ‘‘don’t do this! Oh DON’T!!!!!
OH PLEASE.’’.. . Henry was shaking with fear, and with a voice
that literally cracked he said ‘‘OH GOD. . .OH PLEASE. . . .
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?’’]. Only 17% of stories
depicted a consensual ablation and in 13% of stories the char-
acter was coerced into having his genitals ablated. Twenty-
three stories did not describe a level of consent for genital
ablation.
Inflictor’s Sex
In 22 stories there was no identification of the sex of the
inflictor or there were multiple inflictors of different sexes.
Females were inflictors in 80% of heterosexual stories and
males were inflictors in 94% of homosexual stories. In hetero-
sexual stories, 51% contained forced genital injury by a female
inflictor (Table 3). Sometimes the female inflictor was de-
scribed as a ‘‘dominatrix’’ [#644, David: ‘‘She was dressed in
her dominatrix outfit and grinning.’’]. Similarly, homosexual
stories tended to contain forced genital injury by a male
inflictor (39%).
DISCUSSION
Data set Authenticity
Through the Fiction Archive, we have a massive database of
fictional stories created by people with an extreme interest in
genital injury. But, how do we know that they are the work of
many independent authors and not simply the product of one
or a few authors using multiple usernames? We can safely
assume that these stories are the work of a larger population
from the sheer volume of stories (i.e., over 8,000) currently
posted on the EA. This amounts to nearly one and a half
new stories posted per day, some of them of book length,
over the 16-year history of the EA. Stories range from
Chinese and Russian to Portuguese and German. While
some authors may use more than one pseudonym, there are
clearly multiple authors involved. Had the collection been,
for example, the product of just 100 authors, each of those
authors would have to have posted one new story every two
months for the past 16 years. In addition, one of the authors
(Johnson) has interviewed several members of the EA, in-
cluding some whose fiction was randomly selected for this
Ariel B. Handy et al.
154 The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality 24(2), 2015, pp. 151–159; doi:10.3138/cjhs.242-A4
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analysis. This helped to verify the authenticity of the multitude
of authors that have contributed to the EA story collection.
In addition, we can assume these stories are fictional for
two reasons. If these were all or even largely non-fictional
narratives, healthcare professionals would be much more aware
of voluntary (and involuntary) castrations (and, in turn,
eunuchs) in the Western world (see discussions in Johnson
& Wassersug, 2010; Wassersug, 2010). Second, the sheer
brutality and unsafe acts in the stories also suggest that the
stories are works of fiction. Although some stories reflect
authors’ detailed understanding of surgical castration, many
describe procedures that would likely lead to death from
blood loss. If these activities were non-fiction, it would be
very difficult to keep them hidden from society. Although
there have been only about 100 published cases of male genital
self-mutilation brought to the attention of medical profes-
sionals since 1901 (Greilsheimer & Groves, 1979; Romilly &
Isaac, 1996; Stunell, Power, Floyd, & Quinlan, 2006). Wassersug
and Johnson (2007) have argued that voluntary castrations
outside the medical system are often performed safely and
are more common than the medical reports indicate. In con-
trast, if performed by the methods used in the stories, these
men would be presenting in emergency departments (and
morgues), and healthcare professionals, including coroners,
would have identified many more individuals with genital
injuries. The acts described in these stories often reached
such brutality that professional medical attention would be
imperative for real live subjects to survive.
Although fictional, can the stories posted on the EA tell us
anything about the members of the EA site? Our data suggest
that the stories may reflect the members’ lives, desires, and
fears. We found many similarities between aspects of the
stories and members’ demographic information from previous
studies. This leads us to believe that these stories are relevant
to understanding the clinical needs in a largely uninvestigated
population at risk of genital injury.
