"Please don't leave me! I love you! I'm going to eat your every organ, and your bones...."
— Acktreal Domma, Alien Abduction Role Play
Cannibalism is a strange beast. In most cultures eating another person is generally frowned upon. Most media tends to handle the subject one of two ways: either with horror or with dark humor. However there is a third way to use it: as a metaphor for sex for Psychosexual Horror.
At first such an idea might seem strange. After all, what do the two concepts have to do with each other? But upon further inspection they do have more in common than one might think. Both hunger and sexual desire are classified as "needs" and going without either for a long period of time can make the need for them feel all the more stronger. On top of that we have phrases like "sexual appetite" that combine hunger and lust into a single concept. People who lust after somebody are said to "hunger" for them. And in the actual act of lovemaking the man typically ends up "inside" the woman, just like he would if she ate him. Indeed, when a woman has a lot of sexual partners she is called a "maneater," implying that she not only sleeps with these men then ditches them, but devours them like hors d'oeuvres. Last but not least, if successful, both concepts can help "expand" someone's body. note
As a result media sometimes adds sexual undertones/overtones to the concept of eating another person. Often times this manifests as innuendo eating that is pretty much an euphemism for sex. It also shows up as a metaphor for sexual power and dominance in characters like the Literal Maneater, who both titillates and devours her victims. A third way this trope can be used is the predator catching her (as it's often a her) prey in a manner that is reminiscent of a seduction.
A form of Does This Remind You of Anything?, Sub-Trope of Interplay of Sex and Violence. Hemo Erotic is the Sister Trope for when drinking blood is sexual; also compare Bloodlust. Literal Man Eater, where a Ms. Fanservice devours men, is a subtrope. Contrast Succubi and Incubi, who do the opposite: eating people through sex. See also A Love to Dismember. Not to be confused with Crack Is Cheaper, where your passion or hobby consumes your finances.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Beastars combines this trope with Carnivore Confusion, blurring the line between the predatory urges carnivores feel toward herbivores and sexuality between the same. The below are just a few examples:
- When Legosi captures Haru outside the theater and clings to her, it would be easy to mistake his predatory musings for sexual excitement.
- It happens again when Juno pins Louis to the ground to make her 'declaration of war.'
- For carnivores, the ability to kill is seen as a sort of rite of passage not unlike losing virginity. Legosi tries to understand Tem's killer's perspective, even noting that he "has something he doesn't", by starting small and eating a larvae raw; and afterwards he shows textbook examples of a freshly unvirgin male (he's in pure bliss following the consumption, his fur grows back, he gets more confident).
- Even strip joints run on this sort of logic. One particular stripper notes that the crowd (which is made of mostly predators) gets more and more frenzied while she (a herbivore) does her thing on stage, and uses that power to her advantage.
- A lamb named Sebun, who ends up as Legosi's neighbor for various reasons, harbors suicidal urges of being devoured by a carnivore. Legosi, who is suffering "Meat Withdrawal" after eating Louis's leg at the latter's inclination to beat Riz, keeps accidentally creating situations that are this trope incarnate, complete with pinning her down and the two having heavy breaths.
- Pina and Melon both see predation as equal to male-on-female interactions, but take opposite stances. Pina understands how it feels to have indescribable lust for the opposite sex, and relates it to Legosi's urges to eat meat when he's alone with an herbivore; conversely, Melon was never able to understand the urge to "eat" rather than the urge to "kill", only awakening to it when he gets to know Haru.
- Invoked in Claymore near the end, when Man Behind the Man Dae is gutted by Big Bad Priscilla, who then proceeds to eat his intestines. Dae claims that such an act is almost like a sexual intercourse, which causes Priscilla to pause and call him "creepy".
- Played for laughs in Meat Or Die. Yans and Gans, a couple of perpetually hungry male dinosaurs, see hearts fill their vision when they first lay eyes on nearby herbivores with feminine names and colors. It's downplayed, however, since their subsquent pursuit of the herbivore is standard chase toon fare.
