Whump Sideblog

Sociocultural identities of the whump community: investigating cross-cultural interest in the fictional genre of whump and hurt/comfort

Response period: July 16, 9pm (NZT) - August 6, 9pm (NZT)

This survey may take approximately 10-15mins. There are a few open questions in the questionnaire, but these are optional.

At the beginning of the questionnaire, there is an information sheet. It serves as a consent form, so please give this a read. But in case it looks like too many words, here's the gist of it: - this is an academic research project - responses are entirely anonymous - responses are entirely voluntary and you may withdraw at any time during the survey - responses (including any information you voluntarily give in support of the research) will be kept confidential

Purpose of research:

This research will investigate the nature of whump interest in order to gain a better understanding of the appeal of the hurt/comfort genre, the identity of the whump fan community and the application of whump in story writing and trauma processing.

The aim is to provide new knowledge to an under-researched area, such as a psychological, sociocultural and literary perspective on whump interest that so far only informal research and discussions and some academic essays have sought to raise discussion of. Conducting this research at an academic level of research will thereby aid in laying a foundation for future academic research on the topic. This questionnaire is part of this research.

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After the response collection period, I will aim to share a summary of the results here on this blog in the following month or two (TBC).

If you would like to receive notification of this via tagging on Tumblr, or receive the summary via email, please let me know in the end optional comment section of the questionnaire.

NB: Participants are not required to consider themselves a part of the whump community in order to participate in this survey.

Alright, I ended up asking for help with this! Beautiful spouse milk and racoon helped, so not all reccomendations are from me. Although it seems like we read nearly the same stuff so... 

@milk-carton-whump​ - Brody & Nathan, abusive relationship type dynamic and rlly creepy/stalker whumper. Niner for dehumanization and pet whump (and my tears :/ )

@just-a-whumping-racoon-with-wifi​ Tool for heavy physical mental/conditioning. Nik for 🌟feelings🌟, homesick, loneliness, touch starvation. The Whumper there is quite literally feeding off/stealing the negative emotions. Brody for pet whump/dehumanization. Training drabbles have lots of conditioning. 

@whump-me-all-night-long - Jewerly Box; Stockolm Syndrome for Diamond and a lot of emotional/psychological whump going on with Saphire/Carnelian.

@as-a-matter-of-whump - Jonah & Vincent for abusive relationship/gaslight; Caleb is pet whump and has some pretty neat emotional stuff already on the first drabble;

@jordanstrophe - Good whumper-turned-caretaker material. Going-once-going-twice, more on the recovery side of whump.

@ihaventwritteninsolong - Cathal; a lot of emotional whump/abusive realtionship type dynamic;

@friendlylocalwhumper - Lux; lots of conditioning. stockholm/ptsd vibes. 

@whumpfigure - Very heavy in dehumanization/conditioning. I’m struggling not to make a cat joke.

@secretwhumplair Yves *heart locked my beloved*. I think he does fit like an unreliable narrator at times. Raccoon also says lint and houseguests

@whumpzone - I feel like there is a heavy focus on the emotional side of whump on basically all their writing. Its mostly recovery tho.

@albino-whumpee - Sann and Albus. Dehumanization/pet whump. 

@tenmillionwhumperflies - Cloudwalkers. Raccoon reccomendations, I will read later. They have horses!

@faewhump - Alex. Same as above. They have faes. No horses that I can tell. If you go on their blog don’t say your name. 

@sola-whumping - Nox. Same as above!

@the-wandering-whumper - Spouse reccomendation! Seems to be focused on fandom.

thank you!

• Dropping/breaking something (vase, plate, glass, cellphone, etc.)

• Failing to obey a simple order (get up, eat this, stay awake, etc.)

• Failing to carry out a serious mission (find this information, assassinate this person, don't break under interrogation, etc.)