Castration, Penectomy, and Nullification
In a study conducted by Johnson et al. (2007), it was found
that, of 140 men who had voluntarily received genital abla-
tion, 118 (84%) were castrated, 5 (4%) were penectomized,
and 17 (12%) were nullified. In the current study, we found
that 63% of the ‘‘recipients’’ in the stories were castrated,
12% were penectomized, and 25% were nullified. The rela-
tively high percentages of genital ablations in both their
fictional stories and the personal history of members of the
EA community supports the hypothesis that the content of
the fictional narratives reflect to some extent the personal
histories and/or ideations of the authors.
Process of Genital Ablation
Johnson et al. (2007) found that, of the castrated group in
their survey, 68% received physical castrations and 32% re-
ceived chemical castrations. In the current study, 64% of all
stories featured someone who received physical castrations
and 7% featured someone who received chemical castrations.
For contemporary voluntary eunuchs, and for characters in
these fictional stories, the most common form of chemical
castration is the injection of toxins into the testicles to induce
necrosis (Johnson & Irwig, 2014). Johnson and Irwig also
found that the only significant difference between the physi-
cally and chemically castrated groups was that that the physical
group was more likely to have a reported ‘‘fantasy/curiosity/
cyberplay’’ interest before castration, which could be why
we see more physical castrations appearing in the fantasy/
fictional stories.
We also found that many of the genital injuries that were
acquired in these stories were described as extremely painful.
This could suggest a sadistic and/or masochistic aspect to
these men’s obsessions, but it could also reflect that, because
the desire for voluntary castration is socially unacceptable, it
must be both forcible and painful.
Table 3. Frequencies of recipient consent for genital ablation (be it forced, consensual, or coerced) in heterosexual, homosexual,
and bisexual stories by inflictor’s sex (female or male) within the analyzed fictional narratives (n¼83)
1
.
Described Sexual Orientation of Story Characters
Recipient Desire for Genital Ablation Total Heterosexual Homosexual Bisexual
Female Inflictor
Forced 28 23 2 3
Desired 10 9 0 1
Coerced 9 7 1 1
Total 47 39 3 5
Male Inflictor
Forced 26 9 13 4
Desired 5 4 1 0
Coerced 5 1 3 1
Total 36 14 17 5
1
This is less than 120 stories because 22 stories did not provide sex of the inflictor, 23 stories did not report recipient’s level of consent for genital
ablation, and 2 stories did not provide sexual orientation.
Fiction written by and for eunuchs and eunuch ‘‘wannabes’’
The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality 24(2), 2015, pp. 151–159; doi:10.3138/cjhs.242-A4 155
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Sexual Arousal and Orgasm
The strong sexual associations that are made with genital
injury in these stories are indicative of a castration paraphilia.
The primary inclusion criterion for posting a story on the EA
is that it must be related to genital injury. However, 83% of
these stories also had explicit sexual themes. In 61% of stories,
either the recipient or inflictor reached orgasm, and in 24% of
stories these orgasms resulted directly from genital injury. In
Discussion Board forums, some members of the EA have
explicitly stated that they find these stories sexually arousing
[02–10–2005, Slammr: ‘‘When I first stumbled upon the
Archive, I read the stories because they turned me on.’’].
Some members of the EA suffer from xenomelia (Johnson
& Irwig, 2014), a neurological disorder that typically first
expresses itself during childhood. Xenomelia is referred to as
Body Integrity Identity Disorder in the psychiatric literature
and is often coupled with erotic attraction to the amputation
of an unrecognized limb. Those who suffer from xenomelia
do not recognize certain body parts as being their own and,
sometimes, attempt self-amputation of the limb in question
(McGeoch, et al. 2011; Hilti, et al. 2013). It is thought that
the erotic attraction is due to the ‘‘damaged wiring’’ of the
sensory cortex of the right parietal lobe and is not considered
a paraphilia (Hilti et al., 2013). There is currently no formally
recognized paraphilia that relates directly to castration or
genital injury. Money (1988) proposed the Skoptic Syndrome
as a paraphilia related to castration for religious purposes.
However, it has been removed from the DSM (previously in
version IV section 302.6: Gender Identity Disorder Not Other-
wise Specified) and is thus no longer formally recognized. The
most similar paraphilia is apotemnophilia, which is the eroti-
cization of being an amputee (Money, Jobaris, & Furth, 1977).
