The Alice in Wonderland-style fetish Brits are trying on for size

From the giantess kink to vorarephilia, Brits are obsessed with larger than life sex fetishes.

Falling under the umbrella term ‘macrophillia’, defined as a sexual attraction to giants or beings significantly larger than oneself, it seems that for some, size really does matter.

But there’s an up-and-coming subset of this sexual practice that’s growing in popularity: the growth fetish.

In fact, it’s the most searched for term in Northern Ireland when it comes to porn searches, according to Clips4Sale, and it’s the ninth most searched for term in the UK.

A growth fetish is when an individual fantasises about someone they desire growing from a normal size into a giant.

Unlike the giantess kink, where giants (or giant objects) get you going, or vore, where you fantasise about a giantess consuming you, a growth fetish is about the transition from small to unimaginably large.

The ins and outs of a growth fetish

‘The transformation itself from smaller to bigger is the turn-on,’ sex therapist, Courtney Boyer, tells Metro.

‘Giantess fantasies tend to fixate on a permanently large female figure and the power dynamic that comes with that, while growth eroticises the change.’

Someone with a growth fetish will be aroused by the fantasy or depiction of someone, or one specific body part, getting larger, according to the therapist.

‘It’s a fetish that often lives in animated, sci-fi, or surreal story-telling spaces where physical limits don’t apply,’ Courtney adds.

But if it lives online, how can you act on your growth fetish? After all, you can’t take an Alice In Wonderland style bottle that says ‘drink me’ and grow 10 sizes.

‘It’s primarily imagination-led,’ she explains. ‘Think consensual roleplay, guided dirty talk, camera perspective play (making someone appear larger than they are), or animation.

‘It’s less about the physical reality and more about immersing yourself in a shared fantasy.’

‘It blends eroticism with storytelling, which is why it thrives in visual and fantasy media.’ Courtney adds.

Is it men or women who like growth fetishes?

Courtney says men are the main audience for growth and transition porn.

‘Online spaces [for the kink] skew male, likely due to visual arousal pathways and transformation tropes in male-targeted media,’ she explains.

‘But, women and non-binary people absolutely engage, they’re just under-represented in public forums.’

Interestingly, the therapist adds that size and transformation kinks are far more common than people believe, and add that it shouldn’t be stigmatised as a ‘weird’ fetish.

‘When explored consensually, and without shame, the growth fetish sits comfortably within the spectrum of healthy adult sexuality, not outside it,’ she adds.

Why Brits like it big

After experiencing its first real boom in 2016, when searches for giantess rocketed by 354% on Pornhub, and then seeing another wave of porn video sales in 2023, the popularity of macrophilia has snowballed.

Skip to three years later and it’s the most searched-for porn term in the UK, on Clips4Sale. But while hashtags like #Giantess, #Giantesscrush and #Giantessvore have collectively amassed nearly one billion views on TikTok, the attraction to giant figures isn’t new.

‘Throughout time there has been an obsession with giants, particularly strong dominant women who are tall or large,’ sex expert Ness Cooper previously told Metro.

‘From the Amazonian warriors to mythological Goddesses, many have worshipped women who tower over buildings or are taller than the average cis-male.

‘For some, it’s simply a fetish of height. Generally, we see height fetish being spoken about between cis-women preferring men of a particular height. But with macrophilia the focus is reversed.’

As for why more and more Brits are succumbing to the allure of this fetish, popular culture has a lot to do with it, according to Ness.

Take Taylor Swift’s Giantess alter-ego or the ‘monster on the hill’ in her hit music video for Midnights single Anti Hero, or films like Honey I Shrunk The Kids and The Burrowers.

But Courtney also believes that ‘algorithm-driven niche discovery, the mainstreaming of fantasy and gaming aesthetics, and a more intense fasciation with embodied power’ are factors in macrophilia’s popularity, too.

‘Size becomes symbolic of control, visibility, even confidence, in socially uncertain times,’ she adds.

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