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LifesLittleMysteries.com
An Arkansas man identified as the "Toe Suck Fairy" was arrested Monday (Sept. 26) following a series of incidents in which he allegedly approached women in stores, commented on their feet and asked to suck their toes. According to Reuters, the culprit, Michael Robert Wyatt, 50, previously served a prison sentence for similar shenanigans. Last time, he even pretended to be a podiatrist in order to fondle and suck a woman's toes at a clothing store.
Though criminal cases are rare, foot fetishism itself is surprisingly common. Academic studies on the prevalence and membership of fetish discussion groups have found that feet and foot accessories are the most fetishized of all non-genital body parts and objects. Nearly half of all such fetishes focus on feet, and almost two-thirds of fetishes for objects associated with the body are for shoes and socks. [Can Brain Scans Read People's Minds?]
Sigmund Freud claimed that people sexualize feet because they resemble penises. Today, a more scientific theory comes from the neuroscientist Vilanayar Ramachandran, director of the Center for Brain and Cognition at the University of California, San Diego.
Ramachandran said he solved the mystery of foot fetishes while studying the brain malfunctions that lead to phantom limb syndrome, a condition where amputees feel as if their missing limbs are still attached to their bodies, and that they can move those limbs. He found that the syndrome resulted when a person's "body image map" — the brain's map of the body, in which different body parts are associated with and controlled by different brain regions — failed to erase the part of the map that corresponded to the amputated limb.
In the case of some phantom foot patients, Ramachandran found that the amputees' brains didn't just fail to erase the missing foot from their body image map, they accidentally rewired the map in a way that caused the person's phantom foot to become sexy. Phantom foot patients reported feeling sexual pleasure, and even orgasms, in their missing feet.
Long before Ramachandran began his work on phantom limb syndrome, it had been noted that the brain areas associated with genitalia and feet are adjacent to each other in the brain's body image map. But no one else had put 2 and 2 together and realized that foot fetishes could possibly result from cross-wiring in the brain between the foot and the genital parts.
As Ramachandran wrote in "Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind" (Harper, 1999): "Maybe even many of us so-called normal people have a bit of cross-wiring, which would explain why we like to have our toes sucked."
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What a load of nonsense!
While it is true that Freud regarded an erotic interest in feet as a 'fetish, 'things have changed since then and that is not the consensus among psychologists today.
According to the DSM-IV-TR, a fetish is a sexual fixation upon an inanimate object. (e.g. A shoe, undergarment or stocking)
A sexual fixation upon a non-sexual part of the body (e.g. Breasts, or feet or hair or eyes or legs) is *not* a fetish, although it may be considered a paraphilia similar to a fetish called a 'partialism.' But this occurs only when interest in the part of the body in question supplants interest in the sexual parts of the body.
For the majority of people who find feet sexy, that is simply not the case at all. Using the term, 'foot fetish' is therefore a dead giveaway that a person does not really know what they're talking about
In regard to Ramachandran, cross-talk between the feet and genitals via the parietal strip might explain how people regard stimulation to their own feet, but it falls far short of explaining why a person would hold an erotic interest in the feet of someone else or why this is largely a male phenomenon.
The simple fact is the male brain is wired to receive sexual cues from a wide variety of sources. And this even includes feet.
From Maureen O'Hara in The Parent Trap to Juliette Binoche in Chocolate, pointed toes are one such signal. It instantly grabs male attention.
Perhaps not all women are aware of this, but regardless of whether it is conscious or unconscious, women as a group willingly facilitate this visual cue. Men don't paint their toenails; only women do. Men don't wear jewelry on their feet; only women do. Men don't wear high-heeled sandals; only women do. Men don't deliberately wear shoes that are uncomfortable; only women do. It's not even socially acceptable in Western culture for a man to show his feet in formal situations at all. (e.g. A board meeting, a church service, etc.)
All these things draw male attention to a women's feet. The fact that women tend to go, "Ewwwwww!" when they realize that men are paying attention is a humorous paradox. But logic has little to do with sexuality.
What charges was this man arrested for? Last time I checked, displaying any sort of sexual interest in someone was not a crime, so long as you did not continually harass the person if they declined any offers. You don't hear many tales of men being arrested in clubs and bars if they ask a woman to go home and have sex with them, even if the woman refuses. The toe sucking thing may be pretty unusual sure, but if these women say no, and he moves along on his way, no crime has been committed.
The article said he 'pretended to be a podiatrist in order to fondle and suck women's toes'. The crime is 1. Impersonating a medical professional and 2. touching a woman's feet under false pretenses for his sexual arousal. Any unwanted contact is considered assault especially when you attach the sexual reasons for the crime to it.
Think how would you feel if someone told you they were a gynecologist and offered to do a free pap smear only to find out it was just some perv...yuck!!!