Verbal Humiliation Recs - 9 fics and an essay - SGA, SGA/House, Inception
Inception (etc.) recs bingo!
Square 1: Ageplay Recs
Square 2: Food Recs
Square 3: Vehicular Recs
Square 4: Subspace/Headspace Recs
Square 5: Verbal Humiliation Recs
Once again, I found myself having to delineate what got included for this square or I'd never stop looking for fics. This time we are focusing on consensual verbal humiliation. One character verbally humiliating the other for one or both parties' sexual satisfaction. That includes consent play, because humiliation is so easily and intricately bound up in things a person wants-but-does-not-want-ashamed to want something, wanting to be told it's wrong to want it, wanting to revel in wanting it or doing it even if it's frowned on by their culture....
In fact, I had to go look up "humiliation" in the dictionary to see exactly what it encompasses. Merriam-Webster says: "to reduce to a lower position in one's own eyes or others' eyes : mortify." The synonyms it lists include: abase, chasten, cheapen, debase, degrade, demean, discredit, disgrace, dishonor, foul, humble, lower, shame, sink, smirch, take down. So, indeed, we are covering name-calling, shaming, dirty talk, kneeling, crawling, begging, uncomfortable confessions, you name it. And the character(s) get(s) off on it.
I have trouble sometimes with humiliation kink fic. Often fics assume that at least one character gets off on humiliating or being humiliated, assume that the reader can sympathize, and run with that, so you get a lot of name-calling and blushing etc. but not necessarily a lot of understanding (on this reader's part, anyway). I forget that humiliation is threaded through my noncon-fantasy Mary Sue stories and that I've written at least two dirty-talk fics and a physical exposure fic. I forget that I have a kink for humiliation directed at a character being a sexual creature or wanting sex at all.
One thing that has helped clarify what erotic humiliation means and what it can do for people is thingswithwings's essay, The Riches of Embarrassment: Or, Why I Don't Have a Humiliation Squick. If you haven't spent much time thinking about it, or even if you have, I highly recommend it.Humiliation kink, for me, does that wonderful thing that only kink can do: it allows me to wallow pleasurably in a feeling that, in other circumstances, would make me feel bad. It eroticizes the thing that makes me feel bad, and makes the feeling-bad feel good.
[...]
It's such a wonderful snarl, that kink, wanting to be humiliated and being ashamed of wanting to be humiliated and enjoying the shame of wanting to be humiliated and being ashamed of enjoying the shame of wanting to be humiliated, and on and on, all that beautiful recursiveness, the kink just endlessly compounding itself.
It seems many other fans have some discomfort (ironically) with humiliation kink as well, and/or with differentiating it from unwanted humiliation, based on that essay and people's comments around fandom about having a humiliation/embarrassment squick and the fact that it is freaking hard to find fics tagged with "humiliation" on delicious and in archives, etc. Even stories that feature it heavily! It's as if people don't realize the scenes they've written or read that center on dirty talk or submission or name-calling actually contain consensual humiliation.
All by way of saying (a) you should read that essay and (b) it was hard to track down stories to rec here, whether I'd read them before or was trying to find new ones, because of the tag issue.
Nonetheless! Here are 9 fic recs to go with the essay. One is Inception-I know there are more; where are they?-and the rest are SGA, plus a House/SGA crossover. Which we will start with.
Filling In by deelaundry is a fun and memorable ficlet in which McKay, providing a unique type of escort service, teaches House about how deriding people's intelligence can satisfy them, sexually or otherwise.Just to be sure, though, House had to clarify: "You tell them they're stupid, fuck them, and leave?"
As mentioned, there's a big overlap in the Venn diagram of verbal humiliation, dirty talk and begging. In You I Crash Cars by five_ht demonstrates it in spades. Eames engages in a bit of offhand slut-shaming; Arthur gets off on being called names. On being made to admit he is a slut. On being made to admit that he likes it. On being made to ask for it."Fuck you," Arthur snarls into his mouth, and Eames can see his deepening blush when he opens his eyes, "Fuck - say it again."
