Online Encyclopedia
Foot fetishism
Foot fetishism is a pronounced fetishistic sexual interest in human feet.
A foot fetishist can be sexually aroused by viewing, handling, licking, tickling, sniffing or kissing the feet and toes of another person, or by having another person doing the same to their own feet. Some also enjoy being "trampled", which is to say, being walked upon. Some foot fetishists have their genitals manipulated by their partner's feet to the point of orgasm or ejaculation (which is called a "footjob").
The fetishist response to the foot is the same or very similar to a conventional person's arousal at seeing genitals (or female breasts). Like other paraphilias, foot fetishism is often highly specialized. Some foot fetishists prefer bare feet, while others may prefer feet dressed up in certain types of shoes, socks or hosiery. Some prefer to concentrate on feet that are arched, others concentrate on relaxed feet. Some even concentrate on specialized positions, such as bare feet resting on a car dashboard. Thus there is a blurred distinction between foot, nylon, pantyhose, shoe and similar fetishes.
One theory of foot fetishism is that an infant's experience of their mother in many cultures may involve crawling around their feet. If sexual behavioral imprinting occurs during this time, it may lead to the feet becoming the primary object of arousal. An alternate (and less Freudian) hypothesis, advanced by neurologist Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, highlights the fact that the feet and genitals occupy adjacent areas of the sensory cortex , possibly entailing some neural crosstalk between the two.
A foot fetishist can be male or female (although males account for over 70%), and can have an interest in the feet of either sex, albeit usually parallel to their sexual orientation. Other fetishes such as tickling or bondage often accompany foot attraction.
Freud considered foot binding as practiced in China as a form of fetishism.