Fetishes: Dogs and Diapers

Friday, March 23, 2018 2:53 AM

by M. Jenny Edwards 

March 5, 2018

In February, a 57-year-old Oregon man was arrested after an informant handed over a thumb drive containing child porn to the Department of Homeland Security.  The tipster told the agents that Terry Mackie has a diaper fetish, and enjoys sex with animals. Images on the thumb drive confirmed those statements.

Paraphilic infantilism, also known as adult baby syndrome, is a sexual fetish that involves role-playing. Sometimes the person likes wearing diapers or sucking from a baby bottle, and as such, this particular fetish has nothing to do with zoophilia - the sexual attraction to animals. Both are forms of atypical sexual behaviors collectively referred to as paraphilias - which basically means "altered love". 

In a 1988 study by Dr. Gene Abel and his colleagues, researchers found that paraphilics often have sexual relationships with adult partners, and don't necessarily require on their paraphilic fantasies or behaviors to get off. In other words, Terry Mackie might have an intimate human partner, but also happens to like wearing diapers when he's having sex with his dog. 

Another finding by Abel's team was that if you have one fetish, it's unusual to have only one. Among zoophiles, the next most frequently reported paraphilia was pedophilia (sexual attraction to children), followed by urolagnia (water sports), fetish behaviors like wearing diapers, and exhibitionism (jerking off in public). 

It's important to note that having a parphilia or a fetish doesn't necessarily mean the person has a mental health disorder. Both the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) and the ICD (International Classification of Diseases) - bibles for mental health practitioners and other diagnosticians - consider paraphilias as unusual sexual activity, but unless the behavior causes harm to the person or to someone else, it's generally not "diagnosable". 


ABEL G.G., BECKER J.V., CUNNINGHAM-RATHNER J., MITTELMAN M., & ROULEAU J.-L. 1988. Multiple paraphilic diagnoses among sex offenders. Bulletin American Academy of Psychiatry and Law 16, No. 2: 

GIAMI A. 2015. Between DSM and ICD: Paraphilias and the transformation of sexual norms. Archives of Sexual Behavior 44: 1127-1138.

JOYAL C.C. & CARPENTIER J. 2016. The Prevalence of Paraphilic Interests and Behaviors in the General Population: A Provincial Survey. The Journal of Sex Research. Online: 11.