“And the prettiest foot! Oh, if a man could but fasten his eyes to her feet, as they steal in and out, and play at bo-peep under her petticoats!”
—William Congreve (1670-1729),Love for Love, Act I, Scene V
Throughout time and across cultures, the foot has been a focus of sexual yearning, and none of us seems to know why. Podophilia, or “foot lust,” is the desire to caress, kiss, bite, lick, fondle or have sex with a foot. The podophile (not to be confused with pedophile) looks on the foot as a sexual object, focusing on the skin texture and color; shape of the instep, toes and heel; and especially the smell. Open-design footwear, such as high-heeled sandals, are particularly evocative. These fetishists experience the highest level of arousal and orgasm from pedal love-making, whether as foreplay or as actual “intercourse.”
Perhaps the highest degree of cultural podophilia was exhibited by the Chinese for the 10 centuries following the Han dynasty. Foot-binding became for Chinese women the surest route to successful courtship, marriage and sexual harmony. But at what a cost: from young childhood, the girl's feet were wrapped in bandages ever tighter, requiring the four small toes to be broken and wrapped around under the sole.
Anatomically, common wisdom claimed that foot-binding produced the simultaneous development of a vagina “full of wondrous folds,” perhaps because the natural abdominal and pubococcygeal constriction from the chronic pain caused by the process created a strong vaginal musculature. According to the “connoisseurs of the golden lotus,” the mincing walk made necessary by the bound foot contributed to creating a more voluptuous and sensitive sexual anatomy—the short, narrow stride caused the thighs to constantly rub together, putting consistent pressure on the clitoris.
Once the process was complete, the woman was able to wear the “golden lotus” shoe, a tight slipper only three inches long. These shoes gave the woman an ephemeral appearance, of purity and separateness from normal humanity; sex for the man became especially frenzied, as he was defiling the “pure and innocent.”
There's little power in this explanation for Western foot fetishism. In the West, the foot is the embodiment of earthiness—indeed it's the only part of the body commonly in touch with the Earth. Instead of defiling the pure Other, Western foot fetishists may seem to be defiling themselves. They are certainly exhibiting signs of submission. A future OC WeeklyDataLab investigation will explore whether this drive for the sole is a desperate attempt on the part of Christianized Westerners to overcome Western Christianity's radical, Platonic split between heaven and earth, between the ideal and real, between the soul and sole.
—OC Weekly DataLab
