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Foot fetishism, also known as foot partialism or podophilia, is a pronounced
sexual interest
Sexual attraction is attraction on the basis of sexual desire or the quality of arousing such interest. Sexual attractiveness or sex appeal is an individual's ability to attract other people sexually, and is a factor in sexual selection or mat ...
in
feet
The foot ( : feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg made ...
.
It is the most common form of
sexual fetishism for otherwise non-sexual objects or body parts.
Characteristics and related fetishes
Foot fetishism has been defined as a pronounced sexual interest in feet. For a foot fetishist, points of attraction may include the shape and size of feet, feet soles, toes, jewelry (e.g.,
toe ring
A toe ring is a ring made out of metals and non-metals worn on any of the toes. The second toe of either foot is where they are worn most commonly. This is because proportionately it is the longest toe and thus the easiest toe to put a ring o ...
s,
anklets, etc.), treatments (such as massaging, washing partner's feet or painting partner's toenails), state of dress (e.g.,
barefoot
Barefoot is the state of not wearing any footwear.
There are health benefits and some risks associated with going barefoot. Shoes, while they offer protection, can limit the flexibility, strength, and mobility of the foot and can lead to h ...
,
flip flops,
ballet flats
Ballet flats are women's shoes for everyday wear which are similar to/inspired by a women's ballet shoes, with a very thin heel or the appearance of no heel at all. The style sometimes features a ribbon-like binding around the low tops of the slip ...
,
sandals
Sandals are an open type of footwear, consisting of a sole held to the wearer's foot by straps going over the instep and around the ankle. Sandals can also have a heel. While the distinction between sandals and other types of footwear can som ...
,
high heels
High-heeled shoes, also known as high heels, are a type of shoe with an angled sole. The heel in such shoes is raised above the ball of the foot. High heels cause the legs to appear longer, make the wearer appear taller, and accentuate the ...
,
hosiery
Hosiery, also referred to as legwear, describes garments worn directly on the feet and legs. The term originated as the collective term for products of which a maker or seller is termed a hosier; and those products are also known generically as ...
, socked feet, etc.),
foot odor
Foot odor (also spelled foot odour) or bromodosis is a type of body odor that affects the feet of humans. It is sometimes considered to be an unpleasant smell, but can also be the target of foot fetishism, more specifically as a form of olfac ...
or sensory interaction (e.g., rubbing the foot,
smelling
The sense of smell, or olfaction, is the special sense through which smells (or odors) are perceived. The sense of smell has many functions, including detecting desirable foods, hazards, and pheromones, and plays a role in taste.
In humans, it ...
, tickling, licking,
rubbing genitals on foot, etc.).
Extensions of this fetish include
shoes
A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot. They are often worn with a sock. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration and fashion. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from culture t ...
,
socks
A sock is a piece of clothing worn on the feet and often covering the ankle or some part of the calf. Some types of shoes or boots are typically worn over socks. In ancient times, socks were made from leather or matted animal hair. In the late ...
,
olfactophilia (odor fetishism) and
tickling
Tickling is the act of touching a part of a body in a way that causes involuntary twitching movements or laughter. The word evolved from the Middle English ''tikelen'', perhaps frequentative of ''ticken'', to touch lightly.
In 1897, psycholo ...
.
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...
also considered
foot binding
Foot binding, or footbinding, was the Chinese custom of breaking and tightly binding the feet of young girls in order to change their shape and size. Feet altered by footbinding were known as lotus feet, and the shoes made for these feet were kno ...
as a form of fetishism, although this view was disputed.
Odor fetishism (pertaining to the smell of feet) seems to play a major role in foot fetishism, and is closely related to it: in a 1994 study, 45% of those with a foot fetish were found to be aroused by
smelly socks
Smelly socks are socks that have acquired a strong odour due to prolonged wearing. Their odour, which is complex and remains the object of study, is a mixture of ammonia, fatty acids (in particular, isovaleric acid), and lactic acid.
Odorous so ...
or feet, making it one of the most widespread forms of
olfactophilia.
In extreme cases, an individual with a pronounced sexual interest in feet could possibly be diagnosed with fetishism disorder (characterized by the eroticization of non-living objects and body parts) if they are in adherence with the following symptoms:
* Experiencing recurrent sexually arousing fantasies, urges, or behaviors involving the use of non-living objects over a period of at least six months.
* These fantasies, urges or behaviors cause significant distress in a social, occupational or personal environment.
* The fetish objects are not limited to articles of clothing or devices used for genital stimulation.
Relative frequency
To estimate the relative frequency of fetishes, in 2006 researchers at the
University of Bologna
The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continu ...
examined 381 Internet discussions of fetish groups, in which at least 5,000 people had been participating. Researchers estimated the prevalence of different fetishes based on the following elements:
* (a) the number of discussion groups devoted to a particular fetish;
* (b) the number of individuals participating in the groups;
* (c) the number of messages exchanged.
