What Exactly Is A Foot Fetish, And Just How Common Is It?

Have you ever wondered if you or someone you know has a foot fetish?

Foot fetishes are more common than most of us would imagine — or at least peoples' kinky fascination with feet and shoes attracts a lot of attention. 

It turns out that some really well-known celebrities, such as Elvis Presley and Andy Warhol, liked feet. Others, like the notorious womanizer Casanova and even the serial killer Ted Bundy had full blown foot fetishes.

And for those of us who spent years watching the TV series Sex and the City, those fashion-conscious New York City ladies — Carrie Bradshaw and her friends — could have been labeled as shoe fetishists for the amount of time and money they poured into their obsessions!

RELATED: 5 Signs Your Guy Has A Serious Foot Fetish

But what is so interesting — even fascinating — about feet? 

Checking with Wikipedia, I found this definition: "Foot fetishism, foot partialism, foot worship, or podophilia is a pronounced sexual interest in feet. It is the most common form of sexual fetishism for an otherwise non-sexual object or body parts."

But this obsession with feet and with shoes is not limited to people with a "psychosexual disorder" or a true foot fetish or shoe fetish.

At first glance, this "fetish" appears to be just a male thing. However, in researching a bit further, I found another interesting definition on Wikipedia: "Shoe fetishism is the attribution of attractive sexual qualities to shoes or other footwear as a matter of sexual preference, psychosexual disorder, and an alternative or complement to a relationship with a partner."

Many women, to some extent, may have a shoe fetish that's sometimes as exaggerated as the ones portrayed in the Carrie Bradshaw crowd.

It seems that feet and shoes have an appeal to lots of people for different reasons.

Recently I have created several Pinterest boards and have re-pinned other people's pins according to my specific interests. As I searched through other people's boards, I discovered a large number of boards focused on shoes, usually women's shoes, often with very high heels and open toes. They looked so appealing that I almost created a shoe board myself.

Searching further, I found several boards labeled "feet first" and another called "shoes." Most of these boards feature images of women's shoes, some with and some without feet inside. And some even add the feet of babies.

Then, I found a photography site called Feet First, with images of both women's and men's feet, in and out of shoes. And then I located a feet gallery website that contains over 2000 pictures of women's feet.

So what it is about feet and shoes that interests so many of us?

Feet are meant to walk on the earth, to feel the powerful energy of the earth and to help us move forward, backward, sideways and in any direction we choose. There are even some handicapped people with no arms that have managed to use their feet to eat and draw and handle their daily necessities.

But there is still a fascination with these extremities that people simply can't explain. 

How happy are you with your feet?

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Dr. Erica Goodstone is a Spiritual Relationship Healing Expert helping men and women heal their bodies and their relationships through love. She believes that where there is love there IS a way. When you love, accept, listen and pay attention to your body, your sense of what you want and need, your circumstances and the other people in your life, anything and everything is possible.