Pool 1

In the world of human sexuality, what is strange or deviant is largely up to whoever’s perspective

one is looking from. However, often the idea of a general spectrum of acceptable and not acceptable acts

exists in the scheme of the “average” American citizen that dictates how one is suppose to act sexually.

Supposing that there is an average citizen of the sexual community, is it necessary to mark certain acts

as actually psychologically or ethically wrong—and is it even moral? To better examine such a large

topic one has to shorten their horizons and only research one aspect of sexual deviance at a time; as such

this paper will examine paraphilias, or more specifically fetishes. In order to better understand fetishes,

especially those that are about feet, and those who “suffer” from them and their impact to civilization

one must study; what a foot fetish is, examine case studies, possible causes, if it really is a problem, and

treatments used to reduce it if necessary.

A fetish is described as “an inanimate object (that) elicits sexual arousal” (Nevid, Rathus and

Rathus). A good example as any is the case in which a young college student could not reach orgasm

without rubbing himself on young boys’ trousers (Grant). The young boys were not the object of his

arousal, just their pants. The foot though is not an inanimate object, putting a foot “fetish” under the

classification of partialism, where “sexual arousal is exaggeratedly associated with a particular body

part, such as feet…”, and not a fetish as it is referred to in normal conversation. This would seem to

make this particular psychological disorder fairly cut and dry. The devil, however, is in the details. In a

case study conducted by W.L. Marshall, on a 35 year old, white, American, male; it was found that the

individual in the study could only gain an erection on a regular basis if a female wore a certain type of

leather pumps with stockings. Now it still sounds like a fetish until, “Shoes alone were not enough… I

needed shapely ankles and sheer hose… The effect was much increased by movements of the foot”

(Marshall). It goes on to say that if the foot does not move then the subject could not fully become erect

and ejaculate unless he had not in weeks. This would make, at least in this man’s case, either a hybrid of

a co-dependent fetish and partialism, or maybe something too obscure to have been researched and
 Pool 1

named just yet. A word to describe it that I found was podophilia, which makes sense with the root

words, but I found no academic backing for this term. What is important though is that this particular

man found something as “strange” to most people very exciting and that somehow that was programmed

into his mind that it was exciting.

Many theories exist to how exactly this disorder (if it true is), but most of them do not have a

very high validity for every case due to low response rates from groups of individuals questioned and

inconsistency in the data that has been collected (Laws, O’Donohue). The Behaviorists approach states

that it must be a conditioned response in adolescence, most likely accidental associations with sexual

situations and the object that later becomes the fetish. This especially true if a child orgasms when trying

new things, as for example; trying on their mothers clothes and masturbating then or later (Nevid,

Rathus, and Rathus). Psychoanalytical states that many fetishes are created to protect an individual from

the fear of being castrated1 (Laws, O’Donohue). The subject of the case study however had from, as far

as he could consciously remember, had a deep fascination with women’s feet in shoes (Marshall). Going

so far in his youth as to pretend to drop his fork at the table to stare at his sister’s feet, with, he reported,

no sexual interest at that time or at least sexual interest with his sister (just her feet). So if it was from

birth then we must assume a biological stand-point to address the topic. A lot of evidence suggests that

many sexual conduct disorders could be “erased” or created after a lobotomy or after an accident (Laws,

O’Donohue). Also studies have shown good validity for a biological difference in men with and without

paraphilic interests by using electroencephalography (EEG). When males were shown paraphilic

pictures in the control group, their right parental lobe would show lots of activity. While when a

paraphilic male was shown the same pictures his left frontal region would show activity. This might help

to suggest that fetishes are embedded in the brain, but perhaps only activated and conditioned with the

proper circumstances.

