# Gerbil Stuffing **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [July 18, 2000, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerbil-stuffing/26000 "2000-07-18T18:15:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SeaWench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@SeaWench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaWench)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2000, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerbil-stuffing/26000/1 "2000-07-18T18:15:25Z")
i was just wanting to comment on the gerbil stuffing legend. now i dont know if it is a legend because i have heard it from a nurse also. and yes that could be an exageration or something of that sorts but after visiting [Rotten.com](http://Rotten.com) and yes, looking under the F\*\*\* of the month there is a picture of a ::cough:: a man, a woman, a tube and a mouse. if you visit it… its not for the weak of stomic. its october of '98 entitled build a better mouse trap. is that enough evidence to prove it happens? ---
**Author:** ![DavisMcDavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dfb087/32.png) [@DavisMcDavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavisMcDavis)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2000, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerbil-stuffing/26000/2 "2000-07-18T18:46:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SeaWench \* > \*\*…is that enough evidence to prove it happens? \*\* I’d say that’s not really evidence, since in the mentioned photo “it” hasn’t even happened yet. And doesn’t involve a gerbil, either, if you’re going to get picky about it. My understanding was that the “legend” as it was, was that gay men just LOVE to shove gerbils up their butts for sexual pleasure. Now, if you were to take a survey of homosexual men, I think you’d find they’d prefer sex with Rosie O’Donnell over a gerbil any day, and Rosie is way down on the list to begin with. As if I need to mention that. I feel safe saying this since I’m gay and I’ve _never_ had anyone start a story off with “Oh my GOD, the sex was SO HOT, he had a fully-loaded Habitrail!” ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2000, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerbil-stuffing/26000/3 "2000-07-18T18:47:54Z")
Welcome to the SDMB, and thank you for posting your comment. Please include a link to Cecil’s column if it’s on the straight dope web site. To include a link, it can be as simple as including the web page location in your post (make sure there is a space before and after the text of the URL). Cecil’s column can be found on-line at this link: [Is it true what they say about gerbils?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_216b) ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2000, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerbil-stuffing/26000/4 "2000-07-18T19:29:13Z")
I know the picture in question (and ghod do I feel dirty for admitting that!) and it always seemed to me to be staged. Unfortunately, **SeaWench** , there are two major pitfalls of Urban Legend at work here. Firstly, “hearing it from a nurse” is not really evidence. In UL circles, it’s a FOAF–a Friend Of A Friend. I had a buddy who _swore_ he had met the nurse who had treated Richard Gere. He later admitted he had just _talked_ to someone who knew the nurse. And most likely, that person had also just talked to someone else. This is how urban legends vector, or spread. If you talk ot your nurse acquaintance again, I’d be very surprised if she claims to have _actually_ seen a rodent in someone’s rectum. However, it’s remotely possible she has. Which brings up pitfall #2: copycatting. There’s an urban legend out there about people putting dirty syringe needles in pay phone change slots. When people check for change, the story goes, they get pricked and the perps get a good malicious laugh. It’s bollocks. But a few years ago in Salt Lake City, UT, a used needle was discovered in a pay phone coin slot. “Ah-ha!” people crowed. “It’s not just a legend after all!” As it turned out, a couple young kids had heard the legend and decided it would be funny to make it real. That doesn’t change the status of the legend to truth, nor does it mean that we should be paranoid about coin returns. I think the [rotten.com](http://rotten.com) photo is of the latter. It seemed to me to be clearly using the legend of “rodent stuffing” for amusement and shock value. The people in the photo (and others like it) were not stuffers, they were posing. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2000, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerbil-stuffing/26000/5 "2000-07-18T21:20:47Z")
I once found a used razor blade in a phone slot. ---
**Author:** ![SeaWench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@SeaWench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaWench)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2000, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerbil-stuffing/26000/6 "2000-07-18T23:04:48Z")
i didnt mean in my post that it proved that gay men stuffed. just that it happens. Ffrom my understanding of the artical it said that it has not happend. Have i miss understood the artical? ---