• Getting sick (because of natural causes, or because they weren't properly taken care of), or injured (out of clumsiness, or because they were punished too harshly)

• Having things such as asthma, allergies, panic attacks, a stutter

• Not being able to work/carry out their 'purpose', being so scared they can hardly function

• Eating or drinking more than they are allowed, or more than they think they are allowed

• Crying, screaming, begging (during punishment or when they think they are about to be punished)

• Being a certain way in appearance (short/tall, attractive/unattractive, weak/strong, etc.)

• Something they did to someone a long time ago, back when they were still defiant (fighting the whumper, being mean to the –possibly reluctant– caretaker, pissing off someone who can rescue them now, etc.)

• Not knowing the things that the caretaker is trying to teach them (no punishments, no kneeling, no sleeping on the floor, etc.)

• Not knowing how to do things like read, write, cook, make a bed, buy groceries, use a phone, etc., because they have been locked away for too long, or nobody showed them how

• 'Forcing' the whumper to punish them, because the whumper pretends they don't want to do this but the whumpee gives them no other choice

• Being 'broken', no longer being 'fun' for the whumper to 'play with'

• Disappearing and not contacting their loved ones, when they had actually been kidnapped

• Having a nightmare and waking the caretaker or the whumper with their crying/sleep-talking

• Bodily fluids they can't control (tears, blood, urine, saliva, vomit, etc.)

• Existing

• Thinking they are responsible for bad things that happened (people fighting over them, somebody's death/injury/misfortune, their refusing to sacrifice themselves for a cause, etc.)

• Not responding the way somebody wants them to

• Not remembering somebody from their past

-Caretaker is busy and they want to be left alone, they tell whumpee “I’m busy, go wait for me in that room”. Later they come into the room to see a trembling whumpee presenting a cane for them to be beaten with, as a punishment for bothering master.

-Caretaker gives whumpee a bath and leaves to do some work, expecting the whumpee to finish up on their own. They come back hours later to find whumpee still in the bath, freezing and shivering, because they were never ordered to get out. Or also: Caretaker asking whumpee to get ready for a bath, and whumpee goes and waits outside by the hose instead of in the bathroom.

-Caretaker asks whumpee to bring them some kind of tool (a knife, a hammer, etc.) because they’re doing some chores/housework. Whumpee brings the tool back, hands it to the caretaker, and presents their hands to be cut/hit while crying and apologizing. 

-Whumpee spills something on the shirt that caretaker gave them. They nervously go to Caretaker’s room to admit their mistake. Caretaker says “go ahead and take that shirt off”, meaning to get whumpee a clean one. But when they turn around from the closet, they see whumpee kneeling on the floor with their back facing caretaker, thinking they’re going to be whipped for ruining master’s property.

-caretaker comes in holding rope and whumpee obediently drops to their knees and holds out their arms like a good pet.

-whumpee seems restless lately, having to sit around the house with nothing to do, so caretaker lets whumpee run on their treadmill for some exercise to get that energy out. They leave, thinking whumpee will get off when they’re tired. But hours later they come back and see that the exhausted whumpee is still trying to run. The whole time the whumpee was wondering what they were being punished for. Had they been too lazy? When master finally stops the treadmill they promise through labored breaths that they’ve learned their lesson, whatever they did wrong they’ll never do it again. And they know they don’t deserve it but can they please have just a little bit of water?

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Your whumpee, being auctioned.

Put on display, frightened, trembling. Maybe it's virtual with a camera directed at them and a cold voice describing them to invisible viewers; maybe it's at some venue and interested parties close in on them, touch them to examine their value.

Personally I love the in-person auction. Maybe it’s in a warehouse with buzzing fluorescent lighting and boxes stacked high. A rowdy crowd jeering at the “merchandise, jostling each other for the chance to pinch, grope, prod, sharing some beers while laughing at the shame and embarrassment and petty defiance of the people being sold.

Or maybe it’s a high-class establishment. A luxurious lounge, buyers reclining on leather couches and sipping expensive liquor while perusing the wares. A setting full of rich, powerful people who know exactly what they want and what their tastes are. The merchandise is on full display, tied up or forced to hold stressful positions that strain their muscles. The buyers here are more subtle, but no less cruel.