The Boy With A Latex Glove Fetish And Bad Advice

A war is being waged among several advice columnists on what should be done about a 13-year-old boy with a latex fetish and I thought I should add my opinion to the list.

Dear Prudence was asked by a mum what she should do about her son who seems to have a fetish for latex gloves. He has apparently been fascinated by them from a young age and now that he is old enough buys them from medical supply websites. She has also found him looking at “glove fetish Web sites with pornographic glove pictures”. She has now blocked the internet sites but is worried that he still has “piles” of gloves around his room. The son also worries he won’t get a girlfriend because of this.

Dan Savage, known for his frank sexual banter and openness about pretty much anything to do with sex so long as the parties are consenting adults, has said that her advice was completely wrong and misguided and that the mother should just let the kid do what he wants.

I definitely have to agree with Dan on this one.

Prudie, who, as far as I can gather, is not an expert in sexual health and does not have any qualifications (please correct me if I’m wrong), told this mother that her son has a ” disorder of deviant sexual arousal and behavior” after talking with an expert in fetishes. She said that the latex fascination will “interfere with his ability to have normal relationships” and that he “needs a complete psychological workup”. She also suggested that he probably has other psychiatric disorders and needs behavioural therapy to stop this obsession.

This may be true for some people, but for a kid who likes gloves this advice is absurd and damaging!

This advice is detrimental because it will probably create an even bigger problem. It will panic the poor child who will now be stigmatised within his family. He will need therapy for years, not to deal with his fetish, but to deal with how his family psychologically scarred him.

I’m willing to bet that the only reason this kid is worried about finding a girlfriend is because his mother planted the idea in his head. Lots of grown adults like latex and leather and those kinds of things so I’m sure it won’t be a big deal when he starts sharing that part of his life with his future partners.

She needs to back off and let her son develop his sexuality without his mummy’s interference. If he wants help I’m sure he’s resourceful enough to find it online, and if not, then he should just enjoy.

Maybe he does have a bit of an obsession, but how is this hurting anyone?

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