With Christmas just 26 days away, many Brits will be excitedly dusting off their best Christmas jumpers.
For most people, these festive garments are novelties that are eventually put back in the attic when January rolls around again.
Others, however, are so obsessed with their sweaters that they actually derive sexual pleasure and excitement from wearing them.
So says Dr Mark Griffiths, an expert in behavioral addiction at Nottingham Trent University, who has described the strange ‘wolf etish’ in his new book, Sexual Perversions and Paraphilias.
“People seem to have the ability to fetishize about almost anything,” he explains in the book.
‘Woolies are individuals who derive sexual pleasure and excitement from wearing wool, usually in the form of full-body ‘wool suits’.
Dr. Griffiths believes this may be a relatively new fetish.
“Given that there is absolutely no scientific research on woolens, this suggests that the fetish does not really exist, or that it is a relatively newly realized fetish,” he added.
Some people are so obsessed with their sweaters that they actually derive sexual pleasure and excitement from wearing them (stock image)
‘Woolies’ are people who get sexual pleasure or arousal from the feeling of soft wool on their own skin or on the skin of others.
According to the experts, wolf fetishes fall on a spectrum that ranges from fairly tame to extreme.
For example, some users simply enjoy the subtlety of a woman wearing a turtleneck.
However, at the other end of the scale, some woollies enjoy being ‘partially mummified’ in layers of blankets.
In 2014, Dr Griffiths was asked to comment on several cases of ‘woolies’ for a Discovery Channel TV documentary called Forbidden.
‘One of the wool people mentioned was an American, Scott from Florida, who perhaps unsurprisingly ran a small business selling sweaters and said he had a ‘lifelong obsession’ with wool,’ Dr Griffiths explains in his book.
“As a boy, he claimed he stole sweaters to hide in his school locker or in the woods near his house.
“At the time of the shooting, he had a collection of approximately 3,000 sweaters and claimed to be sexually attracted to anyone wearing a sweater, including men (even though he is heterosexual).”
Some users simply enjoy the subtlety of a woman wearing a turtleneck. However, at the other end of the scale, some woollies enjoy being ‘partially mummified’ in layers of blankets (stock image)
Scott described his love of wool as a “secret fetish” because no one knew he was actually turned on by walking down the street in his sweater.
The documentary also featured a German woman named ‘Lady Mohair’ who sold full-body knitted outfits to people all over the world.
“In the program she introduced the audience to some of her more ‘eccentric’ woolly characters, such as ‘Knuti’, who took on the personality of a woolly polar bear,” Dr Griffiths recalls in his book.
Although no scientific research has yet been done on wolf fetishes, Dr Griffiths says he is confident they are legitimate.
“My own view is that wolf fetishists exist,” he added.
“But like many other niche fetishes I’ve discussed, the incidence and prevalence is probably very small.”
You can find out more about paraphilias in Professor Griffiths’ new book, Sexual Perversions and Paraphilias: An AZ.