Apotemnophilia is generally reported to occur most com-
monly in arms and legs, however it can also include digits,
genitals, and other body parts (Khalil & Richa, 2012). A
survey by Swindell and St. Lawrence (2009) of all the reports
of Body Integrity Identity Disorder that they could find in the
medical literature revealed that 32% involved male genitals.
However, no themes of Body Integrity Identity Disorder (e.g.,
not recognizing a body part) were present in the 17% of stories
that lacked sexually explicit content.
Adult-Minor Incidences
In addition to the aforementioned paraphilias, several stories
also contain pedophilic themes. As these stories are fictional,
we did not feel a duty to report the stories that depicted
sexual abuse to authorities. In Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coali-
tion (2002), the US Supreme Court (as the EA is hosted in the
United States) ruled that adult material depicting minors, but
that was not made through the use of any actual minor, is
protected free speech. In addition, Section 6-a of the Cana-
dian Law defining child pornography (163.1 of the criminal
code) provides for a legitimate use of such fiction for the
medical treatment of people with castration and pedophilic
ideations, as long as the use and distribution of such materials
does not put persons under the age of 18 at risk. The front
page of the EA warns that ‘‘if this type of material is not legal
in your jurisdiction do not enter.’’
We found that 18% of stories containing castration and/or
penectomy contained scenes of adult-minor sexual interac-
tions. Similarly, in a study conducted by Vale et al. (2013),
it was found that 20.5% of men, who had been physically
castrated or penectomized, reported a history of having been
sexually abused in childhood and 16.2% had been threatened
with genital mutilation as children. While it is possible that a
relationship exists between these current and previous find-
ings, some members of the EA have acknowledged that there
also may be pedophilic intention for some authors. Still,
many EA members argue that reading and writing is better
than acting [01–26–2005, Paolo: ‘‘For anyone getting a ‘turn
on’ from the reading, he [Bboy, the EA creator] rationalized
that said person wasn’t hurting anyone if he was sitting in
his living room or wherever reading and writing.’’]. In addi-
tion, a survey conducted by Jackowich and colleagues (2014)
asked EA respondents the question ‘‘What kind of sexually
inappropriate act are you concerned you might commit?,’’
While few of the survey respondents answered the question,
29% of all respondents who answered and 48% of men who
had been physically castrated and/or nullified (14 out of 29
who answered the question) stated that they were concerned
with committing pedophilic acts. Pedophilia is often comor-
bid with other paraphilias including sadism (Raymond, Cole-
man, Ohlerking, Christenson, & Miner, 1999), which was also
depicted in the 21% of stories that describe an adult castrating
a minor. However, it does not follow that either authors of,
or the readers of, these stories would act out the events in
the story. Indeed it has been found in studies across several
countries that ‘‘as pornography became available sex crimes
decreased rather than increased’’ (Diamond, 2009; Diamond,
Jozifkova, & Weiss, 2011; Diamond & Uchiyama, 1999).
Despite this, many EA members declare that they have no
pedophilic desires and state that the involvement of minors
reflects their own personal experiences [02–10–2005, Pyxiii:
‘‘Because as a kid I always felt I should have been able to
stop the things that happened to me, and that in some way,
I’d invited the things that happened. Because by the time I
hit puberty, I’d already started wanting to inflict pain to my
own genitals, and it’s only since discovering this archive a
few months ago, that I’ve finally started to realize that this
was in response to guilt and humiliation I felt about the
events of my life.’’]. Others, on the other hand, are bothered
by the involvement of minors in the stories and express con-
cern over this genre. It is noteworthy that several discussion
board members of the EA, who have already been castrated,
report that they sought castration to reduce their libidos and
their pedophilic desires.
Sexual Orientation
We found that 27% of the stories written on the EA were
either tagged by the author as homosexual or depicted sexual
Ariel B. Handy et al.
