PervScan » Aphrodisiac

Fury Over Cat Eating Festival

Supervert — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:09:01 +0000

“Animal rights groups are up in arms over an annual festival in Peru that serves up hundreds of fried cats to locals. The ‘Gastronomical Festival of the Cat‘ — dubbed the ‘Massacre of the Moggies’ — sees townsfolk in Canete, near Lima, feast on the fluffy pets for two days. They believe that eating cat burgers — and fried cat legs and tails — can cure bronchial disease. It is also believed that feline meat serves as an aphrodisiac. The cats are bred especially for this festival — which takes place at the end of September on the Day of Santa Ifigenia. But it has generated fury among animal rights groups. A PETA spokesman said: ‘If Peruvians really eat poor old Moggy because they think his meat cures bronchitis, that’s about as bizarre as it gets, although remember that Asians eat monkey bits thinking that will cure their impotence and even Europeans butcher poor old Bessie the cow or Henny Penny the hen, because they see them as nothing more than a bit of nourishment.’” — The Sun (UK)

So you’re sitting on a barstool somewhere and a guy comes up to you and says, “Let’s go down to the Gastronomical Festival of the Cat and get really wild…” Wild? What do you mean? “Wild — like, we’ll stuff ourselves with cat burgers and romp our way through town like sailors on shore leave…” Cat burgers? “Oh man, yes, cat burgers, the ecstasy tablet made of pure unadulterated cat meat, the Viagra of Peru…”

Sound like an episode from a Surrealist novel? Why, yes. But you can experience this freaky scene if you break through the human chain of PETA protestors and head on down to the Massacre of the Moggies. Probably it is indeed a wild time — not because cat meat is an aphrodisiac, but because the group delusion that it stokes the fires of love will encourage people to let loose. There must be copious drinking as well. But what do Peruvians drink with cat meat — white wine, perhaps? Tequila? Moonshine?

Drug-Rape Victim? Or Binge Drinker?

Supervert — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 03:14:37 +0000

“Women who claim to be victims of ‘date-rape’ drugs such as Rohypnol have in fact been rendered helpless by binge-drinking, says a study by doctors. They found no evidence that any woman seeking help from emergency doctors because their drinks were allegedly spiked had actually been given these drugs. Around one in five tested positive for recreational drugs while two-thirds had been drinking heavily. The findings further erode the theory that there is widespread use of Rohypnol and GHB… Doctors carrying out the latest study at the Wrexham Maelor Hospital said it was far more likely women were claiming their drinks had been spiked as an ‘excuse’ for binge-drinking. The 12-month study was based on 75 patients — mostly women — treated in casualty who told doctors their drinks had been tampered with in pubs or clubs. But tests for drugs such as Rohypnol, GHB and ketamine found nothing, says the study published in the Emergency Medicine Journal. It showed 65 per cent of women had 160mg of alcohol in their blood — twice the 80mg drink/drive limit — and a quarter were three times over the limit. Although all the patients denied taking drugs such as cocaine and amphetamine, one fifth tested positive.” — ThisIsLondon.co.uk (UK)

(Thanks to Furpo for the link.)

It seems easy to understand the psychology underlying this interesting research result. If your drink is spiked, you have no responsibility for what happens to you afterward. You’re a victim, clean and simple. However, if you simply drink too much, it implies some personal responsibility in what happens to you. No one wants to think that she colluded, in however small a way, with her rapist. Yes, the responsibility ultimately lies with the rapist, but if you’ve drunk yourself into oblivion, it’s probably difficult to hold your head high. You might tell yourself that it’s as though you told Mr. Wrong, “Here, let me make your job a little easier. I’ll get piss drunk.”

Some of the research here supports this interpretation. For example, the full article documenting this research mentions that every patient denied using street drugs, and yet researchers found that 20% tested positive for opiates, amphetamines, ecstasy or cocaine. (Did they not test for pot?) The denial implies a disavowal of personal responsibility, as well as a desire not to get in legal trouble.

On the other hand, the article also notes that doctors informed incoming patients about the methods and aims of the study. Women agreed to participate, knowing full well they would be questioned and subject to blood and urine tests. This implies that the women were probably being truthful in their belief that their drinks were spiked. If so, these women weren’t failing to take responsibility for their actions but were simply ignorant about the dangers of binge drinking. They couldn’t tell the difference between downing too much and being slipped a mickey. Or rather, they didn’t realize that drinking too heavily is tantamount to slipping themselves a mickey.