It was concluded that the most common fetishes were for body parts or for objects usually associated with body parts (33% and 30%, respectively). Among those people preferring body parts, feet and toes were preferred by the greatest number, with 47% of those sampled preferring them. Among those people preferring objects related to body parts, 32% were in groups related to footwear (shoes, boots, etc.).
Foot fetishism is the most common form of sexual fetish related to the body.
In August 2006,
AOL released a database of the search terms submitted by their subscribers. In ranking only those phrases that included the word "fetish", it was found that the most common search was for feet.
Foot fetishism may be more common in men than in women. Researchers using a polling agency to conduct a survey of the general Belgian population in 2017 found that of 1027 respondents, 76 of the men (17%) and 23 of the women (4%) answered "Agree" or "Strongly agree" to a fetish interest in feet.
Causes
Similar to other forms of
sexual fetishism, no consensus has yet been established about the specific causes of foot fetishism. While many works on the topic exist, their conclusions are often regarded as highly speculative. In a general sense, sexual fetishism can be caused by a number of factors, no singular cause for any type of fetishism has been conclusively established.
The
cortical homunculus
A cortical homunculus () is a distorted representation of the human body, based on a neurological "map" of the areas and proportions of the human brain dedicated to processing motor functions, or sensory functions, for different parts of the b ...
(also known as Penfield's Homunculus), a map of the human brain illustrating respective locations for where different parts of the body are processed, shows a possible link between the feet and toes to the genitalia.
There exists controversy regarding this neural crosslink, as some medical professionals have been known to question the simplicity of the map in comparison to reality.
Foot fetishism may be caused by the feet and the genitals occupying adjacent areas of the
somatosensory cortex
In physiology, the somatosensory system is the network of neural structures in the brain and body that produce the perception of touch ( haptic perception), as well as temperature (thermoception), body position (proprioception), and pain. It i ...
, possibly entailing some neural crosstalk between the two. Neuroscientist
V. S. Ramachandran
Vilayanur Subramanian Ramachandran (born 10 August 1951) is an Indian-American neuroscientist. He is known for his wide-ranging experiments and theories in behavioral neurology, including the invention of the mirror box. Ramachandran is a disti ...
proposed that an accidental link between these regions could explain the prevalence of foot fetishism.
Desmond Morris
Desmond John Morris FLS ''hon. caus.'' (born 24 January 1928) is an English zoologist, ethologist and surrealist painter, as well as a popular author in human sociobiology. He is known for his 1967 book '' The Naked Ape'', and for his televis ...
considered foot fetishism the result of
mal-imprinting at an early age, the tactile pressure of a foot/shoe being important in this. Freud's reading of foot fetishism also involved early imprinting, but he considered the smell of feet significant in this, as well as the foot as a penis-symbol/surrogate (
castration complex
The castration complex is a concept developed by Sigmund Freud, first presented in 1908, initially as part of his theorisation of the transition in early childhood development from the polymorphous perversity of infantile sexuality to the ‘infan ...
, especially when encountered while voyeuristically exploring the female body from below).
Otto Fenichel similarly saw castration fear as significant in foot fetishism, citing a future fetishist who as an adolescent said to himself "You must remember this throughout life – that girls, too, have legs", to protect himself from the fear. Where fear of the (castrated) female body is too great, desire is felt not for shoes on female feet but for women's shoes alone, without women.
Georges Bataille saw the lure of the feet as linked to their anatomical baseness (
abjection).
Health and disease
Some researchers have hypothesized that foot fetishism increases as a response to epidemics of
sexually transmitted diseases
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), also referred to as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the older term venereal diseases, are infections that are spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, and oral ...
. In one study, conducted by Dr. A James Giannini at
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...
, an increased interest in feet as sexual objects was observed during the great
gonorrhea
Gonorrhea, colloquially known as the clap, is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) caused by the bacterium ''Neisseria gonorrhoeae''. Infection may involve the genitals, mouth, or rectum. Infected men may experience pain or burning with u ...
epidemic of twelfth-century Europe, and the
syphilis epidemics of the 16th and 19th centuries in Europe. In the same study, the frequency of foot-fetish depictions in
pornographic literature
Erotic literature comprises fictional and factual stories and accounts of eros (passionate, romantic or sexual relationships) intended to arouse similar feelings in readers. This contrasts erotica, which focuses more specifically on sexual feelin ...
was measured over a 30-year interval. An exponential increase was noted during the period of the current
AIDS epidemic. In these cases, sexual footplay was viewed as a
safe sex alternative. However, the researchers noted that these epidemics overlapped periods of relative female emancipation.
Society and culture
Some of the earliest recorded instances of foot fetishism occur in the erotic poems ''To a Barefoot Woman'' and ''To a Barefoot Boy'' attributed to the Ancient Greek writer
Philostratus
Philostratus or Lucius Flavius Philostratus (; grc-gre, Φιλόστρατος ; c. 170 – 247/250 AD), called "the Athenian", was a Greek sophist of the Roman imperial period. His father was a minor sophist of the same name. He was born probab ...