- Played disturbingly literally in Mnemosyne. Angels (i.e. human men infected with time spores) are natural enemies of the immortals (infected women), because in their presence, the latter are so overcome with sexual desire that they willingly give themselves to the angels to devour (which seems to be the angels' sole motivation). There are even hints that the immortals perceive being eaten alive by an angel as intense sexual pleasure.
- My Little Goat: Played in a starkly non-romantic light. The Wolf eating the goat children is a clear metaphor here for sexual assault by a father to his children, a fate which their mother saves them from, but which leaves physical scarring to reflect their deeper emotional scars.
- The Overlord Anime's Season 3 opening song, "Voracity", is from the perspective of Albedo, a succubus. The song naturally intertwines her desire for food and for intimacy.
- Played with in Tokyo Ghoul. The story revolves around a race of man-eating ghouls who look, act, and think exactly like humans do. As such, several instances of ghouls eating humans or even other ghouls have sexual or romantic connotations. At times it's played for horror or Fan Disservice but at other times, such as when Kaneki lets Touka take a bite out of his shoulder to regain her strength during their battle against Tsukiyama, it's framed as a sort of intimacy.
Fan Works
- Codex Equus: The giant Queen Peínagápia
reflects both aspects of this. She began life as a goddess of self-control, becoming a Stepford Smiler until her Emotion Suppression became too great. When she broke, she went on a rampage across the countryside, devouring and ravaging anybody she came across, including her own family. Even though she regained control and learned to balance her newfound hedonist desires, she continues to represent Indulgence and Lust as well as her previous titles. She's stated to frequently feast on the lustful and wicked who do not repent their ways, dooming them to eternal torment inside her.
- In Pink Is A Shade Of Red, Takumi lets his critically wounded girlfriend eat him so she'll get the magic blood she needs to survive. Beforehand, he took a drug that transforms pain into pleasure, ensuring that he would enjoy the experience almost as much as she does.
Films — Animation
- Fantasia: During Dance of the Hours, whether or not the alligators are in love with the hippos or want to eat them is deliberately blurred. Ben Ali Gator, at the very least, seems to be genuinely in love with Hyacinth Hippo from his expressions and gentle treatment of her, but the way the others chase their partners could evoke either lechery or hunger.
- In FernGully: The Last Rainforest, there is an extremely sexual song about how a goanna wants to eat Zack.
Films — Live-Action
- Jennifer's Body takes this concept and runs with it. Boys who are attracted to Jennifer get eaten by her, and she exclusively eats male victims. However, her response to the concept of eating girls is "I go both ways."
- Ravenous (1999) deliberately has a lot of Homoerotic Subtext in how it portrays the relationship between Wendigo cannibal Colonel Ives and the protagonist Captain Boyd. They ultimately perform a Mutual Kill on each other that is very reminiscent of sex and the winding-down period afterward.
- Raw, a French-Belgian horror film, features a young vegetarian who also has never had sex. The uncontrollable cannibalistic urges that arise after she is forced to eat meat are portrayed as sexual awakening.
- Trick 'r Treat: Laurie's friends reminisce about what sound like past sexual escapades, while teasing Laurie for being a "virgin'' and wanting her first time to be "special". Turns out they're all werewolves, and this is how they talk about killing and eating men, which Laurie hadn't done yet.
Laurie: I don't know why we drove out here when there are perfectly good guys in the city.
Janet: Fresh meat. [...] Last year we were in Tampa.
Maria: And we went as sexy nurses.
Danielle: No Janet, Tampa was two years ago, I remember because you puked doing a guy in his pickup truck.
Janet: I ate some bad Mexican, and it was a Jeep.
Danielle: Last year was San Diego. We dressed as sailors and ended up with sailors.
Janet: Yeah, and Maria's sailor was a girl.
Maria: So what, she had a nice ass! It all tastes the same to me anyway...
Literature
- In American Gods, Bilquis, the Biblical Queen of Sheba, now poses as a prostitute, where she draws power by consuming her customers through her vagina.
