This post was written anonymously and does not reflect the views of the Crasstalk Staff.
Are you aware of the statistical definition of standard deviation? Essentially, for everything that happens, there’s an understanding of its probability. It’s broken down as a bell curve. From the 50% mark (since that marks normalcy), the first standard deviation point is at 34%. The second is at 14%. The remaining 2% on either side is considered deviant. According to the DSM-IV, psychological disease exists if you transgress this 2% boundary. Genius? You must possess an IQ greater than 98% of people. Depressed? Happiness score lower score than 98%. Do you believe people can sense you staring at them, more than 98% of others? That’s taijin kyofusho. So as you can see, this 2% is a clear demarcation of the distinction of psychological diversion. Fetishism, since it too is dictated under the confines of the DSM, is a 2% disease.
Technically, a fetish is a psychological…well, is disorder the right phrase? “According to the DSM-IV fetishism is the use of nonliving objects as a stimulus to achieve sexual arousal or satisfaction.” (Wiki) Fetishism too is noted as the strict inability to achieve orgasm without the presence of that stimulus. While I understand this need for distinction, popular usage dictates otherwise. For the sake of the rest of this article, I’m going to soften the definition of fetish since, yours truly, is sexually aroused by feet and yet (as if by magic) can achieve orgasm through a number of other sexual mediums. So what’s a fetish? It’s sexual arousal when presented from otherwise culturally non-sexual (or even sexually repulsing) stimuli. There’s even some degree of preference – I’m more turned on by a woman slipping off her heels than by removing her bra.
I was three. I remember it clearly. I was around a pair of feet inside tights and I remember this unusual electric charge. The same thing when I was seven and sitting on the floor at story-time near the teacher’s feet. She was wearing white pumps and white stockings. Also when I saw the movie, “Look Who’s Talking,” during which Mikey has an unusual relationship with a woman’s shoes under a dining room table. I didn’t even know there was a term for this until I was twelve and read an article in my mom’s Redbook about boot fetishes. I’m not sure I suffered any particular psychological trauma before any of these instances that could suggest a causal relationship. Instead, I think it’s faulty wiring. Rumor has it that the erogenous zones of the brain are located near the sensual stimuli for feet, so the two are connected.
Foot fetishism, in fact, in considered the most prevalent of fetishes so…congrats if you’re reading this. You probably know one of us.
We’re sort of a club. We can spot each other. I knew for a fact that Tarantino had a fetish before he publicly admitted it (close-ups of Lucy Liu’s feet in socks? Uma Thurman’s? The discussion of foot rubs – “I’m a foot-fuckin’ master”?) A friend of mine once commented, “FJ Cruiser? Why would someone name a vehicle a footjob cruiser?!” Yes, FJ means footjob – whacking a guy off with your feet. This kind of terminology is usually only employed by members of the fetish community. That’s how we know. Also, we can often spot each other checking out a girl’s feet. If there were a secret thumbs-up, we’d give it.
The foot fetish itself is a eight-quadrant spectrum. It goes from dirty to clean (let’s just say this is an x-value) and from clothed to naked (y value). I’m a guy who’s a sucker for a girl’s feet in tights or stockings, but I prefer there to be no smell or dirtiness. Other guys like the idea of cleaning a woman’s dirty soles. Others are into licking a girl’s shoes, and others like being trampled. Some like pedal pumping, others enjoy jerking off on the soles of sleeping women. In other words, “foot fetish” is as ambiguous as “bi-curious” (I’m gonna get crap for that). It leads you in the right direction, but it’s by no means an exact recipe. By the way, the other z-variable? Dominant vs. submissive; having a foot fetish doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a sub.
Are there perfect feet? Wow, that’s a great question. And a tough one. Like any body part, people are going to have their own preferences. Some folk like veiny feet. Others like an unusual number of toes. However, were one to get analytical about it, I think we could agree on the following:
- High arches
- Toes with larger toenails
- Fluidity and strength in motion
- Willingness
Confused? Well, go to YouTube and look for candid foot wiggling. Some women naturally just wiggle their feet and curl their toes when they’re bored. That’s hawt.
Some girls have incredible strength and control in their feet thanks to years of tendu. Also hawt. [One individual on YouTube and clips4sale by the name of ‘The Foot Whisperer” has made a name for himself by having gymnasts and ballerinas paw at his crotch with their toes.]
I guess there’s always been some degree of fetish that’s existed latently in our culture. Elmer Batters was a prominent foot and leg-fetish photographer back in the day. Current cultural figure from Britney Spears to Jay Leno have indicated having foot fetishes. But it’s embarrassing. How do you indicate to someone you’ve been dating that you’d like to suck on their toes without them being grossed out? How do you say to someone, with a straight face, that you’d love to lie under a table while their toes crawl over your face? Or that you’re talking to someone at a party because they’re wearing black opaque tights and that’s kind of a trigger for you?
If you’re a respectable member of society, you don’t. You keep your trap shut until it happens organically – which means you could be holding back for years. Or, you go forward and tell it to people at the risk of being labeled a pervert and a deviant. Hence why I’m publishing this anonymously – but for you, Crassholes, I hope you take something away from this.