Foot fetishism
Foot fetishism, also known as foot partialism or podophilia, refers to a sexual interest in feet. Similar to other fetishes, individuals with a foot fetish experience varying degrees of sexual attraction to feet, from merely viewing the foot as a pleasing part of the human body alongside other parts, to sexual activity involving feet being the only way that the fetishist can climax. In 2006, it was the most commonly discussed type of partialist fantasy in pornographic Internet forums, and is the most common type of culturally atypical body part partialism, with studies estimating that 14% of Americans have somehow involved feet in sex once in their lifetime, though the amount of individuals who are only able to or usually prefer to climax to feet is likely smaller. It is most common in men, with a slight increase in gay and bisexual men, and is least common in heterosexual women. Eastern subjects are more likely to report an interest in feet.
The appeal of foot fetishism like with other fetishes is idiosyncratic, common reasons cited by foot fetishists in studies include an element of humiliation and domination, the sensitivity of the feet and its usage as an erogenous zone in sex, and as part of a greater form of olfactophilia due to foot odor. Traditional attitudes related to femininity and masculinity have also been noted in terms of symbolic parts of the fetish. The cause of any type of fetishism is largely speculative, but is thought to be a complex interplay of events in prenatal neurodevelopment, cultural, and psychodynamic factors. Issues with the brain such as epilepsy and lesions can result in suddenly gaining or losing sexual interests, including fetishes like feet.
Foot fetishism, when it is not accompanied by antisocial expressions of the fetish such as burglary of footwear or non-consensual contact, or considerable psycho-social distress or impairment in daily life, is considered by contemporary psychiatric and medical institutions to be a valid expression of human sexuality and not pathological. The medical treatment of those with foot fetishism that is considered pathological is the same as other fetishes and paraphilias, which is primarily focused on reducing shame regarding the sexual fantasy in psychotherapy, and if absolutely needed, pharmacological treatments to reduce impulsive behavior such as SSRIs or medications that directly inhibit the sexual libido, such as antiandrogens, as well as the treatment of co-morbid disorders due to stress being a common trigger for impulsive sexual behavior.
Characteristics
For a foot fetishist, points of attraction may include the shape and size of feet, feet soles, toes, jewelry, treatments, state of dress, or sensory interaction.In a 1994 study, 45% of those with a foot fetish were found to be aroused by smelly socks or feet.
Relative frequency
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:- the number of discussion groups devoted to a particular fetish;
- the number of individuals participating in the groups;
- the number of messages exchanged.
According to Ian Kerner, 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 as part of an effort to chart interest in BDSM in 2017 found that 76 of the 459 male respondents and 23 of the 565 female respondents answered "Agree" or "Strongly agree" to a fetish interest in feet in the whole sample of both controls and kinksters, with a correlation towards the S&M group alongside other fetishes noted such as leather and latex.
In "Tell Me What You Want" by Justin Lehmiller, about 14% of all American respondents of both sexes claimed to have had a sexual experience involving feet at least once in their life. In his study, gay and bisexual men were the most likely to have sort of fetishism of feet, and heterosexual women were the least likely. He stressed that the number of those with a high amount of foot fetishism are likely lower than the study rate, and that cultural taboos regarding feet make the reasons for choosing feet in sexual activity manifold, with a general pattern of the "American id" being focused on intentionally breaking social norms in sexual activities.
Foot fetishism of some sort is much more common in the Eastern world, with about 76% of Iranian men and 28% of Iranian women reporting some sort of interest in feet during sex.
Causes
Similar to other forms of sexual fetishism and other paraphilias, 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. Currently widely accepted etiological models hypothesize paraphilias to originate from a complex set of neurological, cultural, and psychodynamic factors in a given person. Different paraphilias may have different causes, and there is no guarantee that two persons with the same paraphilias as the other would be interested in the same aspects of it or have the same ultimate cause for its development. For example, some individuals with a foot fetish are attracted to foot odor, while others are not. Culturally, ideas on practices regarding "beautiful feet" often influence the types of foot fetishes that are developed in that society, such as foot binding fetishism in China.Neurological
Sensory neuron theory
The cortical homunculus is a "map" of sensory and motor neurons. Neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran proposed that the closeness of genital-related neurons to neurons regulating sensory and motor functions in the toes and feet may lead to foot fetishism. Ramachandran did not provide experimental evidence for this claim in his original work. A 2013 study involving 800 subjects criticized this hypothesis, showing that there was very little neuronal activation from foot stimulation or inter-correlation between foot regions and others, as well as issues regarding Ramachandran's usage of the cortical homunculus model to explain the core of foot fetishism. The study also conducted a meta-analysis that showed that there are no known cases of erotic stimuli being produced from neurostimulation in the cortex.The authors did not rule in or out that other areas relating to emotional or erogenous stimulation may have been involved. The other proposed brain areas for researching into similar sensory zones in the study were the thalamus, the periaqueductal gray, and the insula, which are all connected to erogenous zones and have complex relations to sexuality, emotions, and prosocial behavior. These areas primarily develop prenatally.
