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Foot fetish (or podophilia) is defined as a sexual interest in feet. Simply put, ankles, toes and feet are a cause of sexual arousal for someone with this common fetish.
In a recent study done on fetishes, half the respondents surveyed admitted to having a foot fetish. Research has shown that the stimulation of feet and/or genitals activated the same part of the brain. [1]
Researchers have posited various possible explanations behind how and why people develop Podophilia. Sigmund Freud was one of the first people to posit a possible explanation that might explain the basis for such fetish. He believed that fetishes arose during the early developmental years of a child. He suggested that when a child saw their mother’s genitals (or sisters), they were shocked to find that they had a completely different set of reproductive organs, one that did not include the penis. This might have led to the fixation on body parts that looked like penises. Freud reasons that this fetish might have been a result of a child perceiving the foot or toes as a substitute for the penis. [2]
A growing number of scientists now subscribe to a different theory. Emily Nagoski, a sex nerd, floats a possible reason and is quoted saying “The somatosensory homunculus is the sensory map of your brain in your body,” she writes. “You’ll notice that the feet are immediately adjacent to the genitals. So even though your feet are at one end of your actual body and your genitals are in the middle, as far as your brain is concerned, they’re right next to each other.”” [3]
“Wilder Penfield, who established the "body image map" in the 1950s found that the sensory perception for our feet is located directly adjacent to the sensory perception area for our genitalia” [4] “In the human brain, the senses are mapped; specific locations in your brain correlate to specific locations on the body. It is theorized that some people have an overlap in neurons in these areas. Basically, the boundaries of the map overlap, meaning that feet can cause sexual arousal in a person. This includes looking at, touching, and smelling feet, either their own or another individual’s.” [5]
[1] https://www.webmd.com/sex/what-is-a-foot-fetish
[2] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/what-is-a-foot-fetish#the-science-of-it
[3] https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/392388/the-foot-fetish-brain-map/
[4] https://bigthink.com/health/psychology-of-foot-fetishes/
[5] https://scholarship.richmond.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=osmosis
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