Have you ever put on some legendary porn and masturbated for hours, never allowing yourself to orgasm, until you went into a trancelike state and lost all sense of space and time?
No? Well, you clearly haven’t tried gooning.
Gooning is a kind of extreme form of edging — wherein you continuously stimulate yourself for hours on end, without reaching a climax, in order to experience the “goon state” — a deeply meditative experience akin to meditation. Gooning has become a bit of an internet phenomenon, with countless videos emerging on TikTok and streaming sites like Twitch. According to data from Sensuali, searches for Gooning are up 435 percent, and up 314 percent in the last year alone on Google Trends.
Dr. Ty David Lerman, Ph.D., a psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, and certified sex therapist, tells us that gooning gets its name from our favorite spinach-eating sailor of yesteryear. “The term is a nod to the ‘Goons’ of early Popeye the Sailor cartoons, which depicted henchmen who were not very smart and seemingly single-task oriented.” And modern day gooners certainly are single-task oriented…with that task being beating their meat.
In all likelihood, gooning has made it into the mainstream narrative because of the funny and silly faces that a person makes while gooning. Zachary Zane, author of Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto and sex expert for Archer, a new dating app for queer men, describes the “goon face” as possession-like. Your face slackens and you look zoned out in a way that certainly makes for watchable video content.
Yet, while gooning’s popularity has seen quite a significant uptick in recent years, it isn’t anything new. Far from it, actually. Relevant definitions of “gooning” popped up in 2005 on Urban Dictionary. Zane tells us that gooning forums on Reddit can be traced back at least three years — making it quite the digital phenomenon. Lerman adds that gooning has been around as long as porn has existed — and possibly longer, though no such documentation exists. Today, there are plenty of dedicated websites, communities, subreddits, forums, and media designed for gooning. We are all gooners here.
What is new, relatively speaking, is the gooning community: The ability to find like-minded folx who are just as interested in stroking their peens for hours as you are. It’s really about the friends we make along the way, eh?
So, how does gooning work? When you’re in ~the goon state~ what is going on in your brain and body? And, possibly most importantly, can gooning become problematic or should we go off and goon on in peace?
Let’s investigate.
What is gooning?
Gooning is masturbating for a prolonged period of time, usually hours, without ever climaxing. Lerman says this is usually in conjunction with porn and sometimes with poppers — a legal liquid substance that is inhaled causing a euphoric high and enhanced sexual pleasure.
The “goon state” is actually pretty similar to subspace in BDSM — in that you experience so much sensation that you wind up on a different mental level. It feels euphoric because of all the endorphins our brain releases during such intense play. These include neuro-chemicals like dopamine, adrenaline, and oxytocin. This cocktail of hormones impact the way a person experiences sensation, pleasure, and even themselves.
Lerman says that as a hypnotherapist, he’d categorize the goon state as a trance. “I loosely define a trance state as ‘the focus of attention on one thing to the exclusion of all else.’ This definition is intentionally a bit vague, as we go into and out of trances all the time,” he says. “Daydreaming, staring into a fire, ‘zoning out,’ getting lost in the TV and not hearing our spouse yelling at us are all forms of trances — and we all do it. [Gooning] is just a very specific type of trance, accompanied with physical sensation.”
Research has shown that deep meditative states such as this can be intensely therapeutic and can have a lot of benefits for psychological healing.
Of course, not all gooners are blasting a hardcore gangbang scene on a tube site with their dicks out in order to heal emotionally or whatever, but the psychological positives do paint a picture of its appeal. Namely, that it feels freakin’ amazing.
The members of the Goon Collective
Who is doing all this relentless gooning? And furthermore, is gooning a purely solo activity or are groups of buddies getting together to goon out in groups?
While gooning is usually a solo activity paired with porn, gooners (or bators, as they are sometimes called), may goon alone or with others — either in-person or on video.
From the outside, the idea that a couple of dudes would get together to masturbate might sound inherently queer, but Lerman advises us against labeling. “There are certainly cases of heterosexual ‘bate buds’ who will get together and do their own thing separately, but together,” he says. “This def sounds a bit queer to the outsider, but in these cases, there is no sexual interest in each other. Rather, the attraction is simply being present with someone who ‘gets it’ and is part of the tribe.” Humans just want to belong.
Of course, gay men can goon, too. Dr. Lee Phillips, Ed.D., a psychotherapist and certified sex and couples therapist, says that gooning is very popular in the gay male community, but it may look a bit different than the gooning of their straight counterparts. “They will have circle-jerk parties but will call them ‘goon parties’ because they will edge for long periods of time as they hit the hypnotic-trance-like state,” Phillips says. All in all, anyone can goon!
Zane adds that gooners may also choose to engage solo and then seek out community support. Many gooners enjoy “sharing what porn they’re watching with other gooners and how intense their masturbatory experience was,” he says. Sharing is caring, after all.
Some gooners even have dedicated “Goon Caves,” which are spaces designed specifically for their gooning activities. A Goon Cave may include one or more large flat screen TVs for porn, sexual enhancements like toys, lube, and poppers, and anything else a gooner might need to ensure optimal goon time.
When to check your gooner habits
To goon or not to goon, that is the question. If you’re super into slipping into the darkness of your room, door locked, porn on, and dick out — can these habits ever become problematic?
Here’s the skinny: While some folx would be quick to hop on their soapbox and call someone who engages in masturbation for hours at a time a “porn addict” or “sex addict,” this boils down to misunderstanding. (Also: Sex addiction is not recognized by science).
Gooning is only a problem if it’s negatively impacting your life, leading you to shirk responsibilities at work, neglect your social group, or prevent you from developing IRL sexual and/or romantic attachments. “If you have healthy platonic and sexual/romantic relationships, if you’re never late to work due to this kink, and if all your responsibilities are being addressed, ‘these aren’t the droids you’re looking for,'” Lerman says.
Phillips says we should accept gooning, as it’s just as normal as any other kink. Don’t go yucking anyone else’s yum.
As with all fun things, take stock of your habits and be sure gooning isn’t taking over your life. It’s really that simple, folx. Go forth, be sure you’re using lots (like lots) of lube, and goon on.