- Cycle of the Werewolf: In the Valentines Day themed February entry, student Stella Randolph laments the lack of love in her life while sitting in her bedroom. When she hears scrabbling at the window, she imagines it as a lover coming to woo her via Enter Stage Window, and gladly lets him in. Even when she realizes it's a werewolf, she continues to entertain the fantasy as she's devoured. In the last line, she decides-
Love is like dying.
- One of the recurring themes of The Locked Tomb is love as consumption. The merging of souls needed to become a Lyctor is repeatedly described as one person eating the other, and while the love the two share doesn't need to be sexual in nature, there is a hell of a lot of subtext between Gideon and Harrow. Gideon in particular seems to take a lot of pleasure from the idea of being eaten.
- In the Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina story "Nightlily: The Lovers' Tale" the Gotal Feltipern Trevagg keeps trying to woo the female H'nemthe M'iiyoom Onith, blissfully unaware that women in her culture gut their sexual partners with their tongues, which are extremely sharp. In the heat of the moment, Trevagg met a grisly fate. H'nemthe virgins kept on a strict vegetarian diet, presumably so that the first flesh they taste is that of their lovers.
Live-Action TV
- An episode Season 5 Episode 14 "My Bloody Valentine" of Supernatural had two people making out start eating each other because their "hunger" for each other activates the gluttony spell over the neighborhood.
- Yellowjackets plays with this theme a bit, since it's plot revolves around a group of girls stranded in the wilderness.
- Implied with the Pseudo-Romantic Friendship of Shauna and Jackie. Shauna eating Jackie's ear after it falls off her frozen corpse, and later the whole team eating her body is played as a way of keeping Jackie close to her, even beyond the grave.
Music
- Ashnikko: "Halloweenie IV: Innards" is about a grotesque monster who disguises herself as human, and has the line "I unhinge my jaw to swallow you/I don't want to choke."
- Aqua: "Lollipop" is seemingly a love song between a girl and a literal candy man, making this trope inevitable.
Bite me, I'm yours, if you're hungry please understand
This is the end of the sweet sugar candyman - Bear Ghost: "She-Wrecks" is about a man loving a monster implied to be a dinosaur, who eats him as soon as he approaches her. Despite this, he reflects delightedly on their time together, including complimenting her smile, which was the last thing he saw before being Swallowed Whole.
- Blackbriar: "Let Me In" plays heavily into this trope.
Eat me up, swallow me alive
Open your enormous maw and let me dive
Dive into your soul, swallow me whole
Let us collide and we will never be alone - Dove Cameron's "Breakfast".
I eat boys like you for breakfast
One by one hung on my necklace
And they'll always be mine
It makes me feel alive - Captain Beefheart: "Lick My Decals Off Baby" can be interpreted as a consumption-themed metaphor for sex, but according to the artist, it's literally about postage stamps, subverting it.
- Eric Carmen: "Hungry Eyes" describes someone seeking a romantic partner as hunting to satisfy his hunger.
- Toto Coelo: "I Eat Cannibals" has the singer describing how much she wants to cook and eat her lover.
- Alice Cooper: In "Feed my Frankenstein", the singer uses a hungry Frankenstein's Monster as a metaphor for his libido.
Feed my Frankenstein
Hungry for love, and it's lunch time - The Correspondents: "Fear and Delight" compares a relationship with someone dangerous (emotionally or physically, it's never made clear) with prey approaching a predator, knowing full well they'll be eaten but drawn in anyway.
Why is that I'm keen to be devoured by you,
when there's the option of a love affair that's pure and true,
I always choose the dungeon over the sea view;
it's wrong but I want you tonight. - Ilse DeLange's "I'd Be Yours" has the following verse:
And if I were a snake I'd be a constrictor, slicker than oil
I'd entice you with my slither, wrap you in my coils
You could tie me in a thousand knots, and just watch me unfold
Hypnotize you with my stare, swallow you whole - Disturbed: "Devour" is about the singer's desire to claim his lover as his own completely.
- The song "Spider Suite" by The Duke Of Uke And His Novelty Orchestra is about an insect getting caught in a spider's web on purpose because she wants to be bitten, comparing his venom to ambrosia. He bites her, and then gives her a creepy speech as her body dissolves and she loses consciousness and dies.