Eames licks at his bared teeth, reaching down to yank Arthur's hands away from him and wrench them behind his back. "You're a slut, Arthur," he breathes, and it rolls off his tongue far easier than it should, so satisfying when Arthur quivers, nodding in either encouragement or agreement.
When I think of humiliation in SGA fic, I think of telesilla, wolfshark and sabinelagrande. You can browse their tag lists and lose a few hours there, but these are the ones that stand out to me.
telesilla's You're Shining Down For Me: John admits to Rodney that he wants to be humiliated. (Warning for a little kink denigration by the characters.)"It's just a kink, right?" Rodney said firmly. "Nothing to be ashamed of."
John's face went hot; for a moment he was sure Rodney could feel it. And maybe...just maybe he could, because he reached out and took John's chin in his hand.
"Look at me."
Although John raised his chin, he couldn't meet Rodney's eyes. "What?" he said and he sounded sullen even to himself.
"Maybe it is something to be ashamed of," Rodney murmured.
"Oh?" John swallowed hard, not sure if he hoped Rodney was right or wrong.
"Shame, humiliation," Rodney said in that same low voice…
Also telesilla's Now That You Mention It, where, flipping around who gets off on what, John wants to play with verbally humiliating Rodney. In addition to the kink negotiation as in the above rec, I like this one for pointing out the difference between berating people by day and erotically humiliating them by night and for emphasizing the importance of the humiliated party enjoying the humiliation. It's funny; this picture of Rodney runs completely counter to the portrayal in Dee's "Filling In," but through the magic of fandom you can believe them both just fine."How do you feel," John began, and Rodney practically held his breath, hoping to get a complete sentence out of him. "About humiliation?"
Of course, Rodney thought with a mental sigh. Because I'm mouthy and an asshole, everyone thinks I'll be happy to call them....
"I won't...I don't call people stupid," John added quickly. "Well, unless it's a major turn on."
"Wait wait wait," Rodney said holding up a hand. "You want to humiliate me?"
"Never mind," John said quickly.
[…]
"Um," Rodney took a deep breath. "This menacing thing you're doing right now? With the posture and the, you know, sexy voice? That's really working for me. And trust me, I can take plenty of humiliation."
"Yeah, but do you like it?"
Ah, I knew there was a particular fic I was trying to think of the other day with characters being taken down/calmed down through submission and/or pain. It was a series by wolfshark. For today's purposes, let's look at the sixth installment, Intense. (Also contains consent play and BDSM.)John stepped forward, threading his fingers through Rodney's fine hair and jerking his head back. "Here, I'll make it easy for you. The important question was 'are you really that stupid?' The answer is clearly yes, so say that, Rodney."
"No!' Rodney started to struggle, trying to get his head loose, and John casually reached down and cupped his balls. He didn't squeeze tightly. He didn't have to - Rodney knew what it meant and froze instantly.
"Wrong answer - again. You really are having a tough time of it today, aren't you?"
sabinelagrande's doubled up inside is one example among many of hers of verbal humiliation and other obedience and power play with Weir and Caldwell. What I remember best about it is the end, after the taking-down and dirty talk, when Weir is feeling more grounded. It really shows how engaging in humiliation play doesn't mean the characters don't care about each other.After a long moment, he pulls back to look at her, brushing the tears off of her face. "Was that what you needed?" She nods. "Are you going to tell me that you're upset next time, instead of acting like a brat?" She thinks about it, then shakes her head. "We'll work on it," he tells her, hugging her close and pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
A very well-done example is the kink meme fill Hamster Wheel by anonymous. I think it does a good job of bringing you inside John's head to see what he gets out of being humiliated. Unfortunately, it only consists of 3 parts out of 4, but I still recommend checking it out. (Warning for some gay-shaming - and also a warning that there is a tangential and contentious fill in the same thread, "Merry Go Round Broke Down.")He never knows how Rodney will do it. The few other people John's trusted with this side of him have always had to have a script. They wanted to draw lines that they wouldn't cross, have safewords, schedule the encounter. Not Rodney. That's part of the appeal, if there can be said to be an appeal to the game Rodney plays with John. Sometimes it isn't a game; sometimes they're in public and Rodney doesn't even know he's doing it to John.
