A golden shower is a slang term for a sex act involving a person urinating on or in front of a sexual partner. Golden showers fall under the umbrella of watersports, commonly known as piss play. People with a fetish for golden showers and other watersports have urolagnia, sometimes called urophilia.
Why People Are Into Golden Showers
Some people enjoy golden showers because it sets up a dominant/submissive dynamic. Someone urinating on their partner is in a dominant position while the person receiving the golden shower is submissive. The giver may feel powerful humiliating or degrading their partner by urinating on them. The receiver may also feel turned on when they're humiliated or degraded in this way. Sharing a golden shower can also be a bonding experience for some people. Some enjoy the sensations of golden showers, including the look and scent of urine and the warm feeling of the liquid against their skin. People giving golden showers may also feel intense relief as they relax and empty their bladders. Since people normally urinate in private, some people also find golden showers arousing because they’re taboo.
People who enjoy watching golden showers may enjoy watching pornography featuring this sex act. This pornography may involve live-action footage or animated characters, such as in Japanese hentai.
How common is this kink?
It's difficult to determine how common the practice or interest in golden showers is, as many people are private about their kinks. A study analyzing the conversations of Yahoo Groups members estimated around 9% of people had a sexual interest in bodily waste, including blood, feces and urine. In addition, when writer and sex educator Luna Matatas asked her Instagram audience whether they would be open to pee play if they had an interested partner, 31% said yes, while a further 25% said they’d consider it.
While golden showers are largely enjoyed behind closed doors, this sex act has gone mainstream over time. In 2000, "Sex & The City" featured an episode in which Carrie Bradshaw refused to urinate on the face of her new politician lover. In 2017, a BuzzFeed dossier claimed Donald Trump hired sex workers to urinate in front of him. In 2021, Sophia Urista of Brass Against urinated on a consenting audience member during the rock band’s performance at Florida’s Welcome to Rockville festival. In 2023, golden showers were back in the headlines when the Netflix series "You" featured a character donning swimming goggles and requesting a golden shower from an employee.
A golden shower is different from a brown shower, which is another sex act that involves defecating on or near a partner. As both acts involve human waste, they can be parallel fetishes for some people.