- Tally Hall's "Cannibal" is about a man who is "a willing victim of a cannibal" because he's in love with her.
- Hands Off Gretel's "Eating Simon" describes the singer swallowing the titular Simon as part of their "play".
- HORSE The Band has "Sex Raptor", which describes the singer eating a woman alive. Probably a metaphor considering the song's title.
Now it's time to taste your flesh
You gasp and whimper a silent cry
Good bye - Katy Perry's "Bon Appetit" has the singer describing herself as a delicious meal for her lover.
- Kesha's "Cannibal" uses cannibalism as a metaphor for the singer's many sexual conquests.
- Kim Petras's "Close Your Eyes" describes how the singer can't resist the urge to kill her lover and eat their heart, and how they should just "close [their] eyes" and let it happen.
- Korn's "Swallow" could be interpreted this way.
My sorrow, I swallow
Follow me, oh, hell no
Was it me, I swallow
Forget me, I don't know - Lady Gaga's "Monster" is about a possessive man who "ate my heart".
- Limp Bizkit: "Eat You Alive" uses this trope to describe a creepy stalker's feelings toward a woman he's lusting after.
- Lordi:
- "Nonstop Nite" has the singer compare himself to a nocturnal creature attacking its prey, as a metaphor for sex.
- "Romeo Ate Juliet" describes Romeo "eating" Juliet, with all the double meaning that phrase implies.
- "Nonstop Nite
- Ida Maria's "I Eat Boys Like You For Breakfast" has the singer express her desire to eat men who underestimate and insult her.
- "Animals" by Maroon 5 is a classic example.
Baby, I'm preying on you tonight
Hunt you down, eat you alive
Just like animals - Auf Der Maur's "Taste You" has the singer express her desire to "taste" and "digest" her lover.
- "Warped Tour" by Devi McCallion plays into this trope.
I want to be your best friend or just eat you whole
And keep all your bones trapped inside me - Holly McNarland's "Every Single Time".
I always eat you when I'm sleeping
I chew you up and you go down so well, oh yeah
Now you're swimming in my belly - Motörhead's "In The Year Of The Wolf" connects this trope to reincarnation. Maybe.
It was the wolf in me,
I howled the cold night through,
The year I ran as a wolf,
Tonight the food is you. - Ohio Express's "Yummy Yummy Yummy" has the singer declare his desire to "eat" his lover.
- The Real Tuesday Weld's "Me and Mr Wolf" naturally leans into this trope, being a love song based on Little Red Riding Hood.
- REZZ and Dove Cameron's "Taste of You".
What am I supposed to do, but sink my teeth in you?
I starve without you on my lips, I'll die without the taste of it - Parodied in ''RiffTrax's "Love Theme From Jaws" (a parody of Michael Bolton's "When a Man Loves a Woman"). A man professes his love to a shark and asks it to eat him, repeatedly and comedically comparing himself to food.
- "You Always Eat the One You Love" by Scary Bitches describes the singer feeling an urge to kill and eat her lover.
- The Sugarcubes's "Pump" has Björk singing about how she wants her lover to eat and digest her, while Einar insists he hates her.
- Takhisis's song "Soul Swallower" describes a woman consuming the singer's soul. Definitely not a metaphor for anything else.
Soul swallower
Enslaved to her
Sucking down my spirit
I will not live through this - Toy-Box's "Best Friend" has the line "He tickles in my tummy, he's so yummy yummy".
- Vocaloid:
- The singer in "Full Course for Candy Addicts" has a hell of a Sweet Tooth and thinks of their beloved as the most delectable thing alive, blending a Yandere sentiment to keep their "one and only" with them by eating them with a distinctly sexual undertone.
Choking in this air so sweet—
Is it making you dizzy?
My love comes with a fork and knife - In "I'm Sorry, I'm Sorry", the singer's father "eating" her is used as a metaphor for Parental Incest.
He opens my ribs and drinks my soup
With a personal kiss from my stomach
I don't think I taste like anything
But if it makes Papa happy...