At least, John tells himself Rodney doesn't know. His cock will twitch at just the thought that Rodney is doing it on purpose and then his ears will get hot and he'll excuse himself from whatever meeting or situation they're in, before the cycle really gets going.
Rodney always knows then, of course. The things he says to John afterward shouldn't be so arousing, wouldn't be for anyone who wasn't a hot, fucked-up mess like John. No one should want someone to treat them like Rodney treats John or say the things he says. Of course, that's part of it, the icing on the cake of his arousal-response cycle.
Sugar by panisdead is lots of fun because the dirty talk consists of pet names instead of traditionally shaming names. John's just as embarrassed. "Oh, honey," Rodney murmurs, licking the crease where Sheppard's thigh meets his groin. "Oh, cupcake. You're doing fine."
Sheppard whimpers like he's in pain. Rodney watches, fascinated, as Sheppard's blush darkens until even the tips of his ears are bright red. He looks mortified. Rodney loves it.
Speaking of embarrassment, which I don't even know how to disentangle from humiliation except to say that perhaps it's self-generated instead of other-generated, like the difference between guilt and shame; or I could cite the dictionary definition again: "to cause to experience a state of self-conscious distress; to become anxiously self-conscious"-my point is that I am including embarrassment under erotic humiliation here both for the above rec and for helenish's Blush, in which John can't seem to do anything sexual with Rodney without turning bright red and awkward. Be sure to check out the inside-out remix she links at the bottom, which is not about humiliation or embarrassment but is nevertheless another masterful example of characters working through a miscommunication and the author nailing the last line.
The end. Additions? I was talking with deelaundry about humiliation and House, which is like the proverbial ducks and water, only I can't say that the humiliation that pervades the show and crops up in fic is appreciated by those on the receiving end. That's why her math tutor-prostitute fic is so much fun.
My Bingo card
Square 1: Ageplay Recs
Square 2: Food Recs
Square 3: Vehicular Recs
Square 4: Subspace/Headspace Recs
Square 5: Verbal Humiliation Recs
Once again, I found myself having to delineate what got included for this square or I'd never stop looking for fics. This time we are focusing on consensual verbal humiliation. One character verbally humiliating the other for one or both parties' sexual satisfaction. That includes consent play, because humiliation is so easily and intricately bound up in things a person wants-but-does-not-want-ashamed to want something, wanting to be told it's wrong to want it, wanting to revel in wanting it or doing it even if it's frowned on by their culture....
In fact, I had to go look up "humiliation" in the dictionary to see exactly what it encompasses. Merriam-Webster says: "to reduce to a lower position in one's own eyes or others' eyes : mortify." The synonyms it lists include: abase, chasten, cheapen, debase, degrade, demean, discredit, disgrace, dishonor, foul, humble, lower, shame, sink, smirch, take down. So, indeed, we are covering name-calling, shaming, dirty talk, kneeling, crawling, begging, uncomfortable confessions, you name it. And the character(s) get(s) off on it.
I have trouble sometimes with humiliation kink fic. Often fics assume that at least one character gets off on humiliating or being humiliated, assume that the reader can sympathize, and run with that, so you get a lot of name-calling and blushing etc. but not necessarily a lot of understanding (on this reader's part, anyway). I forget that humiliation is threaded through my noncon-fantasy Mary Sue stories and that I've written at least two dirty-talk fics and a physical exposure fic. I forget that I have a kink for humiliation directed at a character being a sexual creature or wanting sex at all.
One thing that has helped clarify what erotic humiliation means and what it can do for people is thingswithwings's essay, The Riches of Embarrassment: Or, Why I Don't Have a Humiliation Squick. If you haven't spent much time thinking about it, or even if you have, I highly recommend it.Humiliation kink, for me, does that wonderful thing that only kink can do: it allows me to wallow pleasurably in a feeling that, in other circumstances, would make me feel bad. It eroticizes the thing that makes me feel bad, and makes the feeling-bad feel good.
