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.
The appeal of foot fetishism as 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 (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), or sensory interaction (such as smelling, kissing, tickling, or rubbing of feet and genitals).
Foot fetishism is very often associated with worshipping and sexual dehumanization and sexual activities may be mixed with other fetishes, for example, some foot fetishists might also enjoy being stepped or trampled on, however not all fetishists who enjoy being treated as carpets have a specific arousal towards feet.
In a 1994 study, 45% of those with a foot fetish were found to be aroused by smelly socks or foot odor.
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: (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.
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.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 as part of an effort to chart interest in BDSM 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 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 (those who are only able to climax from feet or prefer feet compared to other types of activity) are likely lower than the study rate, and that cultural taboos regarding feet make the reasons for choosing feet in sexual activity manifold (the subjects may not necessarily have involved feet from sexual arousal to the object itself), 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 Iran, 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.
Temporal-lobe mechanisms
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 (in this scenario, footwear) 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 over time. 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.