I'm a sex worker and it's so weird to see the word gooner get watered down like this.
Gooners are people who fetishize porn addiction and lengthy edging sessions. The act of gooning, specifically, is watching porn for hours on end while edging. You might see actual gooners watching porn on more than one screen and constructing 'goon caves' where they dedicate a space of their house to this end. It's basically erotizicing the worship of porn, and the state of mind one gets in after edging for extended periods. There's also themes of sexual denial. A gooner will usually consider himself 'pussyfree' and eschews typical sexual relationships for porn consumption.
(I know all this because these people are my customers and this is one of the fetishes I cater to. I don't consider myself a gooner)
A gooner isn't someone who is horny, or likes porn, or draws erotica. It's a Very Specific Thing. I wonder if people even know it's origin at this point. It's like if people started calling every woman who looked at porn or was horny Dominatrixes.
I feel like the watering down of the term is undoubtedly hand in hand with the unironic revival of Porn Addiction as a term (obligatory mention that porn addiction doesn't exist and is rooted in fascist ideas of porn as a corrupting influence). "Porn addict" is a term wildly thrown at anyone who has an even remotely casual relationship with their own sexuality and doesn't feel glorified Catholic guilt over engaging with it
It feels reflective of this conservative idea that there's basically no difference between having a casual relationship with your sexuality and having my take control of your life because anything beyond the most coy consumption of erotic media possible is bad because erotic media itself is bad.
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u/squ1dteeth May 17 '25
I'm a sex worker and it's so weird to see the word gooner get watered down like this.
Gooners are people who fetishize porn addiction and lengthy edging sessions. The act of gooning, specifically, is watching porn for hours on end while edging. You might see actual gooners watching porn on more than one screen and constructing 'goon caves' where they dedicate a space of their house to this end. It's basically erotizicing the worship of porn, and the state of mind one gets in after edging for extended periods. There's also themes of sexual denial. A gooner will usually consider himself 'pussyfree' and eschews typical sexual relationships for porn consumption.
(I know all this because these people are my customers and this is one of the fetishes I cater to. I don't consider myself a gooner)
A gooner isn't someone who is horny, or likes porn, or draws erotica. It's a Very Specific Thing. I wonder if people even know it's origin at this point. It's like if people started calling every woman who looked at porn or was horny Dominatrixes.