Boot fetishism
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"She twisted her body about on the pavement, staring provokingly at the men who came along, and raising her skirt, which she clutched in a bunch in her hand, much higher than any respectable woman would have done, in order to display her lace-up boots and stockings." -- Thérèse Raquin, Émile Zola |
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Boot fetishism is a sexual fetish dedicated to boots. Boots are seen as the perhaps most fetishistic of all footwear and boots may be the most popular fetish clothing attire.
History
One of the earliest descriptions of boots as a fetishistic object can be found in Émile Zola's 1868 novel Thérèse Raquin. Actual boot fetishism is described in the diaries of 19th Century British woman Hannah Cullwick, of which parts have been published.
Hermine Hug-Hellmuth described boot fetishism scientifically in 1915. This article has also been published in English with comments by Arlene K. Richards in 1990, as Female fetishes and female perversions: Hermine Hug-Hellmuth's "A case of female foot or more properly boot fetishism" reconsidered.
Boots were used by S. Rachman as a subject for research on conditioning as a cause for fetishism in the 1960s, making men sexually aroused by seeing pictures of boots, but the results have been put into question later, as boots already were very much en vogue for sexually attractive women at the time.
See also