Pedophilia, masochism, voyeurism or asphyxiophilia, fetishes come in all forms and sizes. Still, many of them are taboo and fetishists are judged as creeps. Rightly so? We will take a closer look on how fetishes develop to see whether fetishes are actually a disorder or just uncommon desires of healthy people.
Pedophilia, masochism, voyeurism or asphyxiophilia, fetishes come in all forms and sizes. Still, many of them are taboo and fetishists are judged as creeps. Rightly so? We will take a closer look on how fetishes develop to see whether fetishes are actually a disorder or just uncommon desires of healthy people.
Photo by Sarah Laszlo
Photo by Sarah Laszlo
“No, but sorry. People who are into this shit must be sick!” was what my friend said when we walked past one of the numerous BDSM sex shops in Amsterdam. I agreed, being trapped in a leather suit, unable to move does not seem very appealing to me, let alone sexually arousing. Maybe there is something off with fetishists. Nonetheless, I was still wondering why people indulge in such kinks and where the origin of such unique obsessions lies? What makes people get turned on by humiliation, underwear, or feet?
A fetish is defined as being sexually interested in or excited about a material object or nonsexual part of the body (APA, 2015). In other words, people need to encounter their object of attraction to experience sexual enjoyment. So, being aroused by ears can be considered a fetish, but being aroused by boobs is not. Unless the individual itself or others are severely distressed or impaired by their fetish, it is considered to be normal. If others or the person itself are distressed by the desire the DSM-V categorizes it as a fetishistic disorder (APA, 2013), like pedophilia or when observing unsuspecting people having sex.
“Over 30% of the population have a fetish for a specific body part or for an object related to that body part.”
One of the few large-scale studies on fetishism revealed that over 30% of the population have a fetish for a specific body part or for an object related to that body part. Out of this group over 47% showed sexual attraction towards feet, followed by fetishes for body fluids and body size, both with 9% prevalence (Scorolli et al., 2007). Therefore, getting off on feet or shoes is weirdly common. Why exactly feet, though? A possible explanation might be the signals-crossing theory. Considering that the genitals and feet are adjacent to each other on the somatosensory cortex, a brain area which is responsible for processing sensory input, it is hypothesized that some of the neurons overlap between the two brain parts. This means that stimulating the feet is somewhat tied to stimulation of the genitals. The erogenous mirror model states that people are aroused by objects which they like themselves (Maister et al., 2020). It is therefore hypothesized that other feet elicit a similar response than one’s own feet. It is important to note that there is basically no empirical evidence for this theory yet. In fact, the connection between brain regions and fetishes is based solely on a case study of a man who not only suffered from epilepsy but also had an unusual attraction towards safety pins (Mitchell et al., 1954). After undergoing a partial temporal lobectomy, not only his seizures- but also his safety pin fetish went away. This finding is supported by the knowledge that the hypothalamus, brainstem, limbic system, and spinal cord all are important organs in sexual desire and therefore potential fetishes (Calabro et al., 2017). This is certainly not the answer to why your recent one-night stand was taking a bit longer than they should while removing your socks, but it’s a good starting point for future research.
“18% of people display strong sexual arousal in response to their own or other people’s behavior.”
Following body parts, 18% of people display strong sexual arousal in response to their own or other people’s behavior. Power dynamics such as choking someone during sex can be very arousing, even in people without a fetish, as long as all parties consent (Herbenick et al., 2021). Almost everyone knows about Fifty Shades of Grey and is familiar with BDSM, so we shouldn’t act surprised when encountering fetishes. However, when it comes to intense humiliation and pain, it’s a different story. The origin of these unusual desires might be explained by a second theory: Classical conditioning. Research already showed that men can be conditioned to be aroused by images of a penny jar after pairing it with sexually evocative images (Plaud & Martini, 1999). They learn to like non-sexual stimuli by pairing an unconditioned stimulus (e.g., pornography) with a neutral stimulus (e.g., penny jar). The neutral stimulus then becomes a conditioned stimulus which shows the same effect as the unconditioned one after repeated trials. In this case, looking at a penny jar leads to sexual arousal. This conditioning starts unconsciously in early childhood through imprinting. Children imprint on future mating partners and sexual behavior by using their early environment as a reference point. Problems or deviant stimuli in this critical period might lead to irreversible changes in sexual preferences (Pfaus et al., 2001). Does that mean choking on something as a baby consequently leads to developing a masochistic fetish? Hardly so. Material objects that resemble a vagina or penis in any form are more likely to become a fetish (McConaghy, 1987). Consequently, the object needs a strong connection to sexual behavior to be imprinted.