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acts only between males. Interestingly, past research has also
found that, out of a sample of 135 voluntarily castrated men,
32% of the physically castrated or penectomized men and
19% of the chemically castrated self-identified as homosexual
(Johnson et al., 2007). Another study has found that 21.9%
of castrated/penectomized men self-identified as homosexual
(Vale et al., 2013).
Bisexuality was found in 8% of the stories, which is over
four times greater than rates reported in the general popula-
tion (Gates, 2011). Stief, Rieger, and Savin-Williams (2014)
found that bisexuality in men was associated with higher
levels of sexual sensation seeking and sexual curiosity. This is
of interest because, if these stories accurately represent the
fantasies and/or ideations of men who wrote them, then the
desire for genital injury could be a very real aspect of some
men’s sexual curiosity and thrill-seeking.
Consent for Genital Ablation
The use of forced genital injury in these stories is similar to
descriptions of forced feminization in early writings of male-
to-female transsexuals. In stories that date back to the late
19th century, a male is made by others (typically one or
more women) to dress or act as a female. These situations
can be short-lived, such as for a school play, or can last for
the rest of the character’s life (Davis & Kleinmaier, 2002a,
2002b). During the late 19th century, transsexualism was not
as socially acceptable as it is currently. Within these stories, it
is clear that it is not the boy’s choice, nor was it in his control,
much like what was found within the EA stories. For instance,
Davis and Kleinmaier (2002a) describe how in early trans-
sexual literature a young male’s feminization was brought on
against his will, which could reflect the fear early transsexual
writers had about exposing their true desires, and disguising
them through the forceful wishes of others.
This fear of publically expressing one’s true desire for
genital ablation is a common theme on the Discussion Board.
There are many posts about the great difficulty of finding a
counselor to work with or a qualified surgeon. Many pro-
grams designed to help individuals with gender dysphoria
work within an assumed binary and do not normal treat in-
dividuals who desire emasculation, but not feminization (cf.
Ahmad et al., 2013). As one result, most of those in the EA
community, who have been voluntarily castrated, have re-
sorted to self-surgery or surgery by unlicensed ‘‘back-alley
cutters’’ (Jackowich et al., 2014; Johnson & Irwig, 2014).
Despite this, most express a desire for safe surgery by a pro-
fessional.
Inflictor’s Sex
The sex of the inflictor is another area that strongly supports
the sexualization of genital injury. In 80% of the heterosexual
stories the inflictor was a female, and in 51% the inflictor
was a female who was forcing the genital injury upon the
recipient. In 94% of the homosexual stories, the inflictor was
a male and in 39%, the inflictor was a male who was forcing
the genital injury upon the recipient. This continues to suggest
that these authors may have a castration paraphilia, as the in-
flictor is more likely to be a member of the sexually desired sex.
Clinical Implications
The clinical implications are clear: these men exist, and their
thoughts of genital ablation need to be taken seriously.
Whether men desire emasculation because of Gender Dys-
phoria or Xenomelia, or if the desire for (or obsession with)
castration arises for other reasons, such as the desire to re-
duce libido or for fantasy/cyberplay (Johnson et al., 2007;
Wassersug, Zelenietz, & Squire, 2004), their situations must
be recognized and handled properly if they come to the atten-
tion of healthcare professionals. If their obsessive interests
are not taken seriously, they may not receive adequate care.
Reluctance to share castration desires with the medical com-
munity keeps this topic taboo (Jackowich et al., 2014; Johnson
& Wassersug, 2010; Wassersug, 2010) and keeps these men
from obtaining appropriate professional care.
The Fiction Archive was originally created with therapeutic
intent. Members of the site have claimed that writing about
their fears and/or fantasies has helped them manage their
obsessions without acting them out in real life [02–10–2005,
Paolo: ‘‘I myself banished a recurring nightmare I’d had since
almost childhood, with the story ‘‘For Your Own Good.’’
