I said I was going, and I am. I have con tickets, meal tickets, hotel reservations, and train tickets. Packing shouldn’t take very long; I have no merch to sell or costume to model. I might even get some writing done on the train.
I know multiple attendees who have already started on their journeys; my trip will be a scant four hours plus whatever dilly-dallying Amtrak and Burlington-Northern come up with.
It’s been decades since I’ve been to any type of convention, and I’ve never been to a kink convention. I have no idea what to expect, which hasn’t been true for me for a very long time.
As a substitute for creativity, statistically-generated imagery, video, audio, and text is an abomination. It is also a financial swindle, an environmental catastrophe, and an economic scourge. Perhaps the greatest insult is to the mind, which is asked to accept this glorified auto-complete slop as human art, scholarship, and truth. The peril it presents to human civilization at this fraught point in history is dire.
I am aware of a handful of creators in the Size community who appreciate and acknowledge all of the foregoing and have nonetheless incorporated statistical image generators and Large Language Models into their creative processes. It is crucial to note that they do not simply submit prompts and publish the output. They are talented artists and writers in their own right, and they use the statistically-generated output to refine their already-existing art and literature.
If I could with the snap of my fingers totally and permanently eliminate the corporate and cultural investment in and enthusiasm for so-called “A.I.”, I would instantly and gleefully sacrifice every bit of Size content that in any way depended upon it. Alas, I cannot. Human civilization will either lobotomize itself or it will not; whether or not a few Size creators make use of these algorithmic tools is of zero consequence.
If one’s revulsion at this technology precludes one from consuming art that employs it, by all means avoid it. Creators have an ethical obligation to explicitly label work that has involved statistical image generators or Large Language Models. Beyond this basic honesty, however, there are no grounds for forming moral judgments against individuals who employ statistically-generated output as part of a larger creative process.
Artists who publish work under their own name should welcome good-faith inquiries into if and how statistically-generated output is involved in their work. Conversely, honest creators should not be shunned or defamed for making tactical use of statistical-generation technology to augment their Size creations.
The setting or the cause of size difference says a lot about how an author approaches a Size story. Typically these choices are based on what kind of characters are in the story and how the author wants them to interact. Beyond accommodating such encounters, a particular Size world can hold implications not only for the author’s personal preferences for Size Fantasy but also for the basic assumptions they make about how the world works (and how it should work).
This post is going to address the specific Size trope of a world in which all men either have shrunk or are about to be shrunk. I’m going to examine the particular uses for this trope and the possible reasons why someone might choose it for their Size creation.
It’s the most-common recurring topic on any Size-related venue: “What got you into this? What triggered your Size fetish?” Size pervs will happily rattle off a pantheon of mainstream size content they encountered as a child, bonding with others who share the same “inspirational” moments.
While I don’t pretend to have a Universal Theory of Where Size Fetishes Come From, in my personal experience no such encounter with mainstream size content caused me to become fascinated by size-differential so much as suggested a form which my early feelings about power and relationships might take. If all it took to create a Size perv was to expose someone to Totally Spies or Ferngully, there’d be so many of us we’d have our own first-person shrinker video game franchise by now.
Nevertheless, most Size pervs still wistfully remember formative experiences, even feeling a touch of arousal at the right visual or auditory cue from the size content in question. I am no different. Here follows those early Size influences on me, roughly in order of when I first encountered them (not necessarily, mind you, in the original order of their release or publication).
Please note that when I first saw these shows I wasn’t self-aware of my fascination with Size. When I finally figured out what I was hungering for, I deliberately sought out and reviewed many, many, many other possible sources of Size content. I’ll have you know I did all this painstaking research before there was an internet.
In addition to any specific elements of Size Fantasy with which any of these items resonates, I am likely to indulge in highly biographical and idiosyncratic details. You have been warned.
