I never would have thought WAM would make its way into the academic literature. Stumbled across two interesting articles the other day:

- Beattie, M. (2023) 'Good clean fun: power and play in Wet and Messy (WAM) pornography', Continuum, 37(1), pp. 153164. doi: 10.1080/10304312.2023.2191904.
- Beattie, M. A. (2025) ''You can't do that'? The ambiguities of Wet and Messy fetish videos', Porn Studies, pp. 114. doi: 10.1080/23268743.2024.2439339.

Felt particularly relevant because of the many, many posts on here that ask a question similar to, "How'd you discover your WAM fetish?", or "What got you interested in WAM?" I'm just as interested in asking/answering these questions about myself as the next person, and reading about how this niche interacts with other, more mainstream interests always sheds light on these questions.

The research itself is worthwhile, considering the producers named and video tropes discussed, in spite of the fact Beattie acknowledges that they're "not a member of the WAM or BDSM communities." Both articles conclude on uplifting notes:

- "What the most important use of WAM pornography might be is that gives insight into a global subculture and helps demystify and, perhaps more importantly, depathologize it... When we become more familiar with and excepting of the (sub)genres of others we realize that for some people laughing and taking pleasure in the (performed) pain of others can still be good clean fun" (2023).
- "There has been very little academic work on WAM pornography and further study of its industry and audience(s) will be critically important to improving our understanding (and, ideally, wider acceptance) of the fetish community, its media and all the ways in which it can help broaden our understanding and appreciation for the ambiguities inherent in pornography and fanworks. Without such exploration of these messy (sub)genres and texts, we simply do not know what we may be missing" (2025).

For the good of the community, and the good of "global subculture," I advise all of us to proceed with our research and continue to let the pies fly Curious to know what people think! Maybe I'm late to the game and this has already been discussed... or maybe not!

I love academic research. I believe achieving greater understanding of ourselves and each other is always a worthwhile endeavor. But fuck me, nothing makes having a fetish less enjoyable than over-psychoanalyzing it. A, it's annoying to constantly have your kinks asked about then misunderstood (No, random stranger I met at a meetup, I don't have a latent D/s drive--I JUST want to see a pretty girl get slimed) and B, I do think there's some value to being a little bit ignorant about what drives a kink. Give me just enough understanding of what I want that I won't get disappointed in my purchases. Past that, let us enjoy some magic.

Our videos should be donated to science!

Psychology of WAM is simple, if it feels good..

Yeah, my brain is fixated on how it feels especially if it feels good

"Taking pleasure in the (performed) pain of others"
I don't like that expression! Otherwise, good articles.

Beattie, M. A. (2025) ''You can't do that'? The ambiguities of Wet and Messy fetish videos', Porn Studies, pp. 114. doi: 10.1080/23268743.2024.2439339.

Hey! It's us!

Does anyone have a PDF of - Beattie, M. A. (2025) ''You can't do that'? The ambiguities of Wet and Messy fetish videos', Porn Studies, pp. 114. doi: 10.1080/23268743.2024.2439339.

I would like to read it, but I don't really want to pay the $56, if possible...

Yall famous!!!!

Email the author and ask because most are happy to share their work for free

Seconded. As a scientist we hate that our work is often hidden behind a pay-to-view wall, we all do this for the advancement of science not to get rich. I don't know a single scientist that wouldn't send you their work when asked.
Fortunately I work for a university that can get anything for free...but I'm not asking for this!

I tracked down the CV of the author of these papers if you want to email her about getting a copy,

https://independent.academia.edu/BeattieMelissa/CurriculumVitae

Success! I emailed the author, and she kindly provided me with a PDF copy of both articles for free! If anyone wants to read these articles, just DM me