Since writing it, I’ve not had the nightmare since.’’]. Writing
such stories could potentially act as an outlet, whether it is
to mentally fulfill a castration desire or to rework traumatic
events [04–12–2008, Slammr: ‘‘Writing is therapeutic. It’s
a way to resolve childhood issues.’’], however this has not
been rigorously investigated. In addition, many members
claim there to be a strong sense of community on the Fiction
Archive, and readers are encouraged to give the authors feed-
back on their work. In that regard many authors state that
they write not only for their own therapeutic benefit, but
also for the benefit of others. From a clinical perspective, it
may be helpful to refer clients with castration ideations to
this website. However the direct impact that the site has on
visitors has not been studied.
The sense of support and community though that is
present on the EA could potentially help patients understand
that they are not the only ones with these desires. Expressive
writing has been used as a form of therapy and has been
found to increase self-regulation and decrease psychological
distress, negative mood, and depressive symptoms (Gortner,
Rude, & Pennebaker, 2006; Langens & Schu¨ler, 2005; Wong
& Rochlen, 2009).
Alternatively, the writing and reading of these stories
could potentially perpetuate negative or bothersome thoughts
for some individuals. It is possible that, for some, their castra-
tion desires realize through the reading and/or writing of the
Fiction Archive [04–17–2005, Timothy: ‘‘I almost ALMOST
asked his dad, ‘‘Have you given any thought to castration?’’
That’s a question that would be unthinkable to any normal
person but I almost let it slip out. That’s why I stopped
Fiction written by and for eunuchs and eunuch ‘‘wannabes’’
The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality 24(2), 2015, pp. 151–159; doi:10.3138/cjhs.242-A4 157
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writting [sic]. It’s time to get my mind on other things.’’].
Timothy had earlier written about his minor-centred stories
(6/23/2004) ‘‘Castration is the LAST thing I want. I would
NEVER agree to be ‘nutted. . . .’ Some people write about
Vampires and Ghosts and monsters because that is what
scares them. I write about my nightmares not about my
happy dreams.’’
It would be premature to conclude that writing EA stories
is ‘‘curative’’ for these men; however it may be therapeutic in
helping some rework traumatic events from their childhood
[08–14–2014, Peter47-NL: ‘‘It (the Fiction Archive) opened
safely the door to my repressed subconsciousness.’’]. by pro-
viding a safe way for the authors and readers to indulge their
fantasies. Such hypotheses have yet to be explored.
All told, writing such stories is not likely to be sufficient
therapy for those who suffer from severe Gender Dysphoria.
Johnson et al. (2007) showed that a quarter (24%) of castrated
EA members self-identify as a ‘‘Third/Other/Neither’’ gender,
rather than strictly male or female. There is evidence that
pre-surgical reassignment, transsexuals suffer from decreased
mental health and poorer quality of life compared to the
general population (Ainsworth & Spiegel, 2010; Mustanski,
Garofalo, & Emerson, 2010; Newfield, Hart, Dibble, & Kohler,
2006). If written expression is the only form of therapy that
these men receive, and, if ‘‘eunuch’’ continues to not be
formally recognized as a valid gender identity (i.e., neither
male nor females, but emasculated)
1
(Vale et al., 2010;
cf. Wassersug, McKenna, & Lieberman, 2012), then we may
continue to see such men seek dangerous genital ablations
outside the healthcare system.
Limitations
An unfortunate drawback to this study is that we cannot link
personal histories of most of the authors with their stories.
We do not know, for example, if the extent to which the
stories pertaining to adult-child sexual interactions were
written specifically by men who experienced childhood sexual
abuse.
Another limitation to our research is that, with any online
study, we have a population biased toward people with access
to the Internet and are literate. The stories we analyzed are
solely the product of authors who are comfortable enough to
register to a site pertaining to castration and to post relevant
stories online. This population of writers may not reflect the
full breadth of men with extreme castration ideations.
NOTE
1 We note that a valid 3rd gender identity exists in several coun-
tries including Australia, Germany, India, Nepal, New Zealand,
Pakistan, Samoa and Thailand.
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