Not surprisingly, as soon as something remotely related to sex comes up, Mr. Freud has a say in it. There is plenty of psychodynamic research on fetishes trying to explain sexual behavior through childhood and unconscious processes. Psychodynamic theories state that if penis envy (the jealousy of girls for lacking a penis) and castration complex (fear of being castrated in boys) do not get resolved in adolescence due to trauma, they lead to the development of abnormal sexual desires to cope with these difficulties. Trauma can be sexual assault or growing up in a sexual restrictive household (Freud, 1961). Obviously, these theories are unsubstantiated and fail to replicate in empirical research.
All in all, my friend is proven to be wrong. Not everyone who has a fetish must be sick. Specific criteria need to apply for a person to be considered mentally ill due to their sexual desire. Where fetishes derive from is still up for debate. Lack of participants, sampling effects, and impossibility to randomly allocate people to different conditions makes it difficult to assess fetishes scientifically. What can be tackled is the taboo around it. Yes, not everyone supports non-mainstream sexual behavior, but there is no good in judging others for it. Deviating from the norm, fetishists face a lot of stigma in everyday life, even though expressing their sexuality in the sheer majority of cases does not harm anyone (unwillingly). One of the best ways of ending stigma and prejudices is by getting to know something. It helps reduce anxiety and fear which are often followed by unease. Familiarity makes people see a topic from a more positive and open perspective. I hope this article helped you with that, as much as it helped me when writing it. <<
References
– American Psychological Association. (2015). Fetish. In APA Dictionary of Psychology (2nd ed.). Retrieved May 29, 2022, from https://dictionary.apa.org/fetish
– American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596
– Calabrò, R. S., Cacciola, A., Bruschetta, D., Milardi, D., Quattrini, F., Sciarrone, F., … & Anastasi, G. (2019). Neuroanatomy and function of human sexual behavior: A neglected or unknown issue?. Brain and Behavior, 9(12), e01389.
– Darcangelo, Shauna. “Fetishism: Psychopathology and Theory.” In Sexual Deviance: Theory, Assessment and Treatment, 108–18. New York: Guilford Press, 2008.
– Freud, S. (1961). Fetishism. In The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XXI (1927-1931): The Future of an Illusion, Civilization and its Discontents, and Other Works (pp. 147-158).
– Herbenick, D., Fu, T. C., Patterson, C., Rosenstock Gonzalez, Y. R., Luetke, M., Svetina Valdivia, D., … & Rosenberg, M. (2021). Prevalence and characteristics of choking/strangulation during sex: Findings from a probability survey of undergraduate students. Journal of American College Health, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2021.1920599
– Maister, L., Fotopoulou, A., Turnbull, O. et al. The Erogenous Mirror: Intersubjective and Multisensory Maps of Sexual Arousal in Men and Women. Arch Sex Behav 49, 2919–2933 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01756-1
– McConaghy, N. (1987). Heterosexuality/homosexuality: Dichotomy or continuum. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 16(5), 411-424.
– Mitchell, W., Falconer, M., & Hill, D. (1954). Epilepsy with fetishism relieved by temporal lobectomy. Lancet, 264(6839), 626–630. 10.1016/s0140-6736(54)90404-3
– Pfaus, J. G., Kippin, T. E., & Centeno, S. (2001). Conditioning and sexual behavior: A review. Hormones and Behavior, 40(2), 291-321.
– Plaud, J. J., & Martini, J. R. (1999). The respondent conditioning of male sexual arousal. Behavior Modification, 23(2), 254-268.
– Scorolli, C., Ghirlanda, S., Enquist, M., Zattoni, S., & Jannini, E. A. (2007). Relative prevalence of different fetishes. International Journal of Impotence Research, 19(4), 432-437. 10.1038/sj.ijir.3901547
“No, but sorry. People who are into this shit must be sick!” was what my friend said when we walked past one of the numerous BDSM sex shops in Amsterdam. I agreed, being trapped in a leather suit, unable to move does not seem very appealing to me, let alone sexually arousing. Maybe there is something off with fetishists. Nonetheless, I was still wondering why people indulge in such kinks and where the origin of such unique obsessions lies? What makes people get turned on by humiliation, underwear, or feet?
A fetish is defined as being sexually interested in or excited about a material object or nonsexual part of the body (APA, 2015). In other words, people need to encounter their object of attraction to experience sexual enjoyment. So, being aroused by ears can be considered a fetish, but being aroused by boobs is not. Unless the individual itself or others are severely distressed or impaired by their fetish, it is considered to be normal. If others or the person itself are distressed by the desire the DSM-V categorizes it as a fetishistic disorder (APA, 2013), like pedophilia or when observing unsuspecting people having sex.
