Kinky earnings
Online fetish trading has surged in recent yearsé
In 2015, hit TV show Orange Is The New Black screened a storyline with prison inmates running a panty-wearing business. During the show, the inmates would smuggle out their used underwear to buyers on the outside.
The storyline was comical, and it saw a surge in Google searches for ‘used underwear.’
As a result, Pantydeal.com – one of the largest used knickers selling sites – saw daily sign-ups increase by six times the amount.
And it wasn’t just underwear that became a popular online selling trade.
Socks, shoes, snot tissues and the likes were suddenly being sold online.
From Facebook Marketplace to private online fetish sites, personal belongings were popping up all over the place.
In 2019, it was even reported that strapped for cash Easyjet crew were selling their worn tights and shoes online for upwards of £15 a pair. And whilst these fetishes have been around for many years, the internet has seen them evolve.
Many sites now have restrictions in place and often remove worn intimate wear. However, with a high demand of the belongings, they are often sold before the site can take action. ‘Research suggests that people with a fetish develop it during puberty, perhaps even earlier, but there is very little agreement amongst experts, so it is still a bit of an unknown. ‘What we do know is that an object that is not generally associated with sex by the majority of people produces a feeling of sexual pleasure, and so the association of pleasure with that thing continues and becomes a part of adult sex life,’ Eleanor Mckenzie, sex expert at adult romance web app and magazine, Lady Victoria Howard, explains.
On the most part, it’s fairly obvious what a fetishist gets from buying intimate and personal belongings online.
‘They feel a pleasurable and probably quite intense sexual arousal from those things that you or I don’t.
‘It’s important to remember that the fetish object, whether it is worn underwear, feet, or a pair of Marigolds, is a very individual thing, and the person doesn’t choose their fetish, it’s a response that is beyond their control,’
Eleanor says.
Even those with a shared interest, will have different arousals and thoughts to a similar item.
So, if the buyer gets sexual arousal from these items, what exactly does the seller get?
‘For many sellers, it is a purely commercial enterprise. They know a market for a specific fetish exists and that there is a supply and demand,’ Eleanor says.
‘I imagine it feels financially empowering if you end up building a successful business.’
Whilst the seller may not know what is being done with their items, they are aware that it is a fetish and thereby gives the buyer sexual arousal.
‘Some sellers, especially those who have been doing it for a long time, probably don’t think about what is being done with their belongings at all.
‘Others however, may actually enjoy sexual