[...]
It's such a wonderful snarl, that kink, wanting to be humiliated and being ashamed of wanting to be humiliated and enjoying the shame of wanting to be humiliated and being ashamed of enjoying the shame of wanting to be humiliated, and on and on, all that beautiful recursiveness, the kink just endlessly compounding itself.
It seems many other fans have some discomfort (ironically) with humiliation kink as well, and/or with differentiating it from unwanted humiliation, based on that essay and people's comments around fandom about having a humiliation/embarrassment squick and the fact that it is freaking hard to find fics tagged with "humiliation" on delicious and in archives, etc. Even stories that feature it heavily! It's as if people don't realize the scenes they've written or read that center on dirty talk or submission or name-calling actually contain consensual humiliation.
All by way of saying (a) you should read that essay and (b) it was hard to track down stories to rec here, whether I'd read them before or was trying to find new ones, because of the tag issue.
Nonetheless! Here are 9 fic recs to go with the essay. One is Inception-I know there are more; where are they?-and the rest are SGA, plus a House/SGA crossover. Which we will start with.
Filling In by deelaundry is a fun and memorable ficlet in which McKay, providing a unique type of escort service, teaches House about how deriding people's intelligence can satisfy them, sexually or otherwise.Just to be sure, though, House had to clarify: "You tell them they're stupid, fuck them, and leave?"
As mentioned, there's a big overlap in the Venn diagram of verbal humiliation, dirty talk and begging. In You I Crash Cars by five_ht demonstrates it in spades. Eames engages in a bit of offhand slut-shaming; Arthur gets off on being called names. On being made to admit he is a slut. On being made to admit that he likes it. On being made to ask for it."Fuck you," Arthur snarls into his mouth, and Eames can see his deepening blush when he opens his eyes, "Fuck - say it again."
Eames licks at his bared teeth, reaching down to yank Arthur's hands away from him and wrench them behind his back. "You're a slut, Arthur," he breathes, and it rolls off his tongue far easier than it should, so satisfying when Arthur quivers, nodding in either encouragement or agreement.
When I think of humiliation in SGA fic, I think of telesilla, wolfshark and sabinelagrande. You can browse their tag lists and lose a few hours there, but these are the ones that stand out to me.
telesilla's You're Shining Down For Me: John admits to Rodney that he wants to be humiliated. (Warning for a little kink denigration by the characters.)"It's just a kink, right?" Rodney said firmly. "Nothing to be ashamed of."
John's face went hot; for a moment he was sure Rodney could feel it. And maybe...just maybe he could, because he reached out and took John's chin in his hand.
"Look at me."
Although John raised his chin, he couldn't meet Rodney's eyes. "What?" he said and he sounded sullen even to himself.
"Maybe it is something to be ashamed of," Rodney murmured.
"Oh?" John swallowed hard, not sure if he hoped Rodney was right or wrong.
"Shame, humiliation," Rodney said in that same low voice…
Also telesilla's Now That You Mention It, where, flipping around who gets off on what, John wants to play with verbally humiliating Rodney. In addition to the kink negotiation as in the above rec, I like this one for pointing out the difference between berating people by day and erotically humiliating them by night and for emphasizing the importance of the humiliated party enjoying the humiliation. It's funny; this picture of Rodney runs completely counter to the portrayal in Dee's "Filling In," but through the magic of fandom you can believe them both just fine."How do you feel," John began, and Rodney practically held his breath, hoping to get a complete sentence out of him. "About humiliation?"
Of course, Rodney thought with a mental sigh. Because I'm mouthy and an asshole, everyone thinks I'll be happy to call them....
"I won't...I don't call people stupid," John added quickly. "Well, unless it's a major turn on."
"Wait wait wait," Rodney said holding up a hand. "You want to humiliate me?"
"Never mind," John said quickly.