For this reason, the doctors write: “There have been a number of publicity campaigns in recent years to raise the awareness of drink spiking. Emphasis should also be laid on how excess alcohol consumption makes people more vulnerable to assaults and injury.” In short, it’s not the spike in your drink that makes you vulnerable, it’s the drink itself. Forget Special K or GHB. Alcohol remains the date-rape drug of choice.

Laughing Gas Fatality

Supervert — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 03:52:46 +0000

“A man died after a sex experiment went badly wrong, an inquest heard today.
David Baron, 58, was found dead wearing women’s clothing and hooked up to a dental anaesthetic machine pumping out nitrous oxide. His wife Carol found him wearing a skirt and bra on the floor of his dressing room at the family home in Kings Stanley, Gloucestershire. The inquest heard Mr Baron had experimented with medical gas before, but his wife said it was just to relax himself. She told the inquest that on two occasions she had brought him round after he had slipped into unconsciousness while using gas. The couple had been going through divorce proceedings and were sleeping in separate rooms, so it was not until Mr Baron failed to get up in the morning that his body was discovered in September last year. The machine Mr Baron used to deliver the gas to a mask he wore was designed for dental anaesthesia. But the Gloucester inquest heard it was faulty and was delivering only nitrous oxide rather than a mixture of nitrous oxide and oxygen. The cause of death was given as hypoxia and asphyxia due to the inhalation of nitrous oxide… In a statement read to the inquest, acting Detective Sergeant Kirk Harrison described the scene he found in Mr Baron’s dressing room. ‘The deceased was lying on his back in the middle of the floor at the far end of the room,’ he said. ‘Lying on the floor of the closet were four gas cylinders. The deceased was wearing tights, a grey pleated skirt, black bra, blue jumper and a clear plastic apron. Next to his body were several magazine cuttings of females in their underwear with anaesthetic equipment.’” — The Sun (UK)

(Thanks to Daniel for the link.)

Nitrous oxide is a gas that many people experience not in the boudoir but at the dentist. In most places it’s legal to own but in the United States its usage is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. This is probably because of its popularity among teenagers, deadheads, and — yes — perverts. There is even a web site called the Laughing Gas Zone whose owners insist that they do “not condone the use of laughing gas and strongly urge people NOT to attempt to
use it recreationally.” However, it sure gathers a lot of inhalant “fantasy” material from its members — pictures, cartoons, stories, etc.

Normally laughing gas isn’t particularly dangerous, but Mr. Baron had the bad luck to have procured (from where?) a broken piece of dental equipment that failed to mix oxygen into the gas he was breathing. The result was predictable — and that’s one of the strange things about this story. The man had already rendered himself unconscious twice using the device. Shouldn’t that have set off an alarm? Shouldn’t the guy have thought, “Hm, I’m supposed to giggle, not faint. Maybe I should cut back?” Or shouldn’t the wife have questioned his behavior? Particularly with that ridiculous excuse that he was gassing himself just to “relax?” Most people relax by having a drink, watching tv, playing golf. If your spouse is buying used dental equipment on ebay and gassing himself to “relax,” don’t you think he might have an issue of some sort? It half makes you wonder, given the couple’s divorce proceedings, if the guy had a death wish and the lady didn’t care.

40,000 Ecstasy Pills in Nine Years

Supervert — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 02:31:11 +0000

“Doctors from London University have revealed details of what they believe is the largest amount of ecstasy ever consumed by a single person. Consultants from the addiction centre at St George’s Medical School, London, have published a case report of a British man estimated to have taken around 40,000 pills of MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy, over nine years. The heaviest previous lifetime intake on record is 2,000 pills. Though the man, who is now 37, stopped taking the drug seven years ago, he still suffers from severe physical and mental health side-effects, including extreme memory problems, paranoia, hallucinations and depression. He also suffers from painful muscle rigidity around his neck and jaw which often prevents him from opening his mouth. The doctors believe many of these symptoms may be permanent. The man, known as Mr A in the report in the scientific journal Psychosomatics, started using ecstasy at 21. For the first two years his use was an average of five pills per weekend. Gradually this escalated until he was taking around three and a half pills a day. At the peak, the man was taking an estimated 25 pills every day for four years. After several severe collapses at parties, Mr A decided to stop taking ecstasy. For several months, he still felt he was under the influence of the drug, despite being bedridden.” — Guardian (UK)

Jesus Fuck! 25 pills a day for four years! That’s more than one pill per hour per day, presuming the guy stayed up 24/7. If he ever slept — which may be doubtful, given the intake — then he took even more per hour.