Neurological dysfunction
In extremely rare cases of lateral temporal lobe epilepsy, foot fetishism and other paraphilias are known to spontaneously occur. These episodes are often characterized by extremely sexually impulsive behavior, such as a foot fetishist with epilepsy licking the feet of others unprompted, stealing items of sexual interest and public masturbation or sexually assaulting hospital staff in those whom are institutionalized. The vast majority or all of the fetishism and impulsive behavior immediately disappears once treatment of the epilepsy occurs, leading to the hypothesis that the temporal lobe may have a key role in fetishism and other paraphilias. It is common for people with epilepsy to report significant changes in sexuality after a lobectomy of one or both of their temporal lobes, with a rarer amount documenting a perceived wiping of an existing sexual interest or a new one occurring. A case study of a man with a fetish for safety-pins in early childhood who later on developed absence seizures became well known after a coincidental surgery to fix the epilepsy ended up accidentally ridding him of his fetishism towards safety-pins.In a case study of two intellectually disabled adults who had severe forms of foot and shoe fetishism since early childhood that involved sexually assaulting others by licking and touching the feet and shoes of complete strangers, the usage of carbamazepine for temporal lobe epilepsy detected during a screening accidentally caused a complete cessation of any fetishism of the feet in one of the subjects and caused partial remission of foot fetishism in the other, while completely stopping the impulsive sexual behavior.
Temporal lobe dysfunction has been noted in studies regarding other paraphilias such as pedophilia and those with hyposexuality. The relation between the temporal lobe and sexual dysfunction, or why fetishes can sometimes be wiped or gained from dysfunction of the temporal lobe are poorly understood.
Other brain lesions have also been noted to affect sexuality and fetishism in different ways, with hypothalamic lesions being a similar example to the symptoms experiences in temporal lobe epilepsy.
Conditioning and social learning
Mechanisms regarding classical and operant conditioning have been proposed as potential explanation for how links between fetishistic objects like feet can become sexualized overtime. For example, a future fetishist may notice a correlation between feet and footwear like high-heels and other sexually appealing attributes, which when viewed over and over again, result in development of the fetish. Masturbation is a proposed explanation for how the fetish sustains itself into adulthood once it initially appears. Personality traits linked to susceptibility to conditioning such as introversion have been correlated in fetishists, who are hypothesized to be more susceptible to noticing the correlation between the fetish object and other sexual stimuli due to increased internal thinking regarding the stimuli.The correlation between sexual fetishism and personality is often debated in terms of what factors matter for development. A large scale Swedish study had found that those who had less interest in romantic parts of a relationship and rated themselves as being more dissatisfied with life were more likely to have partialist and general fetishism and other paraphilias, and that those who responded positively to having an atypical sexual interest were more likely to have others. Fetishists were more likely to suffer from substance use disorders, masturbated more frequently in adolescence and in the present, and reported less opportunities for hands-on romantic or sexual activity in adolescence, regardless of their sexual performance in adulthood.
In a study of 262 homosexual and bisexual males who were part of a foot fetishist organization in the 90's, Wernberg et al. found that while 80% respondents did not report child abuse, about half reported "no significant friendships" in adolescence, and of about 20% of respondents who felt comfortable answering open-ended questions about the development of their fetish reported various scenarios, with the only commonality being the association between articles of clothing, sneakers and feet being part of individuals they found attractive or with sex. Wernberg claimed that the study showed a cultural and personalized cause of foot fetishism due to the selectivity of scenarios regarding feet, with examples such as that over 60% of respondents attracted to shoes reporting that they would not be interested in unworn shoes, and that the subjective attractiveness of the person with the foot or shoes mattered. Foot fetishists also psychologically clustered different types of shoewear to different classes of people that they found attractive, with sneaker fetishists often associating them with young gay men and boots with domineering men. About 75% of the shoe fetishists said that the attributes of the wearer alongside the shoes was necessary for arousal. The social and gender implications of the wearer of the shoes/bearer of the feet was also important to the fetishists.
Wernberg showed that like with other paraphilic interests, many of the foot fetishists had other paraphilic sexual interests, with about 66% reporting having engaged in BDSM at some point in their lifes, and about 30% of them saying that "all or most" sexual contact involving feet from them was as part of a greater role as a sadist/masochist in sexual roleplay. About 58% also were attracted to clothing and undergarments, particularly the smell. Foot fetishists are usually able to get some form of sexual partner to comply with their foot fetish unlike other particular fetishes, which Wernberg puts primarily on the commonality of shoewear and footwear as a sign of sex in Western culture and the relative innocence of the fetish perceived by the public in comparison to others that may be seen as more disturbing or offensive. The psychodynamic potrayal of fetishists as often having been either socially or sexually isolated teenagers who developed the fetish as part of sexual daydreaming about the sex most preferred to their sexual orientation and/or those exposed to the object in a sexual way that felt positive at an early age was used as an explanation for the 50% rate of social withdrawal by Wernberg, as well as a case study of a foot fetishist in 1979 who reported the former model of development as a child.
A small scale study of heterosexual participants assigned heterosexual men a series of women, where they were then asked which one they wanted to date. If rejected, they continued the process over and over until accepted, and those who were accepted were asked to continue with the date independently outside of the study if they wished. Compared to a small non-fetishistic control group, men who were rejected more often were more likely to rate the feet, legs, undergarments, lingerie and legs of women in pornographic pictures they were given to be much more arousing on their own versus men who got accepted closer to the beginning of the study and the control group. The study aimed to test whether or not personality factors could be antecedent of partialism and fetishism as a whole. The suggested mechanism is that fetishists aim their erotic feelings towards body parts associated with potential partners, rather than the psychological concept of a romantic or sexual relationship with the partner in an example of adaptive social learning theory and operant conditioning, where the fetishist learns to divert their sexual expectations elsewhere as part of a learnt behavior.