Ken, the original poster boy for nullos (Picture: Karol Serewis/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

If one man asks another if he can cut off his penis, and that other man agrees, whose place is it to say they can’t go through with it? The UK courts faced just this question in the case of Damien Byrnes, found guilty last month of using a kitchen knife to remove the genitals of Marius Gustavson, who consented to the procedure, and paid Byrnes over £1,500 to do it. Byrnes, a male escort, said his motives were financial (he has been sentenced to 5 years in prison). This is not an isolated incident.
In fact, Gustavson himself — who is due to be sentenced this week after admitting conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm — maintained a now-defunct “Eunuch Maker” website, for men who are or aspire to be “nullos” (short for genital nullification). Not only did the site promote the niche fetish, it featured videos of these procedures for subscribers. Many of Gustavson’s co-conspirators have pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm, their crimes ranging from freezing limbs for removal to the resection of nipples. But legal cases involving instances of consensual castration are becoming increasingly common.
In 2021, Oklahoman newlyweds Bob Lee Allen, 53, and Thomas Evan Gates, 42, were convicted of a variety of offences — including practising medicine without a licence — after they were found to have performed backyard castrations in their isolated cabin. That same year, an Australian named Ryan Andrew King, 28, was given a three and a half year suspended sentence for removing the testicles of two men with their consent in a backpacker hostel. At sentencing, both of King’s “victims” gave evidence that they had “no complaints” with the procedure, with one adding: “I am eternally grateful to Ryan for enabling me to enjoy life.”
Eunuchs, of course, are nothing new. In ancient China, imperial servants were commonly castrated while serving as high-ranking advisors to royalty. In ancient Rome, slaves were castrated in order to remain docile and subservient, their lack of sex drive making them ideal guards for harems. In 16th-century Italy, boys were castrated to preserve their youthful singing voices. The male psyche has traditionally been preoccupied with keeping one’s balls intact rather than lopping them off. The fetishisation of castration, combined with a growing subculture of nullos who have acted out their desires, is an entirely contemporary phenomenon — one worth taking seriously, given that it presents profound challenges to liberal ideals of consent and bodily autonomy.
Online communities catering to nullo fetishists — which have been around since the late Nineties — involve sexualising the submissive role of castrato. Men attracted to these forums post gruesome fantasy fiction and share castration tips. In one fantasy story posted on The Eunuch Archive, a young prostitute in Victorian London knocks to the ground a man they suspect is Jack the Ripper. The Dickensian dominatrix then swiftly removes the Ripper’s penis with a scalpel. In another, slave boys wriggle against restraints as they are castrated like cattle and sold off to servitude.
Focused as they are on the derivation of pleasure from pain and humiliation, nullos are part of the BDSM community — but they are of course at the very extreme end of the sadomasochistic spectrum. Like all kinks, fantasies of castration have complex roots. A 2007 survey of men who posted on The Eunuch Archive found that castration ideation often correlated with a history of child abuse (which may include parental threats of castration), exposure to animal castration in early years and/or religious condemnation of sexuality, and being gay.
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