Ginger Figging … Or Putting Spicy Foods Up Your Butt
The kink that burns like fiyah.
By Jessie Schiewe
Ginger: Not just for eating. (Art: Trav)
“Growing up, the only good restaurant in town was a Chinese place a few blocks from my house. My family went almost every week and, from about the time I was 6 on, I had one meal: ginger chicken. It was my go-to.
“I loved the spiciness of the ginger, how alive it made my mouth feel. Soon after, I discovered sushi and fell in love with pickled ginger. When I learned about Moscow Mules, well, my obsession hit in full force.
“I needed more ginger in my life. I found teas, I found recipes, I found everything I could. There were always a few knuckles of fresh ginger around my kitchen, ready to cook with.”
So begins Mr. Racy’s blog post about his sexual awakening with ginger root on the adult website, MrRacy.com. Thanks to a particularly kinky ex-girlfriend and a night of blindfolded foreplay, he eventually discovered yet another use for his favorite food: as a butt plug.
Anyone can whittle their very own ginger root butt plug. (Wikimedia Commons)
What is ginger figging?
One of the more lesser-known BDSM kinks, ginger figging involves placing a piece of raw, peeled ginger into the butt hole, or in some cases, the vagina or the urethra. A form of domination popular in the BDSM scene, as well as a beloved tool amongst dominatrixes, the pleasure of doing it is derived through the pain, which manifests as warm tingling and burning sensations that ebb and grow with time.
It’s been described as feeling like you’re rubbing Tiger Balm onto your nether regions or swishing mouthwash into your most intimate holes.
Though not everyone feels the ginger so intensely. Some people have claimed they don’t “feel anything other than the lightest tingling” or that they can have full conversations “without a problem” while holding the sliver of root in.
You’ll never look at ginger root the same after reading this. (Kjokkenutstyr Net)
Half an hour of pain ... and pleasure
The longer you keep the ginger in, and the more tightly you clench your butt cheeks, the more the ginger burns, with the heat eventually dying down after around 30 minutes.
“That’s part of the fun of figging,” Mr. Racy writes, “the buildup and the anticipation of everything.”
Practitioners of figging might combine it with other BDSM practices, like spanking, flogging, or caning, which can amplify one’s feelings of pain and helplessness.
Unsurprisingly, the practice makes an appearance in one of the Fifty Shades of Grey novels, with the male protagonist Christian Grey fantasizing about doing it to his lover and future wife, Anastasia Steele. It goes like this:
“An image of her shackled to my bench, peeled ginger root inserted in her ass so she can’t clench her buttocks, comes to mind, followed by judicious use of a belt or strap. Yeah…That would teach her not to be so irresponsible. The thought is hugely appealing.”
How to practice figging
Technically, you can “fig” with anything; it’s not just limited to ginger root. Foods with heat — like peppers, cinnamon, onions, ground pepper seasoning, hot sauce, peppermint, or garlic — can also be inserted into the body, with varying levels of pain to each. You can even sprinkle ground ginger powder unto your body if you lack the fresh ingredient.
And it’s not like ginger figging is the only kink that gives one burning sensations either. Hot wax play, scalding showers, and fire cupping — putting glass jars filled with fire on the body — are other ways of incorporating heat in the bedroom.
Those who practice figging — be it with ginger or another spicy food — tout it as being both a cheap and convenient way to get their rocks off. It requires only one store-bought item that can be found at any market; that is, if you don’t already have it in your pantry.
Using a vegetable peeler, simply strip the skin off the ginger root and sculpt it into an appropriate shape — such as a wedge, dildo, or thin strip — for wherever you choose to insert it. Though horror stories of ginger getting sucked into one’s cavities are rare, it’s not an entirely impossible scenario, which is why some people recommend carving plugs or hooks into one end of the ginger root.
Suffer through the pain long enough and you might experience one helluva orgasm or find that you’re more physically willing and capable of sticking other, larger things in your butt, from that point forward.
Put another way: If marijuana is a gateway drug to harder substances, figging could be a gateway act to anal sex.
What’s more, ginger figging is an equal opportunity kink that doesn’t involve a dominant gender. Men can do it to women and vice versa, because we all have holes that can be used for sticking fiery foods in.
The history of ginger figging
Figging has a long and nebulous history that some believe originated as a form of punishment for female slaves in ancient Greece and Rome. In the last few centuries, ginger figging became a practice in the equestrian community, used as a means of making show horses lift their tails at events, parades, or auctions.
The burning sensation causes horses to keep their tails raised to lessen the pain, in turn giving the animal a more pleasing or ideal silhouette. It can also make a horse act more lively and animated, and was commonly administered to older horses to make them seem younger and more peppy.
Of course, ginger figging a horse, or any other animal, is cruel, which is why equestrian events soon started hiring “ginger swabbers” — people whose job is to get up-close and personal with horses’ anuses.
Today, ginger figging a horse is not a common practice, and ginger swabbers are for the most part absent at equestrian events. But there are those who claim it still happens — especially in more competitive settings — with some people going so far as to pen online petitions begging for the reintroduction of ginger swabbers at certain horsing events.
The dark side of ginger figging
Like bars of soap and leather belts, ginger figging is also still used as a means of disciplining unruly children in some African cultures. According to the British news outlet, The Voice, it’s a common “African punishment” on par with making kids stand in uncomfortable positions for long periods of time or applying “shitto,” a Ghanaian hot pepper sauce, to their bodily organs.
Sift through old news stories and you’ll also find more than a few accounts of sex workers who’ve been tortured with this very tactic.
And even those who try ginger figging willingly don’t always like it.
“It really does hurt quite a bit. It’s never caused irritability or anger for me, mostly just crying and begging for it to come out,” one Redditor who has tried figging, writes. “I don’t feel energized afterward — I feel like a puddle of tears.”
Some who have tried sticking the ginger in both orifices claim that it’s particularly excruciating when it’s in the butt verses the vagina.
Ginger figging best practices
Mishaps when ginger figging aren’t common, but they can happen, especially if you’re a newbie. You might, for instance, discover the hard way that you’re allergic to ginger, say, if your backside starts swelling and breaks out in hives. Or, maybe your carving skills are subpar, resulting in a very uncomfortable notch or prickly point that scratches the user upon entry into the body.
The possibility of the ginger penetrating too deeply is also always a liability depending on how well you shape it, and bacterial transmission can be likely if you use the same piece of ginger in two different holes.
At least, on the bright side, there is no scientific evidence that ginger figging causes chemical burns or permanent markings to the skin.
In other words, if you try it out and discover it’s not for you, at least you won’t be left with a physical reminder of your experience. The scarring, some might say, is purely emotional.
Jessie Schiewe is the editor of OK Whatever. She believes in mermaids and thrift shops for exercise.
Trav is an artist who lives in the U.K. near the beach. He enjoys swimming naked in cold water and skateboarding a lot.
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