The Untold Secrets of Foot Fetishes

If you feel an uncanny sexual attraction towards others’ feet, may be, you are suffering from podophilia. This is the scientific terminology for what is more commonly known as foot worship, foot fetishism or foot partialism. This forms a part of the sexual preference people often feel towards non-sexual body-parts. What is a favorite fetish for you can be disgusting for others - it all depends on the subjective viewpoint.

Facts about foot fetishes 

To have a profound sexual interest towards the feet or footwear is called foot fetish. Much earlier, Freud had regarded foot binding as a type of podophilia. You can always tell a foot fetishist if you find him/her staring towards other’s feet. That person takes interest in a variety of foot features like the shape and size of the feet such as high arches, slim soles etc. These people pay special attention to the toes shape, length, thickness etc.

The feet presentation also matters like well-kept, pedicured clean feet, whether it is covered with stockings, nylon garments or kept bare. The other thing is any type of sensory interaction the feet might emit like odor, skin texture, complexion etc.

Findings about foot fetishes

The University of Bologna had conducted a survey on 5000 people of 381 Internet discussion groups to find out about the average frequency of various fetishes. The prevalence of different fetishes was determined based on certain points:

• The number of discussion groups ascribed to each fetish
• The number of persons taking part in each group
• The number of messages that were exchanged during the survey

This study revealed that 33% of common fetishes were directed towards specific limbs while 30% were for articles related with that limb. Among those individuals who had shown an interest for body parts, 47% were self-confessedly drawn towards feet and toes. Footwear like boots and shoes were preferred by about 64% of the people who had shown an interest for objects relating to the limbs.                                  www.MyBadFeet.com

Another sample test was carried out by AOL which when released its database of search terms in August 2008; found that the word “fetish” was used mostly for searches related to feet. This was an interesting find and it told loads about tendencies of foot fetish.

Reasons behind foot fetishism 

From such studies and other researches conducted from time to time, the researchers have gathered that foot fetishism heightens as an instinctive response to epidemics caused by sexually transmitted diseases. For example, during the wide spread gonorrhea of 12th century Europe, sexual attractions towards feet had become a noted feature. The same became true about the syphilis epidemics prevalent between the 16th and 19th centuries in Europe.

This interesting finding is attributed to Dr. A James Giannini of Ohio State University. A similar research on foot fetishism was conducted many centuries ago by Bertold of Regensburg in 1220. He was the first to note symptoms of podophilia. What is further interesting is that Dr. A James Giannini made a detailed analysis of depictions of foot fetishes in pornographic literature over a gap of 30 years.

www.MyBadFeet.com
Staff writers