Psychology of sex - Total No. of Records in System :: 2032

SEXUAL DEVIATIONunder the conditions of civilization whereby the foot isusually seen clothed, becomes shoe-fetichism. There wouldseem to be an almost natural basis for foot-fetichism inthe tendency to a worldwide association of the foot withthe sexual organs. Even among the Jews the "foot" wasused as a euphemism for the sexual organs, and we read,for instance, in Isaiah of "the hair of the feet/' meaningthe pubic hair. In widely separated parts of the world,moreover, the foot has been a center of modesty. It wasso even in Spain, and Peyron noted in 1777 that the femininecustom of concealing the feet was only then passingout of fashion, and "a woman who shows her feet is nolonger ready to give her favors," as, itmay be added, shewas also in classic Rome. Even for the normal lover thefoot is one of the most attractive parts of the body. StanleyHall found that among the parts specified as mostadmired in the other sex by young men and women whoanswered a questionnaire the feet came fourth (after theeyes, hair, stature, and size). Other observers, however,like Hirschfeld, have found the hand a much more frequentfetich than the foot. Infants are peculiarly interestedin the foot, primarily in their own. Moreover, inmany parts of the world, notably China, some parts ofSiberia, as well as ancient Rome and medieval Spain, acertain degree of foot-fetichism has been recognized.It is not usual for the normal lover, in most civilizedcountries today, to attach primary importance to the foot,such as he frequently attaches to the eyes. In a small butnot inconsiderable minority of persons, however, the footor the shoe becomes the most attractive part of a woman,and in some morbid cases the woman herself isregardedas a comparatively unimportant appendage to her foot orher shoes. Restif de la Bretonne furnishes an interestingexample of foot-fetichism in a writer of considerable im-