You can read the actual case report from Psychosomatics online. It doesn’t add that much more information to the newspaper article, though once you consider the matter a few further tidbits leap out at you. For example, the guy smoked a lot of pot and also had a “previous history of polydrug misuse (i.e., solvents, benzodiazepines, amphetamines, LSD, cocaine, heroin).” Solvents? Maybe he screwed up his brain with one whacked dose of nail polish remover.

The guy also had severe memory issues. In the newspaper article, Dr Kouimtsidis says, “More worryingly, he did not seem aware himself that he had these memory problems.” But if the guy can’t remember and doesn’t know that he can’t remember, then how trustworthy is his claim that he took so many pills? Rather than the drug causing memory loss, maybe a bad memory caused him to take so many drugs: “Let’s see, I don’t think I had my Ecstasy today, maybe I better take a pill just to be sure…” And then that would compound the problem: the drugs lead to memory loss; the memory loss pushes him to take more drugs; the drugs lead to memory loss; etc…

At any rate, it all leaves you wondering about how far one man can go in pursuit of bliss. Can the subjective effect really be “ecstasy” if it’s constant?

Horse Penis and Testicles with a Chilli Dip

Supervert — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 03:20:02 +0000

“The menu at Beijing’s latest venue for its growing army of gourmets is eye-watering rather than mouth-watering. China’s cuisine is renowned for being ‘in your face’ — from the skinned dogs displayed at food markets to the kebabbed scorpions sold on street stalls — and there is no polite way of describing Guo-li-zhuang. Situated in an elegantly restored house beside Beijing’s West Lake, it is China’s first speciality penis restaurant… Some dishes appear unexceptional, such as the simple goat penis, sliced, dipped in flour, fried, and served skewered with soy sauce. But Guolizhuang also has its showpieces, such as the elegantly named ‘Head crowned with a Jade Bracelet’ (provided by horses from the western Muslim region of Xin-jiang), for £20 a portion, or ‘Dragon in the Flame of Desire’ (yak, steamed whole, fried and flambéed) for £35. For beginners, Miss Zhu recommended the hotpot, which offers a sampling of what the restaurant has to offer — six types of penis, and four of testicle, boiled in chicken stock by the waitress, Liu Yunyang, 22. The Russian dog was first. It was julienned, and rather gamey. The ox was, of all six, the most recognisable for what it was, even though it had been diced. In texture seemed identical to gristle. The deer and the Mongolian goat were surprisingly similar: a little stringy, they had the appearance and feel of overcooked squid tentacles. The Xinjiang horse and the donkey, on the other hand, were quite different. Though both came sliced lengthwise, and looked like bacon, the horse was light and fatty, while the donkey had a firm colour and taste. The testicles were slightly crumbly, and tasted better with lashings of the sesame, soy and chilli dips thoughtfully provided.” — Telegraph (UK)

Here is a picture of a dog’s penis garnished with a plum. Here is a picture of another dish that combines the male organs of an ox and a snake. The latter sounds like some really twisted version of one of Aesop’s fables. Like, even though the ox had a big penis, the snake’s little number would end up being more potent somehow, in the same manner as the slow tortoise ends up beating the fleet hare in a race.

Anyway, if you were tempted by the thought of eating a penis — like this guy and that guy — then you’d be smart to put a damper on the homicidal cannibal impulses and take a trip to China, where you can sample a dozen different animal cocks. Of course, the writer and taste-tester in the news story doesn’t exactly make the penises sound tempting. Look at the way the penises are described: gamey, crumbly, gristly, “overcooked squid tentacles.” Sure makes your mouth water, doesn’t it?

