Good morning Deviants-and welcome to the return of KinkTalk.
KinkTalk is an article series in which I explain and educate you lot about non-mainstream fetishes and kinks. If there is ever something you would like to see discussed here, hit me up on twitter or on CuriousCat.
Today we’re going to discuss body swapping, and how it plays into personal and sexual identity.
Another You:
I mean, it’s not like I hate myself.
I don’t, not really. But when I look down at my body, all I see is my faults. I’m too hairy, I’m too fat. I’ve scars on my hands, my face, my legs and stomach from a life on the road. I’m a monument to all my mistakes.
But I can’t say I “hate” myself. It’s my body. It’s my lot, you know? I’ve got to make due with it, all that. But if I didn’t have to-if I had a choice in the matter-yeah, I’d be anybody else. You’re probably just like me, aren’t you?
Body swapping is less a kink, and more of an abstract representation of the human condition. We’re grown in cultures where we’re not good enough, not pretty enough, not “other” enough to enjoy ourselves. If we’re all of those things no matter what we do-why NOT be someone else? With body swapping, the idea is taken quite literally.
Body swapping can best be defined as two or more people swapping characteristics or actual bodies/minds via whatever magical mcguffin is necessary. It’s a kink firmly rooted in magical and sci-fi elements. However, like I stated, it’s something beyond “just a kink” in a lot of ways. Let’s unwrap it from the surface layer first.
On Being Pretty:
On a very base level, body swapping is a kink rooted in sensation.
Chances are pretty high you’ve explored every part of your body. Not just the sexy parts, but all the parts. Every callus, every weird joint, every fold. You’re so aware of your body that sensations-save pain-fade into non-existence. It’s the tragedy of constant exposure to familiar stimuli. You get so used to yourself that you hardly pay attention to your body until it’s too late.
That’s understandable, too. In all reality, your body (and it’s senses) are the first real stimuli you have after birth. You’ve had literal decades to get used to, sick of, and aware of you. But imagine being able to re-capture that first electric moment of stimulus, right after birth. You could-all it would take is swapping your flesh for another. Absolutely nothing would compare to the sensation of being someone new. You would spend hours just exploring that new flesh. Grasping, squeezing, trying your best to understand.
But once you’re past that initial groping-what then?
The internet has given us all a facsimile of “being someone else”. The furry community has especially been able to capture this. However, these assumed mantels all have the same universal issue-we’re still “us” beneath the layers. Behind the handles, the socials and the suits, we still have to come home to us. To this body we’ve known for decades.
Imagine if you didn’t have to do that. Imagine if you could simply step into a new, literal life. With a new body-perhaps someone in an aesthetic you yourself could never achieve.
The freedom associated with body swapping isn’t unlike religious aestheticism. While we’re not “ascending”, we’re still “shifting” into a different state, a different existence. Many into body swapping treat the kink as a shedding of their old identity. Describing the experience as a recognition of the “real you” isn’t that far of a stretch. As such, body swapping is a kink that naturally overlaps into queer and trans sexuality. Again we see that it’s less “kink” and more of an outcry of the current physical limits of technology and medicine. If we’re to continue a consumer culture focused on individualism and true identity, body swapping will enter mainstream discussion well within our lifetimes.
In many ways, it already has. Freaky Friday and similar movies have tackled the subject, often with comedic results. Family Matters featured nerdy inventor Steve Urkel changing into his buff counterpart Stephan, often as a means of Steve re-asserting his importance as a human being. These are only two examples of dozens of more media titles with body swap featured front and foremost of the narrative. While it’s easy to view these as nothing but media, mainstream media is often an acute or obtuse reflection of the needs of society.
Is it really any surprise that consumer audiences-who are now discussing gender identity and sexuality on a greater scale than before-would produce body swapping titles? Absolutely not.
Because we all desire to be that pretty, that successful person we’re told we need to be. We all want to be the person we feel we are on the inside, regardless of what we’re told. At the end of the day, we all want to be comfortable in our own flesh.
Even if it isn’t ours.
New Sensation:
This isn’t to say that body swapping is just a metaphor for identity only. Not by a long shot-this wouldn’t be Kink Talk if there wasn’t a sexy side.
As I was getting ready to write this, I reached out to a good friend of mine. Gabriel is a fan of body swapping, and had this to say:
“It appeals to me sexually because I find the idea of in control of a body other than my own and experiencing new pleasures so arousing…Being in a new body, maybe of a different gender, and seeing how different it is from your own, as well as how differently they live and see the world through a new lens. My favorite body swap stories are all about people from different lives social classes having to deal with not only a new body but also a new perspective on the world.”
Gabriel raises two points here that I would like to expand upon:
The tactile feel of being in a different body is, on the surface, very appealing. However, being able to swap your gender entirely is something I feel all of us have pondered at least once. Personally speaking, I absolutely wouldn’t turn down being a cute chubby girl for a day. I’m sure there are people that would enjoy my pot-bellied roughneck body too. Being able to look down, and feel every soft curve of my being? Mmph. I totally get it.
Likewise, body swapping would enable people to literally change social standing and class. Make all the “Prince and Pauper” comparisons you want, but being able to literally BE someone else from an entirely different culture would do wonders for global awareness. You can throw a rock and hit nine different culture discussions on twitter. Being able to personally observe those lives would be a boon to sociological discussion and understanding.
And besides-who wouldn’t want to be rich and super classy, if just for a day? I can’t say I’d turn it away.
In closing, while body swapping has surface level appeal, it has a much deeper narrative meaning in the mainstream. It’s only going to grow in popularity as technology closes the gap between who we are in the digital world, and meat space.
Behave until next time, deviants.