The Encyclopedia Of Smut: F Is For Feet

March 22, 2012
OTTIMO-MASSIMO

According to a 2007 study by the University of Bologna, feet and toes are the most fetishized body parts in the entire world, and yes, the study included breasts and butts. How the hell are feet more fetishized than anything else? More importantly, should Fleshbot become a foot-centric site in order to increase our readership? Let's do some research before we decide.

It doesn't take a whole lot of thought to understand why feet are so revered. Think about your own ones! They support your entire weight everyday, they touch your environment more than any other body part, they help you walk, run, jump, dance, fight, and for some, they help you love. How many of you have ever thought about your feet, or the feet of another, in a sexual way? Well, statistically, a ton of you have, but that's not the point. The point is you're about to get some foot learning.

Ancient Origins?
It's actually quite hard to discern which people were feeling up their footsies first, and it's not because we get vague reports from various ancient cultures (we're willing to accept that everybody was down with feet at the same time), but because there are a lot of podophiles online who write articles about Greek goddesses whose feet touch the ground and made mortal men tremble with lust and so on.

We can't speak to the presence of goddesses on Earth, but we will note that foot washing is a part of hospitality rituals both old and new. The insanely fascinating and oddly specific book "Footwashing in John 13 and the Johannine Community" sites a number of legendary examples of the practice from Western literature, including the famous passage in Homer's "Odyssey" in which Odysseus gets his disguise ruined when the woman washing his feet recognizes a scar he earned in his youth. Not only does this demonstrate the respect and care that feet deserve, but it also reveals how personal and private feet are for all that they tell you about their owner. "Footwashing in John 13" notes that in many cases, a person of lower social status was required to wash a superior's feet before a meal was served, and for this reason, the footbasin has become a symbol of servitude.

No discussion of foot-centric rituals would be complete without mention of foot binding. The (now banned) Chinese practice of wrapping and molding the feet of young girls goes back thousands of years, and although there are a number of fables that provide origins, most historians agree that it stemmed from one emperor's preference for small, bound feet. Of course, it's not like everyone was simply playing along with the emperor's new fetish; petite feet were considered intensely erotic by many, and Qing Dynasty sex manuals listed forty-eight different ways of playing with women's bound feet.

[Above: Dani Jensen in "Barefoot Confidential 71" via AEBN Adult Video On Demand (theater.aebn.net)]

The Origin Is Your Brain!
If you look at a map of your somatosensory cortex--the slab of your brain that shows what gray matter links with what nerve endings--you'll notice that your feet and your genitals are right next to each other. Neurologist Vilayanur S. Ramachandran proposes that foot fetishism is caused when neural pathways between the foot and genital zones overlap.

Sigmund Freud (who, by the way, first called foot binding a form of fetishism) thought that all paraphilias developed as the displacement of sexual desire caused by the Oedipal/castration complex, and so he thought podophilia was the product exposure over time to feet while being sexually aroused. It's as flat and limited as most of Freud's theories, but it does make a little sense. After all, most of us grew up hanging around mom's feet.

Some people (including the writer of this one Cracked article) think that feet were first viewed as sexual objects as a response to a fear of STDs, noting that "history records show a lot more foot lovers during syphilis epidemics, like those of the 16th and 19th centuries." We don't know what records hold this information, but we want to read them because they sound hot.

[Above: McKenzie Sweet in "Fantasy Footjobs 7" via AEBN Adult Video On Demand (theater.aebn.net)]

So, What Do You Do With Feet?
Lots of things! The attraction to feet differs from person to person, but people get off on the shape and size of feet and toes, the cleanliness (or lack thereof), the smell, the taste, the toe nails, and the interspaces between toes (with or without toe jam). Some people enjoy touching them, kissing them, licking, sucking, sniffing, massaging, and--as you can see in the videos we've provided--touching them to one's genitals.

The most commonly seen form footfucking in mainstream porn is when a person lubricates the soles and arches of their feet and holds them together while a penis penetrates the space between them. Of course, if you think of them like little hands, the possibilities are endless, and we've seen many girl-on-girl films in which clits are delicately held between toes, lightly danced upon and rubbed with the balls of the feet, and ignored entirely as the whole foot is plunged (fisted, in a way) inside the vagina.

And let's not forget foot worship! As we've learned from our ancient friends, feet and legs can play a big part in dominant/submissive relations. If you're lucky enough to have a (consensual) sex slave at your disposal, have them earn your favor by bathing your feet with their tongue. Or you can flip the script and have your feet be their reward for pleasuring you in other ways. Or, if you're into equality in your sex life, try some foot-focused 69ing! It requires a partner of similar height, but it's a lot of fun.

Lastly, we have to mention foot accessories! Shoes, socks, and stockings of all shapes, sizes, and materials are often incorporated into foot fetishism, but even though they all revolve around the same area of the body, shoe and stocking fetishes are considered separate from the strictly foot world.

[Above: a clip of a woman driving around in flip-flops! Yeah, it's pretty trippy, and it's from "The Driving Lesson" via AEBN Adult Video On Demand (theater.aebn.net)]

Recommended Viewing
Admittedly, we're not super knowledgeable about the finer features in foot filmdom, but we have had a few strong bolts of podophilia touch us in the past, and we'd like to share our sources with you:

· Elmer Batters - He was one of the world's leading foot fetish photographers, he was way ahead of his time (which was between the '50s and the '90s), and his black and white photos of legs in stockings thrill us in unfamiliar ways. We recommend checking out Taschen's collection of his work, "Legs That Dance to Elmer's Tune." Or, if you don't want to spend the dough, check out this Google Image search.
· "Nylons 8" - If you're thinking of exploring feet and legs, you might as well start with the movie that recently won an AVN Award for Best Foot/Leg Fetish Release!
· Belladonna's foot work - We really enjoy the beautiful sets and cinematography (and feet) featured in her all-girl series, "Party of Feet," but if you're looking for some boy-girl action, she also has a series of "Foot Soldiers" films. On another note, we there's a scene in "No Warning 6" in which Adrianna Nicole sticks her entire foot inside Kelly Divine, and you really ought to see it.
· Ooh, another random scene we just thought of - Bobbi Starr is no stranger to foot play, and in "Bobbi's World," she and Kimberly Kane play with each other's toes a lot and it gets them both ridiculously wet. Hopefully, it'll have the same effect on you!