Aphrodisiac Soda To Be Sold In Stores

Supervert — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 02:37:56 +0000

“A new soda promising to sexually arouse the person drinking it will soon be available in stores nationwide, according to a Local 6 News report. The drink, called Turn On, is made with guarana, ginseng and caffeine. The soda was banned in France and Denmark, but makers insist it is safe and works as an aphrodisiac. People who have tested the soda said it tastes like cherry soda. ‘We watched a film and then afterwards I felt like my senses were more like turned on, like I could feel more, I felt more on my skin,’ a tester said. Doctors have already warned that the drink is not for everyone. Children, pregnant women and people with high blood pressure and diabetes should avoid the drink, according to the report. A warning label on the can claims, ‘This beverage will arouse you.’ Turn On is sold online for $3.50 a can and will soon be available in stores, the report said.” — Local6.com (US)

Here is a picture of a can of Turn On. It’s made of ginseng, caffeine, and a third substance likely to be less familiar to readers — guarana, a fruit commonly used in Brazilian sodas. Evidently guarana is an exotic but tasty treat in its own right. According to an entire site devoted to the fruit, it also contains guaranine, a chemical substance similar to caffeine. According to Wikipedia, guaranine is caffeine.

So basically this soda is fruit (ie sugar) and lots of caffeine — that will give you a rush of some sort, and frankly any rush can be mistaken for an aphrodisiac boost. Whether the soda is genuinely aphrodiac is doubtful but certainly it makes for a good selling point in a market already crowded by a thousand different varieties of soda. (Hell, here in New York you practically get paralyzed by the insane variety of soda and soda-like beverages to be found at any corner deli. More often than not you end up walking out with a bottle of water — not just to quench your thirst but to ameliorate the cognitive overload that comes with trying to parse the microscopic differences between competing brands of soft drink.)

Anyway, regardless of whether or not Turn On really turns you on, the underlying issue concerns the feasibility of selling an aphrodisiac in the soda department. Good idea? Bad? Neither? Why not? Who cares? If the number of lusted-up creeps featured on PervScan is any indication, about the last thing the market needs is any soda enhancing desire. Probably they should sell the opposite, some sort of libidinal downer, Saltpeter Coke.

A Verbal Aphrodisiac Cocktail

Supervert — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 02:35:56 +0000

“Men who associate alcohol with sexual desire can become sexually stimulated just by being unconsciously exposed to words related to drinking… Dr. Ronald S. Friedman of the University of Missouri and his colleagues surveyed about 150 male undergraduates about their alcohol use and their views on alcohol and sex. The students were asked questions like whether having a few drinks would increase their sexual arousal or enjoyment. Then, a month later, they were placed in front of computers, shown a series of letters and asked to say whether they formed words. What the students did not know was that words like ‘beer,’ ‘keg’ and ‘drunk’ were being flashed quickly on the screen and then ‘masked’ with other letters… The students were then asked to look at photographs of 21 young women and rate them for attractiveness. The researchers found that those students who had earlier expressed a connection between alcohol and arousal were more likely to say a woman was attractive than those men who did not hold similar feelings about alcohol. What is going on is unclear, the researchers said, but it appears, they wrote, that ‘the effects of alcohol expectancies on behavior are remarkably subtle and far-reaching.’ Although women were not tested, the researchers said there was no reason to believe they would not respond similarly. On the other hand, they theorized, it is possible that women who believe alcohol makes them more sexually receptive may rate photographs of men as less attractive, as a defense mechanism.” —New York Times (US)

Periodically there is a big fuss about the prospect that cynical corporate marketing executives might be using subliminal perception techniques in their advertising: film previews are intercut with faster-than-perception “Buy Coke” messages, the nose of Joe Camel is a phallic device promising machismo to men who smoke, etc. In response, some scholars have gone so far as to say that subliminal perception is itself nonsense: “Subliminal advertising and psychotherapeutic effects from subliminal tapes are ideas whose scientific status appears to be on a par with wearing copper bracelets to cure arthritis.” After all, such sceptics claim, the very term “subliminal perception” is an oxymoron. If a stimulus is subliminal, how can it really be perceived? Or if it’s perceived, how can it be subliminal? It’s like saying that you see the invisible or eat air.

Nevertheless, the notion of subliminal perception remains appealing to people, and every once in a while it gets a boost from the scientific community itself. In this case, college students who previously associated alcohol with sex find themselves aroused when “unconsciously exposed” to alcohol-related words hidden in strings of text. When asked if the students really perceived the words, the lead researcher said “You might know you saw something,” and the emphasis seemed to have been on the word might. In other words, this study would seem to lend credence to the reality of subliminal perception (or at least some degree of it).

And if, like PervScan, you walk around some metropolis cluttered with signage featuring nubile models, you wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to learn that all the myths are true — that subliminal perception is real and that advertisers feed you unconscious doses of sex in order to whet your appetite to buy. Why? Because if it all weren’t true, why would you walk around in a constant state of heightened arousal?