1
Ever wonder if Freud even thought this stuff was true? Or was it just the cocaine talking?
 Pool 1

With no question of whether or not it is a condition, is having a preoccupation with feet really

such a bad thing? In the case study the subject told his account of having trouble at first with being able

to orgasm, so he would venture out into public places to find females to watch. At first this just lead to

him at bus stops and masturbating under a newspaper to a woman sitting across from him. His addiction,

as it soon became, however turned into a need to go out and find women’s feet to watch, and if he did

not find any he would continue to search until he was satiated. This was not just taking long walks, it

became him being homeless, jobless, relationship-less, generally depressed, being arrested twice, and on

one occasion chasing a train while masturbating wildly to a woman he had seen in a train car—causing

him to fall off the platform and knocking him unconscious2 (Marshall). It is then, in light of his

accounts, that the behavior of having a sexual interest in feet is in its’ self not dangerous, but to this level

is officiously dangerous and fits the criteria for being a disorder as defined by Comer’s Abnormal

Psychology text. Later the man said that he learned to deal with his obsession on his own. He abstained

from his addiction long enough to get a steady job, and a video camera. Then uner the pretense of being

a modeling agent he videotaped young models in a hotel with his camera, paid them, and then

masturbated to his video collection. He no longer goes out, he reported, searching libraries and hospital

waiting rooms for victims, but pays willing participants.

The leading approaches on reducing and treating parahilias is the behaviorists’ practice of

aversion therapy. In this sort of therapy, a picture of the fetish is displayed to the individual only to be

shocked or have a nausea inducing chemical get associated with the fetish and is over generalized

creating a dislike to that behavior(Nevid, Rathus, and Rathus). In practice, a case study involving a man

with a trouser fetish was shocked every time he tried to touch or smell his trouser collection (Grant). The

individual was then asked to imagine a fetish fueled fantasy for twenty seconds with his eyes closed, and

then upon opening their eyes, they would receive a slight jolt. This electroshock therapy is close relative

2
I want to meet this guy.
 Pool 1

to aversion therapy that has shown greater success in recent years (Laws, O’Donohue). Another

treatment is called fading, in which two projectors are set on either side of a patient, one is set to nearly

invisible and the other very bright (Leiblum, Pervin). As the patient watches the screen the unacceptable

picture is slowly “morphed” into a proper sexual response as the brightness of the screens change. This

showed marked improvement in clinical trials. Another popular method of treatment is organismic

reconditioning (Leiblum, Pervin). In this method a patient is asked to masturbate to their fetish, but with

slight alterations, and eventually more alterations till they no longer find their fetish as interesting. Every

source agrees that a combined approach has the most effective probability of reducing the fetish

behavior no matter what the fetish is.

While some fetish behavior is harmless (Marshall), and suspect to be a very common but

accepted practice3*, some can become very dangerous and can lead to; burglary, rape, and general

mischief (Marshall and Grant). To recap, a foot fetish is really either a shoe fetish or a foot partialism. It

in small doses can be a healthy interest and sexual behavior, or a danerous and possibly a life threatening

disease. After reviewing the evidence, research and the case studies has shown that a fetish is not wrong

in itself, but the extreme to meet with that fetish can lead to very unhealthy situations, mentally and

physically.

Bibliography

Grant V.W. A case study of fetishism. Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 48 (1953): 142-149.

Hawthornden State Hospital. Macedonia, O. 26 January, 2009 <http://web.ebscohost.com>

3
The definition of a fetish can in some cases, such as the American preoccupation with breasts, as a fetish even if it is a
widely accepted idea that breast are provocative (Marshall).
*The other side of this argument states that either fetishes are very uncommon or just not discussed as recent polls showed
very mixed and conflicting information (Laws, O’Donohue).
 Pool 1

(Ed.) Laws, D.R. & (Ed.) O’Donohue, W.T. Sexual deviance; theory, assessment, and treatment.

Fetishism. 2nd. Ed. (2008): 108-130. New York, NY. Nash Library, RC 556.S4765

(Ed.) Leiblum, S.R. & Pervin, L.A. Principles and practice of sex therapy. (1980): 347-355. New York,

NY. Nash Library, RC 556.P743

Marshall, G.L. A combined treatment approach to the reduction of multiple fetish-related behaviors.

Journal of Consulting Psychology. 42 (1974): 613-616. Queen's University. Ontario, Canada. 26

January, 2009 <http://web.ebscohost.com>

Nevid, J.S. & Rathus, L.F. & Rathus, S.A. Huamn sexuality, in a world of diversity. 6th Ed. (2005): 576-

599. Boston, MA.