What is the Golden Shower kink featured on You Season 4 on Netflix?

Strong content warning: Sexually explicit language and mentions of urination 

Remember in 2019 when Indian sprinter Himas Das won five gold medals in one month? Funnily, what drew more publicity was Sadhguru’s tweet congratulating her where the bearded founder of Isha Foundation called her “a Golden Shower for India”. 

Despite his fancy vocabulary, there are high chances that Sadhguru himself wasn’t aware of the sexual undertones of the phrase “golden shower”, a term casually used to describe urine-related sexual kinks (or urolagnia as the scientists term it). 

Netflix’s stalker thriller-drama You brought back the concept in popular conversation after its recently-released Season 4 Part 1 featured a character Adam Pratt (played by Lukas Gage who has previously appeared in other sexually provocative shows like The White Lotus and Euphoria) who loves the feeling of men pissing on him. 

Even though the pansexual man’s rich girlfriend also agrees to urinate on him, he seems to have a specific kink in the sense that he only enjoys the pee of those who are “below him”. While the exact nature of Adam’s kink cannot be specified, it is true that pee-related kinks can take various forms (much like other kinks). 

What does a golden shower exactly include?

People who are turned on by pee would prefer to either bathe in urine (like the You character) or even drink it! But urolagnia is much more than that. There are some people who get turned on by urine-soaked clothing or some might just get sexual pleasure out of seeing their partner pee. There is no limit to the kink making golden showers socially permissible (as long as the partners are consenting, of course). 

Do some people enjoy becoming a human urinal?

Some people, especially within the BDSM community, love turning into “human urinals” or making their partner turn into one. The logic is simple. If you are a submissive, the dominant partner would *coughs* pee over you (and vice versa). Quite a messy and slippery affair indeed. One can only hope the partners clean up well after this fluid exchange. 

The Japanese have their own brand of urine kink

Omorashi is a golden shower-like kink that originated from and is predominant in Japan, an otherwise-conservative country that is known for its sexually perverted fiction and pornographic content. But while golden showers are rooted in the concept of “spraying it out”, omorashi actually involves the pleasure derived from a person holding in their urine (until the point where relieving oneself becomes very urgent). 

The practice can also have other variations such as making your partner hold it in, or just watching the partner urinate when they have reached the point of urgency. Not just the pee, the partner’s body movements and facial expressions can be arousing for the viewer in this case. 

Who are some famous golden shower enthusiasts? 

In India, of course, our former Prime Minister Moraji Desai was infamous for drinking his own urine but his reasons were rooted in health benefits rather than any sexual pleasure. When it comes to golden showers, Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin has openly confessed that he loves giving golden showers (Peeing La Vida Loca moment). 

American comedian Patrice O’Neal is another major name in the peeing kink circle. In fact, when his girlfriend told him that his pee tastes like birthday cake frosting, that’s when he realised that he has been suffering from diabetes!

At the same time, some of the notable pee-drinking and pee-bathing names have also been in the news for the wrong reasons.

For instance, the ever-controversial Donald Trump was alleged to have spent time with sex-workers in Moscow in “a golden shower”. This claim was first put forward in 2018 by American author and lawyer James Comey who was promoting his book A Higher Loyalty back then. The then-American President Trump obviously denied these claims. 

While the late Chuck Berry will continue being a guitar legend, a dark side of his personality involved videotaping several women without their consent while they were using the washroom in a restaurant that he owned. Berry was sued for the same. In another sex tape, the artist behind Johnny B Goode could be seen urinating on a woman. It is still uncertain whether this act was consensual or not. 

The pee kink gets a lot of negative PR due to notorious American serial killer Albert Fish (also dubbed as The Boogeyman by the local media). Fish used to post ads asking for widows to urinate on him or offer their own urine in cups. If this weren’t shocking enough, Fish apparently also forced children to drink urine.

A more recent negative example is Ian Watkins. The lead singer of the Welsh rock band Lostprophets, Watkins was charged with child abuse activities (including forced urolagnia) in 2013. 

What do the You cast and crew feel about golden showers?

The famous golden shower scene wasn’t firmly established in the stars, You showrunner Sera Gamble said in an interview with the American TV website TV Line. Regarding the scene where Penn Badgley’s antihero Joe discovers Adam’s kink, Gamble added that 

As for Adam actor Lukas Gage, the actor offered a behind-the-scenes glimpse to the same publication

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