Snake Wine

Supervert — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 04:38:06 +0000

“A Sri Lankan passenger returning on a flight from Vietnam via SingaporeÝ yesterday was nabbed by the Customs for trying to smuggle in four bottlesÝ of snake wine. The wine, made from snake blood, is popular in some South East Asian countries as an aphrodisiac. The Customs warned and discharged the passenger but confiscated theÝ’wine’ bottles. They said this could be an attempt to introduce the snake wine to theÝ Sri Lankan market.” —Daily News (Sri Lanka)

Before reading any further, be sure to go have a look at this picture of snake wine. Good. Thank you. Now that you’re all grossed out, ask yourself: by what strange inversion of thought would anyone ever believe that drinking snake blood — which is apparently steeped in snake corpses — would make them horny? It buggers the imagination, so to speak.

In fact, when you think about it, traditional aphrodisiacs tend to be some of the most God-awful repellent substances — bugs, blood, bones, bits of reptile, occcasionally even the testicles of some unlucky monkey. You wouldn’t consider putting this stuff in your mouth if you were starving to death, and yet apparently the prospect of an enhanced potency makes it palatable. There must be some psychological trick at work here. Perhaps it operates on the same principle as masochism or necrophilia: you willfully undergo pain or disgust in order to achieve some kind of greater pleasure. Maybe it’s the same idea as when an athlete takes a few steps back in order to make a longer leap forward. Pain and disgust are not themselves sexual, but rather the few steps backward that lengthens the leap into sexuality itself.

Good to the Last Dropping

Supervert — Wed, 28 Jan 2004 03:22:52 +0000

“SARS fears have stopped the Chinese from eating civet cats. But that hasn’t turned off others from sipping the strangest of brews — one they insist is made from coffee beans eaten, partly digested and then excreted by the weasel-like animals. The story goes like this: Civets live in the foliage of plantations across Southeast Asia. These fussy foragers pick the best and ripest coffee berries. Enzymes in their digestive system break down the flesh of the fruit before the animals expel the bean. Workers collect beans from the plantation floor, wash away the dung and roast them to produce a unique drink that devotees might say is good to the last dropping… ‘Some of our guests said it was an aphrodisiac. It has a strong coffee smell, but different. There is a distinct odor and flavor,’ she said… Others just won’t swallow the claims. ‘I think it’s a big scam,’ said Mark Hanusz, who has spent eight months traveling Indonesia researching his book about coffee called A Cup of Java.” — Taipei Times (Taiwan)

You can tell how important sex is to people by their willingness to consume the most repellent garbage the moment somebody whispers that it might have aphrodisiac properties. Seriously, if you showed up at your local espresso bar and saw cat-shit coffee on the menu, you’d probably puke. But if the clerk insisted it would give you harder erections or a wetter pussy, you — or if not you the next guy in line — would buy three cups.

It’s astonishing the crap people will eat under the delusion it will make them better in bed — bugs, snake cocks, the velvet from Elk antlers. It almost makes you wonder if there is a clandestine cabal of coprophiles who spread rumors about the sexual potency of offal and excrement and then get off imagining all the people eating shit for no good reason at all.

Should We Help Inmates Get Erections?

Supervert — Thu, 18 Dec 2003 02:42:59 +0000

“Two Danish prison bosses have been reprimanded for handing out the Viagra anti-impotence drug to inmates free of charge, officials said. ‘If inmates want Viagra to be administered to them by the prison doctor they must pay for it themselves like every other citizen on the outside,’ said Justice Minister Lene Espersen. Espersen said in a letter to a far-right MP who complained about the practice that directors of two jails had been given a dressing down for handing out the blue pills to prisoners, mainly motorcycle gang members suffering impotence because of steroid use.” — News.com.au (Australia)

You have to admit that it seems counterintuitive for the prison system — hell, for the taxpayers — to help prisoners get erections. In the first place, if inmates suffer impotence as a result of drugs they abused prior to going to prison, then shouldn’t they just have to suffer the consequences of their actions? If erections are so important to them, they should have had the foresight not to jeopardize their manliness with steroids and whatnot. In the second place, what do prisoners need erections for anyway? To rape their cellmates? In the third place, you could make a good argument that, far from giving them Viagra, wardens should give prisoners drugs that dampen and destroy their sexual desires (at least while they’re in prison). After all, what is prison for? Punishment. And can you find a worse punishment for a man than depriving him not only of his liberty but his libido?