Foot fetishism#Relative frequency

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For a foot fetishist, points of attraction may include the shape and size of feet, feet soles, toes, jewelry (such as toe rings or anklets), treatments (such as massaging, washing partner's feet, or painting partner's toenails), state of dress (such as barefoot, flip flops, or high heels),{{Cite journal|last=Kunzle|first=David|date=1982|title=Fashion and Fetishism: A Social History of the Corset, Tight-Lacing and Other Forms of Body Sculpture in the West|journal=The University of Michigan|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Pub Incorporated, 1982|pages=103|isbn=978-0-8476-6276-0}} or sensory interaction (such as smelling, kissing, or rubbing of feet and genitals).{{cite news|last1=Kippen |first1=Cameron |title=The History of Footwear – Foot Fetish and Shoe Retifism |url=http://podiatry.curtin.edu.au/fetish.html |access-date=10 December 2014 |via=National Library of Australia |publisher=Department of Podiatry, Curtin University |date=July 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071018035445/http://podiatry.curtin.edu.au/fetish.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=18 October 2007 }}{{cite web | url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-excess/201910/the-science-sex-and-smell?amp | title=The Science of Sex and Smell | Psychology Today }}

In a 1994 study, 45% of those with a foot fetish were found to be aroused by smelly socks or feet, making it one of the most widespread forms of olfactophilia.{{citation |title=Comprehensive handbook of psychopathology |first1=Patricia B. |last1=Sutker |first2=Henry E. |last2=Adams |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uEx84FQPYoAC |page=762 |year=2001 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-306-46490-4}}

To estimate the relative frequency of fetishes, in 2006 researchers at the University of Bologna 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.).

According to Ian Kerner, foot fetishism is the most common form of sexual fetish related to the body.{{cite web|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Health/rex-ryans-foot-video-not-necessarily-unhealthy/story?id=12467617 |title=Rex Ryan's Apparent Foot Fetish not Necessarily Unhealthy – ABC News |publisher=Abcnews.go.com |date=23 December 2010 |access-date=14 March 2013}}

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.AOL's Accidental Release of Search Data – The Sexmind of America.[https://web.archive.org/web/20070221135508/http://www.aphrodisiology.com/aol-fetishes aphrodisiology.com], accessed June 2007

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 76 of the 459 male respondents (17%) and 23 of the 565 female respondents (4%) answered "Agree" or "Strongly agree" to a fetish interest in feet.{{cite journal |last1=Holvoet |first1=Lien |last2=Huys |first2=Wim |last3=Coppens |first3=Violette |last4=Seeuws |first4=Jantien |last5=Goethals |first5=Kris |last6=Morrens |first6=Manuel |date=2017 |title=Fifty shades of Belgian gray: The prevalence of BDSM-related fantasies and activities in the general population |url=https://repository.uantwerpen.be/docman/irua/71d041/145092_2018_08_08.pdf |journal=Journal of Sexual Medicine |volume=14 |issue=9 |pages=1152–1159 |doi=10.1016/J.JSXM.2017.07.003 |pmid=28781214 |hdl=10067/1450920151162165141 |hdl-access=free }}

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.{{cite book | author = Bancroft, John | year = 2009 | title = Human Sexuality and Its Problems | publisher = Elsevier Health Sciences | pages = 283–286}}

Foot fetishism may be caused by the feet and the genitals occupying adjacent areas of the somatosensory cortex, possibly entailing some neural crosstalk between the two.Kringelbach, Morten. Bodily Illusions. [http://www.kringelbach.dk/Preprint_Beagle_BodilyIllusions.html kringelbach.dk] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130517183636/http://www.kringelbach.dk/Preprint_Beagle_BodilyIllusions.html |date=17 May 2013 }} last accessed Sept 2006. Neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran proposed that an accidental link between these regions could explain the prevalence of foot fetishism.{{cite journal | author = Ramachandran, V. S. | year = 1994 | title = Phantom limbs, neglect syndromes, repressed memories, and Freudian psychology | journal = International Review of Neurobiology | volume = 37 | pages = 291–333| doi = 10.1016/S0074-7742(08)60254-8 | pmid = 7883483 | isbn = 9780123668370 }}

