Feet are king! Feet. You tend to either love them or loathe them. Personally, I come down on the loathe side of the equation. In fact, I dislike them enough that you could call me an anti-foot fetishist. So it’s slightly odd, perhaps, that I should want to write an article all about them? All aspects of fetishism interest me, so I guess you could call it a voyage of discovery.
I don’t have to like it, but I do like to try and understand it. And who knows, maybe with understanding will come appreciation? I will admit that female feet can, occasionally, look mildly attractive. But that’s dependent on a lot of things — condition, pedicure, nail color, skin tone, toe length and here I am already sounding like a foot fetishist, or if you want the technical, if slightly dodgy term — a podophiliac! Male feet though — gross. And unless they are on a beach or by a pool, they should always be covered up. Stinky, sweaty and often oversized, male feet are good only for what they were designed to do.
You see, the brain areas associated with genitalia and feet are adjacent to each other in the brain’s body image map.
But, and there is a huge but, with that all being said, there is one thing that may surprise you about feet. Were you aware that feet (and the associated foot accessories like shoes, boots and socks, etc.) are the most fetishized part of the human body? That’s right. Fetishized more than boobs. Fetishized more than butts. Fetishized more than anything you could care to mention. Feet reign as king in the fetish world!
So that begs the obvious question, why? What is the attraction of these things? Why drag yourself away from say, a perfectly formed pair of boobs or that sumptuously round butt you’ve been chasing for months on end, only to get down and dirty in the sweaty foot stink?
Well, for a start, foot fetishism is more prevalent in men than in women. So for one reason or another, men like feet more than women do. Nobody really seems to know why that is, maybe because female feet are prettier? Sigmund Freud had a theory that people sexualize feet because they look like penises. The feet, not the people. So, take a quick look — do you have penis feet? Probably not. Needless to say, we are not so sure about that theory. Another theory is that interest in feet increases during times of STD epidemics. When diseases like syphilis were rife back in the day people turned to feet to enjoy safer sex. Again, that does make some sort of sense, if not being completely convincing.
But now there is a theory that really does stand up to scrutiny and it comes from neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran, director of the Center for Brain and Cognition at the University of California, San Diego. The answer, believe it or not, lies within the neuromechanics of phantom limb syndrome. That’s a condition where amputees feel as though their missing limbs are still attached to their bodies and that they can still move those limbs. Ramachandran found in some phantom foot patients that the brain not only failed to delete the missing foot from their body image map, but it accidentally rewired the map to make the phantom foot feel sexy. And when we say sexy, we mean that some patients reported feeling sexual pleasure and sometimes the sensation of orgasm in their missing feet! Crazy huh? Well no not really. You see, the brain areas associated with genitalia and feet are adjacent to each other in the brain’s body image map. Which means a simple cross wiring can lead to some interesting and seemingly impossible sensations. It also explains why some people have a sexual attraction to feet. They are simply “wired” to feel that way.
So, now we’ve discovered the likely reason why some people have a foot fetish, but what are the different nuances within the fetish itself? There are many of them. Avid podophiliacs often speak of toe length, wrinkle-free or wrinkled soles, high arches (apparently, the higher the better) overall foot size and of course, the scent. There are more sweat glands in the feet, around 250,000, than anywhere else in the human body, so scent is obviously a big factor. What activities are found within foot fetish? Again, there are many. From toe sucking, to sole licking to foot smelling with masturbation. You’ve no doubt heard of a handjob right? Well, substitute the word “hand” for the word “foot” and and you have a whole sub-genre of foot fetish.
Some guys take that a step further and enjoy toe jobs. Speaking of toes, other toe-themed activities include toe spreading — that’s the spreading of toes as far apart as possible, and toe wiggling, which of course is self explanatory. Some people like clean feet. Some people like to clean feet — with their tongue! It’s a common part of foot worship and humiliation. Most commonly, a dominant female will instruct her submissive partner to lick her dirty, grubby soles clean. Then there’s crush fetish (the crushing of small objects or food beneath the feet), face standing (standing barefoot on somebody’s face while they lay flat) and pedal pumping (the pumping of an accelerator pedal in a car either barefoot or clothed). These are just a few examples, but you see how the list of foot-related fetish is varied and seemingly endless?
Add shoes, boots and socks to the mix and sub-genres like dipping (dipping your foot in and out of your shoe) and dangling (dangling your shoe from your toes) and sneaker smelling (self-explanatory) and you’ll see the list growing longer still. Take a quick look at the Clips4Sale foot fetish page and all the associated categories if you want your mind blown at the extent of this particular partialism.
The main thing to remember, however, is that foot fetish is a fetish like any other. And in a modern society that is slowly becoming more and more accepting of the fetish lifestyle in general, be proud of it. Enjoy it. Act on your fetish, because for certain there will be no shortage of people willing to let you indulge yourself on their little tootsies. After all, who doesn’t like having their toes sucked?
Some famous podophiliacs include Andy Warhol, Elvis Presley and Quentin Tarrantino among others. Legendary lothario Giacomo Casanova is another who had a huge passion for feet, and it certainly didn’t do his reputation any harm! So, what are you waiting for? Go and get yourself some sole!
Sara E. is a writer and marketer for Clips4Sale, a platform she has been with since inception in 2004. Her background includes performing, directing and creating content, and in her spare time she enjoys both Star Wars and video games.