“Over 30% of the population have a fetish for a specific body part or for an object related to that body part.”
One of the few large-scale studies on fetishism revealed that over 30% of the population have a fetish for a specific body part or for an object related to that body part. Out of this group over 47% showed sexual attraction towards feet, followed by fetishes for body fluids and body size, both with 9% prevalence (Scorolli et al., 2007). Therefore, getting off on feet or shoes is weirdly common. Why exactly feet, though? A possible explanation might be the signals-crossing theory. Considering that the genitals and feet are adjacent to each other on the somatosensory cortex, a brain area which is responsible for processing sensory input, it is hypothesized that some of the neurons overlap between the two brain parts. This means that stimulating the feet is somewhat tied to stimulation of the genitals. The erogenous mirror model states that people are aroused by objects which they like themselves (Maister et al., 2020). It is therefore hypothesized that other feet elicit a similar response than one’s own feet. It is important to note that there is basically no empirical evidence for this theory yet. In fact, the connection between brain regions and fetishes is based solely on a case study of a man who not only suffered from epilepsy but also had an unusual attraction towards safety pins (Mitchell et al., 1954). After undergoing a partial temporal lobectomy, not only his seizures- but also his safety pin fetish went away. This finding is supported by the knowledge that the hypothalamus, brainstem, limbic system, and spinal cord all are important organs in sexual desire and therefore potential fetishes (Calabro et al., 2017). This is certainly not the answer to why your recent one-night stand was taking a bit longer than they should while removing your socks, but it’s a good starting point for future research.
“18% of people display strong sexual arousal in response to their own or other people’s behavior.”
Following body parts, 18% of people display strong sexual arousal in response to their own or other people’s behavior. Power dynamics such as choking someone during sex can be very arousing, even in people without a fetish, as long as all parties consent (Herbenick et al., 2021). Almost everyone knows about Fifty Shades of Grey and is familiar with BDSM, so we shouldn’t act surprised when encountering fetishes. However, when it comes to intense humiliation and pain, it’s a different story. The origin of these unusual desires might be explained by a second theory: Classical conditioning. Research already showed that men can be conditioned to be aroused by images of a penny jar after pairing it with sexually evocative images (Plaud & Martini, 1999). They learn to like non-sexual stimuli by pairing an unconditioned stimulus (e.g., pornography) with a neutral stimulus (e.g., penny jar). The neutral stimulus then becomes a conditioned stimulus which shows the same effect as the unconditioned one after repeated trials. In this case, looking at a penny jar leads to sexual arousal. This conditioning starts unconsciously in early childhood through imprinting. Children imprint on future mating partners and sexual behavior by using their early environment as a reference point. Problems or deviant stimuli in this critical period might lead to irreversible changes in sexual preferences (Pfaus et al., 2001). Does that mean choking on something as a baby consequently leads to developing a masochistic fetish? Hardly so. Material objects that resemble a vagina or penis in any form are more likely to become a fetish (McConaghy, 1987). Consequently, the object needs a strong connection to sexual behavior to be imprinted.
Not surprisingly, as soon as something remotely related to sex comes up, Mr. Freud has a say in it. There is plenty of psychodynamic research on fetishes trying to explain sexual behavior through childhood and unconscious processes. Psychodynamic theories state that if penis envy (the jealousy of girls for lacking a penis) and castration complex (fear of being castrated in boys) do not get resolved in adolescence due to trauma, they lead to the development of abnormal sexual desires to cope with these difficulties. Trauma can be sexual assault or growing up in a sexual restrictive household (Freud, 1961). Obviously, these theories are unsubstantiated and fail to replicate in empirical research.
All in all, my friend is proven to be wrong. Not everyone who has a fetish must be sick. Specific criteria need to apply for a person to be considered mentally ill due to their sexual desire. Where fetishes derive from is still up for debate. Lack of participants, sampling effects, and impossibility to randomly allocate people to different conditions makes it difficult to assess fetishes scientifically. What can be tackled is the taboo around it. Yes, not everyone supports non-mainstream sexual behavior, but there is no good in judging others for it. Deviating from the norm, fetishists face a lot of stigma in everyday life, even though expressing their sexuality in the sheer majority of cases does not harm anyone (unwillingly). One of the best ways of ending stigma and prejudices is by getting to know something. It helps reduce anxiety and fear which are often followed by unease. Familiarity makes people see a topic from a more positive and open perspective. I hope this article helped you with that, as much as it helped me when writing it. <<
