This week’s word is feederism.

feederism (n) a fat-fetish subculture in which individuals eroticize weight gain and feeding

With a freshly stocked, quarantine-ready kitchen, Blake spent an erotic weekend with his feederism partner Evie, stuffing her full of her favorite meals and watching her get more turned on with each bite.

With folks spending more time indoors, gyms and fitness studios shuttered and anxiety as well as boredom at all-time highs, people are understandably making frequent trips to the fridge. Salty snacks and sweet treats help break up the monotony of the day, and cooking fun meals or ordering your favorite takeout is one of the few joys some of us have left. (Let me enjoy my three back-to-back nights of spicy beef noodle in peace!)

So it’s important to remember that these aren’t normal times, and it’s okay for our eating habits and, yes, our bodies to change during this period of distress. If you come out of this quarantine unscathed save for some extra squishiness here and there, count your blessings.

That said, let’s highlight a community where our socially constructed beliefs about packing on pounds are thrown to the wind.

Feederism, also known as erotic weight gain, is a subset of the fat-fetish community in which overeating is the ultimate turn-on. Similar to a BDSM dynamic, the feeder is typically the dominant while the feedee is submissive. There are chat rooms and online forums dedicated to supporting the community, often with tips and tricks for how to gain weight rapidly and safely. Athletes carefully measure each meal in order to gain muscle; some feedees do the same, with a parallel but very different goal.

As in any other sexual community, consent and communication are crucial here, with both feeders and feedees setting important boundaries for each session. Each party has to want the weight gain and derive pleasure from the feeling of being stuffed with food or being the one doing the stuffing. And contrary to stereotypes about feedees, most of them don’t want to gain weight to the point of extreme obesity. A feederism transaction can be as simple as a weekly indulgence where one person observes another eating, or it can be more of a production involving spanking, name-calling and shoveling food into a partner’s mouth while they’re bound with restraints.

Sex and food are already erotic: Who isn’t partial to licking a bit of whipped cream or honey off a nipple now and then? Feederism simply offers a way to super-size the predilections we already have.