Desmond Morris considered foot fetishism the result of mal-imprinting at an early age, the tactile pressure of a foot or shoe being important in this.Desmond Morris, The Naked Ape Trilogy (1994) p. 279-80 Sigmund 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, especially when encountered while voyeuristically exploring the female body from below).Sigmund Freud, On Sexuality (PFL 7) p. 68n 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.Quoted in O. Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (1946) p. 327 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.O. Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (1946) p. 343

Georges Bataille saw the lure of the feet as linked to their anatomical baseness (abjection).Georges Bataille, Visions of Excess (1985) p. 23

Some researchers have hypothesized that foot fetishism increases as a response to epidemics of sexually transmitted infections. In one study, conducted by A James Giannini at Ohio State University, an increased interest in feet as sexual objects was observed during the great gonorrhea epidemic of twelfth-century Europe, and the syphilis epidemics of the 16th and 19th centuries in Europe.AJ Giannini et al., op. cit. In the same study, the frequency of foot-fetish depictions in pornographic literature 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.{{Cite journal|last=Shaw|first=WJ|date=1979|title=Use of Relaxation in the Short-Term Treatment of Fetishistic Behavior: An Exploratory Case Study|journal=Journal of Pediatric Psychology|volume=4|issue=4|pages=406|doi=10.1093/jpepsy/4.4.403}} However, the researchers noted that these epidemics overlapped periods of relative female emancipation.{{cite journal| last1=Giannini|first1=AJ|last2=Colapietro|first2=G|last3=Slaby|first3=AE|last4=Melemis|first4=SM|last5=Bowman|first5=RK|title= Sexualization of the female foot as a response to sexually transmitted epidemics: a preliminary study|journal=Psychological Reports|volume=83|issue=2|pages=491–8|year=1998|pmid=9819924|doi=10.2466/pr0.1998.83.2.491}}

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.Benner, A.R. and Forbes, F.H. (1949) The Letters of Alciphron, Aelian, and Philostratus. Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University PressLevin, Daniel B. (2005) EPATON BAMA ('Her Lovely Footstep'): The Erotics of Feet in Ancient Greece. The Hindu god Brahma was aroused by the sight of Parvati's feet in the eighth-century text Skanda Purana.Skanda Purana, Book 1, Section 1, Chapter 26, Verses 16-17. Available online at https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-skanda-purana/d/doc365973.html

Sigmund Freud considered foot binding as a form of fetishism,{{Cite journal|last=Lee|first=Rachel|date=2014|title=The Routledge Companion to Asian American and Pacific Islander Literature|journal=Routledge Literature Companions|publisher=Rachel Lee|pages=125|isbn=978-1-317-69841-8}}{{Cite book|last=Hacker|first=Arthur|title=China Illustrated: Western Views of the Middle Kingdom|publisher=Tuttle, 2004|year=2004|isbn=978-0-8048-3519-0 |location=the University of Michigan|pages=138}} although this view was disputed.{{By whom|date=May 2025}}{{cite book|last1=Hacker|first1=Authur|title=China Illustrated|date=2012|publisher=Turtle Publishing|isbn=978-1-4629-0690-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O5JyAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT252}}

{{Portal|Human sexuality}}

{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}

• Body odour and sexual attraction
• Boot fetishism
• Boot worship
• Crush fetish
• Elmer Batters
• Footjob
• Footsies
• Hand fetishism
• Partialism
• Shoe fetishism

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{{Reflist}}

• Havelock Ellis (1936), Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Vol. II, New York: Random House
• William Rossi (1989), The Sex Life of the Foot and Shoe, Malabar: Krieger Publishing Company. {{ISBN|0-89464-573-0}}

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Category:Foot

Category:Paraphilias

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