You What? A Discussion of Sexual Fetishism

     Given the incredibly wide range of sexual fetishes, it is possible that all people have a mild sexual fetish, though not in the clinical sense. The socially encouraged fascination and association with lingere and sexual excitement is clearly an example of a fetish that has gone mainstream. It is also an incredibly common fetish between men and women, when viewing the most popular reasons stated for why women purchase and wear lingerie(4).

     The first answer to the question as to why a woman is buying or going to wear lingerie is because it looks or makes her feel sexy. After this, one finds the answers begin to address things such as how their partner feels about it and woman’s preferences about the clothing, such as the fabric’s texture. This booming industry is all focused upon catering to a specific fetish that is accepted by society as normal and countless amounts of subsidiary things focus upon this fetish (be it marketing campaigns for products entirely unrelated or pornography). So, don’t feel bad if you have a sexual fetish of some sort, because just about everybody does!

What kind of Sexual Fetishes are there?

     Given the incredible range of fetishes, the list presented below is partial.

• Agalmatophilia: This is more commonly known as a ‘Doll Fetish’, where a person is sexually attracted to and excited by a statue, doll, or other similar object. Think of the myth of Pigmalion.
• Age Play: This is age based role-play, not to be confused with pedophilia. Generally, this is regressive age based role-play and the most frequently seen form is with one portraying a small child.
• Sitophila: This is a form of food play, where the act of eating food off of another person’s body is the fetish.
• Stehenolagnia: Sexual arousal in response to demonstrations of physical strength.
• Partialism: This is the fetishism of a specific body part (with the foot being the most popular) rather then the whole body.
• Sadomasochism: This is the sexual use of pain for arousal. The individual who inflicts pain is a Sadist and the one who is the recipient is a Masochist. Sadomasochism does have non-sexual implications as well.

     Many, many more fetishes exist. Some are quite mundane while others are exotic. In working with your sexual fetishes, it is best to remember a few basic rules for your exploration. These are:

1. Is everyone involved of legal age of consent and agreeing to this?
2. Are appropriate safety measures in place?
3. Are preparations made to address potential emergency concerns? (IE: if you’re exploring bondage, is it in a safe fashion that allows for you to leave the area if there is a fire?)
4. Has a Safe Word or similar signal been devised incase anyone involved is no longer willing to participate or feels unable to participate?
5. Respect everyone involved, no matter what the role is. If the Safe Word has been invoked, all play and exploration stops.

     If you keep those five things in mind and don’t take actions that break the law in your area; your exploration of your fetishes and sexual interests should be an exciting and fulfilling experience.

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(1) A more complete discussion of the social pressures present in the United States and the role of the Sexual Revolution in how sex and sexuality are viewed is currently in the research stages at this time. This discussion will also include a more complete description of the social stereotypes surrounding the sexuality of men and women. 1/7/09

(2) The division of ’safe’ and ’scary’ homosexuals is a fairly common one to see in the attitudes casually expressed in American society. Usually, the ’safe’ homosexuals are functionally non-entities because there is little if any public expression of their sexuality. The only difference between the ’safe’ homosexuals and those who remain ‘closeted’ are that the ’safe’ ones have publically voiced what their sexuality is, from what I have seen in the attitudes and stereotypes presented.

(3) In with the concept of the ’scary’ homosexual, for some reason, is jumbled up the matter of transgendered and bisexual people. It opens up a rather large, complex, and difficult series of social questions to address matters such as gender identification and sexual orientation. As a result, the entire matter is dodged by being put under the heading of ’scary homosexual stuff’ by society at large. Sometimes, the people who are viewed as ’scary homosexuals’ are not and this can be psychologically hurtful for them. It is not because of the social stigma attached to homosexuality (generally) but rather the implication that who these people are is simply unacceptable at a base level.

(4) I specifically mention women here because this is the target buyer of these products. I’m sure there are men who will purchase and wear lingerie for similar reasons.