[…]
"Um," Rodney took a deep breath. "This menacing thing you're doing right now? With the posture and the, you know, sexy voice? That's really working for me. And trust me, I can take plenty of humiliation."
"Yeah, but do you like it?"
Ah, I knew there was a particular fic I was trying to think of the other day with characters being taken down/calmed down through submission and/or pain. It was a series by wolfshark. For today's purposes, let's look at the sixth installment, Intense. (Also contains consent play and BDSM.)John stepped forward, threading his fingers through Rodney's fine hair and jerking his head back. "Here, I'll make it easy for you. The important question was 'are you really that stupid?' The answer is clearly yes, so say that, Rodney."
"No!' Rodney started to struggle, trying to get his head loose, and John casually reached down and cupped his balls. He didn't squeeze tightly. He didn't have to - Rodney knew what it meant and froze instantly.
"Wrong answer - again. You really are having a tough time of it today, aren't you?"
sabinelagrande's doubled up inside is one example among many of hers of verbal humiliation and other obedience and power play with Weir and Caldwell. What I remember best about it is the end, after the taking-down and dirty talk, when Weir is feeling more grounded. It really shows how engaging in humiliation play doesn't mean the characters don't care about each other.After a long moment, he pulls back to look at her, brushing the tears off of her face. "Was that what you needed?" She nods. "Are you going to tell me that you're upset next time, instead of acting like a brat?" She thinks about it, then shakes her head. "We'll work on it," he tells her, hugging her close and pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
A very well-done example is the kink meme fill Hamster Wheel by anonymous. I think it does a good job of bringing you inside John's head to see what he gets out of being humiliated. Unfortunately, it only consists of 3 parts out of 4, but I still recommend checking it out. (Warning for some gay-shaming - and also a warning that there is a tangential and contentious fill in the same thread, "Merry Go Round Broke Down.")He never knows how Rodney will do it. The few other people John's trusted with this side of him have always had to have a script. They wanted to draw lines that they wouldn't cross, have safewords, schedule the encounter. Not Rodney. That's part of the appeal, if there can be said to be an appeal to the game Rodney plays with John. Sometimes it isn't a game; sometimes they're in public and Rodney doesn't even know he's doing it to John.
At least, John tells himself Rodney doesn't know. His cock will twitch at just the thought that Rodney is doing it on purpose and then his ears will get hot and he'll excuse himself from whatever meeting or situation they're in, before the cycle really gets going.
Rodney always knows then, of course. The things he says to John afterward shouldn't be so arousing, wouldn't be for anyone who wasn't a hot, fucked-up mess like John. No one should want someone to treat them like Rodney treats John or say the things he says. Of course, that's part of it, the icing on the cake of his arousal-response cycle.
Sugar by panisdead is lots of fun because the dirty talk consists of pet names instead of traditionally shaming names. John's just as embarrassed. "Oh, honey," Rodney murmurs, licking the crease where Sheppard's thigh meets his groin. "Oh, cupcake. You're doing fine."
Sheppard whimpers like he's in pain. Rodney watches, fascinated, as Sheppard's blush darkens until even the tips of his ears are bright red. He looks mortified. Rodney loves it.
Speaking of embarrassment, which I don't even know how to disentangle from humiliation except to say that perhaps it's self-generated instead of other-generated, like the difference between guilt and shame; or I could cite the dictionary definition again: "to cause to experience a state of self-conscious distress; to become anxiously self-conscious"-my point is that I am including embarrassment under erotic humiliation here both for the above rec and for helenish's Blush, in which John can't seem to do anything sexual with Rodney without turning bright red and awkward. Be sure to check out the inside-out remix she links at the bottom, which is not about humiliation or embarrassment but is nevertheless another masterful example of characters working through a miscommunication and the author nailing the last line.
The end. Additions? I was talking with deelaundry about humiliation and House, which is like the proverbial ducks and water, only I can't say that the humiliation that pervades the show and crops up in fic is appreciated by those on the receiving end. That's why her math tutor-prostitute fic is so much fun.
My Bingo card