. The Hindu god Shiva was aroused by the sight of Parvati's feet in the eight-century text
Skanda Purana
The ''Skanda Purana'' (IAST: Skanda Purāṇa) is the largest '' Mukyapurana'', a genre of eighteen Hindu religious texts. The text contains over 81,000 verses, and is of Kaumara literature, titled after Skanda, a son of Shiva and Parvati, w ...
. Another reference to the fetish is made by
Bertold of Regensburg
Bertold of Regensburg (c. 1220 – 13 December 1272), also known as Berthold of RatisbonCoulton, G. G. (1923) ''Life in the Middle Ages''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press was a German preacher during the high Middle Ages.
Life
He was a ...
in 1220.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...
was described by a
mistress
Mistress is the feminine form of the English word "master" (''master'' + ''-ess'') and may refer to:
Romance and relationships
* Mistress (lover), a term for a woman who is in a sexual and romantic relationship with a man who is married to a ...
as a foot fetishist, and himself referred to a "Freudian shame about his feet".
Actor
Idris Elba
Idrissa Akuna Elba (; born 6 September 1972) is an English actor. has confirmed in interviews since 2013 that he has a foot fetish,
for example in 2016 telling UK
''Esquire'' "I've got a foot fetish. Women's feet.",
and answering in the affirmative to the question while connected to a
polygraph
A polygraph, often incorrectly referred to as a lie detector test, is a device or procedure that measures and records several physiological indicators such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while a person is asked ...
for
''Vanity Fair'' in 2019.
Other contemporary celebrities who have told interviewers, "I have a foot fetish" (or a slight variation thereof) include
Brooke Burke
Brooke Lisa Burke (born September 8, 1971) is an American television personality, fitness personality, author, actress, and businesswoman. She is known for hosting the E! Network travel show ''Wild On!'' (1999–2002), CBS' ''Rock Star'' (20 ...
,
Enrique Iglesias,
Tommy Lee
Thomas Lee Bass (born October 3, 1962) is an American musician and founding member of the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe. As well as being the band's long-term drummer, Lee founded rap metal band Methods of Mayhem and has pursued solo musical ...
,
Ludacris
Christopher Brian Bridges (born September 11, 1977), known professionally as Ludacris (, homophonous with 'ludicrous' in American English), is an American rapper, actor, record producer and record executive.
Born in Champaign, Illinois, Ludac ...
,
Ricky Martin
Enrique Martín Morales (born December 24, 1971), known professionally as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican singer, songwriter, and actor. He is known for his musical versatility, with his Ricky Martin albums discography, discography spanning ...
,
and
Todd Phillips
Todd Phillips (né Bunzl, born December 20, 1970) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He began his career in 1993 and directed films in the 2000s such as ''Road Trip (film), Road Trip'', ''Old School (film), Old School'', ...
.
In 2020 an artist collective released ''This Foot Does Not Exist'', a project that uses
generative adversarial network
A generative adversarial network (GAN) is a class of machine learning frameworks designed by Ian Goodfellow and his colleagues in June 2014. Two neural networks contest with each other in the form of a zero-sum game, where one agent's gain is a ...
s to generate new "foot pics" by text message request.
See also
*
Boot fetishism
A boot is a type of footwear. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle, while some also cover some part of the lower calf. Some boots extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is clearly ...
*
Body odour and sexual attraction
Odour is sensory stimulation of the olfactory membrane of the nose by a group of molecules. Certain body odours are connected to human sexual attraction. Humans can make use of body odour subconsciously to identify whether a potential mate will pa ...
*
Boot worship
*
Crush fetish
A crush fetish is a fetish and a paraphilia in which sexual arousal is associated with observing objects being crushed or being crushed oneself. The crushed objects vary from inanimate items (e.g., food), to injurious and/or fatal crushing of inv ...
*
Foot odor
Foot odor (also spelled foot odour) or bromodosis is a type of body odor that affects the feet of humans. It is sometimes considered to be an unpleasant smell, but can also be the target of foot fetishism, more specifically as a form of olfac ...
*
Footjob
A footjob is a non-penetrative sexual practice with the feet that involves one's feet being rubbed on a partner in order to induce sexual excitement, stimulation or orgasm. In some cases it can be part of a foot fetish. Footjobs are most ofte ...
*
Partialism
Partialism is sexual fetish with an exclusive focus on a specific part of the body other than genitals. Partialism is categorized as a fetishistic disorder in the DSM-5 of the American Psychiatric Association only if it causes significant psyc ...
*
Shoe fetishism
Shoe fetishism is the attribution of attractive sexual qualities to shoes or other footwear as a matter of sexual preference, or an alternative or complement to a relationship with a partner. It has also been known as retifism, after the French no ...
References
Further reading
*
Havelock Ellis
Henry Havelock Ellis (2 February 1859 – 8 July 1939) was an English physician, eugenicist, writer, progressive intellectual and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He co-wrote the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality i ...
(1936), ''Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Vol. II'', New York:
Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
*William Rossi (1989), ''The Sex Life of the Foot and Shoe'', Malabar: Krieger Publishing Company.
External links
{{Sex fetish
Foot
Paraphilias
Sexual fetishism