Cover art: “Scene from Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift” (A.E. Jackson, 1911)
It is no exaggeration to say that Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels is a foundational text to the Size fetish. Due to its renowned literary and satirical merit and prolific public domain adaptations, people for centuries have been exposed to its whimsical vocabulary and striking imagery. Swift’s use of corporeal humor is memorably central to the narrative, making the contemplation of Sizey sexytimes unavoidable.
I am continually alert to mentions of Gulliver’s Travels in any context, from pop culture to academic inquiry, hoping to find digressions into or even explorations of the ribald possibilities presented by the plot. The results are usually disappointing, and I often find myself extrapolating furiously from a single phrase to identify the slightest indication that the author regarded the notion of Sizey sex as anything other than dry social commentary or a sight gag.
So I’ve realized some things about how I focus and don’t focus my attention, and I think I’m ready to give social media another try without letting it overwhelm me or consuming my every waking moment. I know there remains a large portion of the Size community on Xitter, but I won’t be making an account there. Content posted there is not viewable by anyone not logged in through the app. Every change Elon Musk makes is intended to promote his Nazi edgelord fanboys at the expense of other users’ experience. It’s only a matter of time until he decides to attract more advertisers by banning NFSW content.
In the almost two years since Musk’s acquisition of Xitter, members of the Size community have made more and more accounts on Bluesky, which was rather slow in rolling out basic social media features (DMs, user muting/blocking, keyword blocking, video support). I was worried about Bluesky’s tolerance for NFSW content, but for now they have a sophisticated labeling and filtering system that allows users to fine-tune the content they are exposed to while allowing properly-tagged and categorized adult content (the three categories are “Suggestive,” “Nudity,” and “Porn,” which implies that porn is permissible).
So I made an account on Bluesky. For those who remember my Tumblr blog, I won’t be posting or reposting nearly as often as I did back then (if it becomes apparent that the amount of time I am spending on Bluesky is approaching that of my Tumblr usage, please hold an intervention). My posting there will be low-investment and impermanent content, but unlike here I will at least be able to post NFSW imagery.
It’s Vore Day again, and what can I say that I haven’t said already? It is definitely an acquired taste, and there are many reasons why someone who otherwise might be into vore would be reluctant to embrace it. The most common reason, I strongly suspect, is the frequency of fatal outcomes. Some of these kinksters take refuge in Safe vore (including my personal variation on Full Tour). For many aficionados, however, there must be a fatal outcome for vore to have any teeth.
If you’re still on the fence, read my essay on Lethality in Size Fantasy. It might make it go down more easily.
The next SizeCon, at the end of February 2025, will be held in Portland, Oregon. It’s only a 3.5-hour drive for me, so I really have no excuse not to be there. Like an addict trying to kick the habit, I’m telling as many people as possible so they can hold me accountable.
Jharrel Jerome and Olivia Washington in I’m A Virgo
Another one of our Size holidays has come around, Hug A Giant Day. You might be surprised to learn that Biggos can and do appreciate hugs from tinies. Towering above, shaking the earth as they walk, they seem so secure and confident, but it is not always so.
If they are a true giant, they can get quite lonely, unsure whether anyone is sincere with them or is simply acting out of fear. Protective giants can fret that they aren’t doing enough to keep tinies from harm, unable to be there all of the time.
So grab your favorite Biggo and reassure them that they’re big in your heart, too.
The Passion of Creation, Leonid Pasternak (1862-1945)
Longtime readers will recognize the name Size Riot as the quarterly size-fantasy flash-fiction contest run by Aborigen. Four years of author submissions were uploaded and shared via Google Docs, which Google has declared fair game for training their “A.I.” large language models. Google has also begun locking users out of their accounts if any of their documents on Google Docs (not in subfolders) contain content that they deem “inappropriate” or otherwise in violation of the “terms of service.”
Once this latest manifestation of the Pornocalypse had reared its head, Aborigen scrambled to download all the stories and delete them from Google Docs. He has been diligently uploading them to his Neocities site, and he’s almost done. Have a look.
El Amante Menguante 