**Author:** ![Kyberneticist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kyberneticist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyberneticist)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerbil-stuffing/26000/7 "2000-07-19T00:02:34Z")
From the linked Cecil column > [@](#): > > “Insertion of foreign bodies into the rectum,” as it is formally known, is by no means confined to gays. Many cases are ascribed to autoeroticism on the part of straights. Leaving aside > victims of assault or accident, however, practitioners do have one thing in common: they’re incredibly stupid. > > You don’t need to be an Einstein to realize that insertion of objects presents enormous health risks. The rectum can become lacerated, torn, or infected. Long-term effects can > include a flaccid sphincter and fecal incontinence. So does this extend to anal sex in general? Is Cecil dooming all gays (and straights) who engage in this practice to perpetually low IQs? Or are some things soft enough? ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerbil-stuffing/26000/8 "2000-07-19T04:18:13Z")
The column can also be found on pages 216-218 of Cecil Adams’ book “[_More of the Straight Dope_](http://www.straightdope.com/otheroutlets/books.html)”. ---
**Author:** ![DavisMcDavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dfb087/32.png) [@DavisMcDavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavisMcDavis)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerbil-stuffing/26000/9 "2000-07-19T04:46:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kyberneticist \* > \*\*From the linked Cecil column > > > [@](#): > > > > “Insertion of foreign bodies into the rectum,” > > So does this extend to anal sex in general? Is Cecil dooming all gays (and straights) who engage in this practice to perpetually low IQs? > > Or are some things soft enough? \*\* Well, I guess it’s okay as long as they’re not foreign, so one should be sure to only introduce domestic bodies into one’s rectum. ---
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerbil-stuffing/26000/10 "2000-07-19T18:55:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kyberneticist \* > \*\* > So does this extend to anal sex in general? Is Cecil dooming all gays (and straights) who engage in this practice to perpetually low IQs? > > Or are some things soft enough? \*\* Ok, at the risk of treading on Dan Savage territory, the answer is, well, yes, some things are soft enough. Vibrators, (flexible) dildoes, butt plugs, penises…they’re not likely to do much damage. The keys to safety: no hard or breakable materials (one hears, occasionally, of light bulbs…not bright), and a base that’s flared, so that it’s unlikely the object will get lost. (That describes a penis in spades.) Oh, and lubrication, lubrication, lubrication and, just in case, lubrication. The real expert is Jack Morin, whose “Anal Pleasure and Health” is the authoritative guide. Dan Savage is a good source, too, but largely he’s just repeating Morin’s advice. As am I, so I’ll stop now. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerbil-stuffing/26000/11 "2000-07-19T20:45:47Z")
> [@](#): > > i didnt mean in my post that it proved that gay men stuffed. just that it happens. Ffrom my understanding of the artical it said that it has not happend. Have i miss understood the artical? Well, **SeaWench** , I don’t think your post, or the (IMO) staged photo at [rotten.com](http://rotten.com) (and elsewhere) are in any way proof that gerbiling has happened. As Cecil says in the article, > [@](#): > > But no such case has ever found its way into the formal literature of medicine. And given the bizarre assortment of things Cecil mentions that _have_ been found in the literature, one must assume that if a doctor had actually removed a gerbil from a rectum, the literature would reflect that. It’s that hallmark of medical science to publish the strange and unusual. Until and unless a doctor who has personally performed or assisted a rodentectomy actually comes forward, there is no proof at all, I’m afraid. -andros- ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerbil-stuffing/26000/12 "2000-07-19T22:55:54Z")
All I can say is that my friend who visits a doctor friend in LA says that he keeps the Gere gerbil in a jar in his office. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2000, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerbil-stuffing/26000/13 "2000-07-20T04:15:43Z")
That’s nothing. I personally know an EMT who worked with the guy who took the guy to the hospital after his kidneys were removed. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2000, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerbil-stuffing/26000/14 "2000-07-20T19:47:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kyberneticist \* > \*\*From the linked Cecil column > > > [@](#): > > > > "Long-term effects can > > include a flaccid sphincter > > \*\* Sorry, but I just had to say that this line makes me giggle every time I read it.