loosie: words: On The Stump

On The Stump

The wild world of wannabe amputees.

by B.D. | 2002.10.18

While a religious conservative might brand anything other than marital missionary the behavior of a depraved whoremonger, relatively open-minded individuals find perversions such as foot fetishes and transgender-underwear-swapping to be more comical than horrifying. But make no mistake about it, there are plenty of activities that are bound to confuse, disturb and disgust even the most sexually liberated person. Amongst the most hideous of the hideous that lurked within in Pandora's box, apotemnophilia is an affliction that surely had a corner all to itself.

Quite simply, someone consumed with apotemnophilia feels sexually unfulfilled as an able-bodied member of society. Fixated by an erotic need for amputation, these unlucky bastards lust for stumps.

The sexual desire for the surgical removal of healthy limbs is so bizarre that the very existence of the fetish may seem unbelievable. But the craving is real enough that sufferers have been known to put a shotgun to their own legs after doctors have refused to hack off the offending appendage.

Although the number of apotemnophiliacs (also called "wannabes") is hard to gauge, there is no doubt that this perversion affects a surprisingly significant population of people. In the past, most wannabes probably went through life without coming into contact with a fellow sufferer - after all, the Akron Beacon Journal doesn't offer much coverage in the way of forearm dismemberment unless a drunken farmer and a John Deere tractor are involved. Perhaps people believed their berserk fetish was simply an individual torment.

But the shrouds of secrecy once draped around apotemnophilia have been yanked off by the nebulous arms of the Internet. Multiplying like a swarm of stinkbugs, myriad alt.sex newsgroups have made communicating with fellow wannabes a simple and discrete operation for someone who previously may have taken his desires to the grave. Yahoo, for example, has around twenty egroups that service individuals professing a desire to have a healthy limb chopped off.

There is little definitive research on wannabes, but most psychologists compare the desire for self-mutilation to the yearning experienced by transsexuals. Both groups consist of individuals who believe the natural state of their body is incongruent with the physique their mind idealizes. Only through disfigurement can these people make their bodies properly cohabitate with the voices in their head. Body modification isn't nearly as outlandish as it seems - after all, insecure fuckers have nose jobs, chin clefts, tummy tucks and wrinkle removals every day. Wannabes are just more ambitious.

Like just about every mental illness under the sun, childhood incidents have been cited as a leading cause of apotemnophilia. One theory is that wannabes view the everyday struggles of amputees as heroic; another hypothesis proposes that subjects crave the sympathy amputees receive. By all accounts, wannabes start, well, wannabeeing in their early teens, about the same time most youths begin exploring their sexuality. Wannabes usually begin by imitating amputees. Some enjoy riding in wheelchairs and others tie their calves to their thighs and hop around on crutches. While the majority of apotemnophiliacs spend their lives struggling to suppress their freakish desires, some actually muster up the balls to go through with the procedure.

It goes without saying that limb mutilation is a more dangerous fetish than sneaking peeks at a secretary's nicely pedicured toes. As most reputable doctors refuse to perform such drastic surgery on a robust appendage, sincere wannabes usually must resort to damaging the limb to such an extent that it must be removed.

An apotemnophiliac in London allowed a train to run over his legs. Several have taken firearms to their own bodies. Others intentionally infect themselves with gangrene.

Oddly enough, most realized wannabes are happy with their stumps. Their satisfaction with the amputee lifestyle makes evaluating their extreme act of self-abuse difficult. Societal norms usually come equip with a condescending notion of morality that mimics the wagging finger of an overbearing parent. The community is certain that knows what's better for your body than you do. Despite the savage atrocities that wannabes demand, isn't their happiness more important than our own discomfort with their strange request?

Hey, if these demented stumpers want to shear off a limb, we might as well let it happen in a sterile hospital instead of under the blood-smeared auspices of Dr. Nick Rivera of the Hollywood Upstairs Medical School.