- The singer in "Full Course for Candy Addicts" has a hell of a Sweet Tooth and thinks of their beloved as the most delectable thing alive, blending a Yandere sentiment to keep their "one and only" with them by eating them with a distinctly sexual undertone.
Podcasts
- In the opening scene of the Are You Afraid of the Dark Universe? pitch for Dark Legion: House of Dracula, Dracula enchants Mina and van Helsing into fawning over him. But he soon becomes bored, so he turns their attention towards each other and has them to fuck and eat each other to death.
Tabletop Games
- In Vampire: The Masquerade, the consumption of blood is considered a deeply sexual affair, with victims even becoming psychologically addicted to the act more often than not. It's no wonder, then, that completely consuming another vampire in blood and soul is considered far Better than Sex.
Video Games
- In Cultist Simulator, Grail is both the principle of the birth and the feast.
- The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy-: Nozomi has an odd relationship with food and loved ones. Clown Energy giving her an urge to eat her Love Interest in the Comedy Route is one thing, but she also drinks the blood of her mother figure on a more serious path, and it's likely that Karua's habit of comfort eating was true to Nozomi.
- Nanda Ryūō from Namu Amida Butsu! -UTENA- is turned on by the thought of being eaten by snake/dragon-eating Karuraten.
- Chef Vincent in Dead Plate is convinced this is what will finally allow him to taste food.
Visual Novels
- Happens in Nurse Love Addiction if you get Itsuki's bad end, due to the character doing this being broken by her lover's death and misinterpreting her last wish.
Webcomics
- In Goblins, Lizard Folk have Blue-and-Orange Morality compared to other sentient creatures which results in them viewing eating, mating and violence as different aspects of the same thing. K'seliss displays this point when he fondly tells Gremm an anecdote about showing his fondness for a female by eating all of her fingers, only to be outdone by another male who then ate her entire arm.
- Housepets!: Lois and Marion are ex-humans transformed into animals, who maintain their romance despite being on opposite sides of the food chain. Lois (the bobcat) gets a lot of mileage out of romantically teasing Marion (the squirrel) over this, frequently holding the possibility she might eat him over his head and giving him such flirtatious nicknames as 'Nugget' and 'Little Snack'. A running gag is made of their Interrupted Intimacy, frequently mistaken by Sasha as Lois chowing down on him.
- Jack (David Hopkins): Lily and Bob's romance and shared cannibalistic traits cross over heavily; Prior to meeting Lily, Bob was a regular caller of phone sex hotlines, where his fantasies often ended with descriptions of eating the woman on the other end. After discovering Lily shared his fetish, the two ended up killing and cooking a coworker Bob was attracted to the same night they had sex for the first time, and would go on to share the title of the Sin of Gluttony.
- Unsounded: Efheby venom results in a type of ecstasy in humans, while also dissolving their soul for the efheby's consumption they've also got monstrous facsimiles of human reproductive organs efheby traditionally use for exerting dominance, but which they can use to pleasure a human victim. All of this combined with some efheby proclaiming to love their more interesting prey means that efheby have a very sensual manner in which they can feed on people and sometimes get eager volunteers who proclaim to love them back.
Web Video
- A major plot point in Alien Abduction Role Play, where the titular alien, Acktreal Domma, threatens to eat the unnamed human protagonist. Even after she falls in love with the human, her irrational desire to eat them does not go away, much to her horror. During her feral episodes, she can't even tell the difference between her romantic feelings for the human and her predatory instincts to eat them.
Western Animation
- In an episode of Kaeloo, Mr. Cat gets his hands on a magic wand and turns Kaeloo, his crush, into a giant monster who tries to swallow him whole. Mr. Cat seems rather... "excited" by the prospect and actually allows her to do it. The effects of the wand are temporary, however, so it's likely that he knew that no real harm would rise from her swallowing him.
- In The Ren & Stimpy Show, during a "Fantastic Voyage" Plot, Ren encounters and falls in love with a female bacterium. With their first kiss, she sucks out his skeleton, causing him to collapse into a puddle. He's far from displeased.
