Obviously, one only needs to take a quick gander at our two sections, the one, labeled Foot, the other titled Boots & Shoes to see that feet and footwear are indeed incredibly popular fetishes to have. There’s quite an amount of diversity even within each section, as for example, it could get as hardcore as Cummy Feet or as purist as simply Pure Feet. Other times, a site like Feet N Heels, mixes the pleasure of what’s inside the shoe with the shoes themselves.

Obviously, with so many choices in those couple of genres, you know that if you have a foot fetish or shoe obsession, you’re not alone. Freud pointed out in his theories regarding fetishes, that for most of us when we’re still crawling around on the floor, shoes are one of the first things we see and they become imprinted in our minds as being associated with first our mothers and then all female kind.

However, that primitive association isn’t just limited to fetishists it seems. According to an article written by Roger Dobson of the UK’s The Independent (02/26/07), a study done at the University of Bologna confirms that 47 percent of those sampled had a sexual preference for feet and toes as body parts go. As far as objects associated with the body, shoes, boots and other footwear, were named 64 percent of the time.

That may sound surprising to some folks but it’s easy to see that the remaining numbers are split significantly. About 12 percent are turned on by underwear and lingerie. Nine percent get off on coats, bodily fluids and body size. Seven percent are excited by hair and five percent by muscles. While four percent, go for genitalia and body modifications such as piercings or tattoos. Three percent enjoy navels, ethnicity and breasts, while a final two percent like legs, butts, lips, mouths and teeth.

What made the research so much more valuable was the fact that it studied the preferences of about 5,000 people living within the general population, as well as monitoring fetish website forums and traffic. In the past, either most studies regarding fetish behavior have been limited to looking at patients seeking psychiatric care to treat a fetish, by their own choice or otherwise.

Nevertheless, even in so-called “normal” or at least mainstream society, there were a few examples of some less common fetishes among the more typical ones. For example, 150 people found hearing aids sexy and perhaps, most unusual, two individuals’ hearts beat faster thanks to thinking about pacemakers. I guess those last couple of fetishists don’t ever enjoy a candlelit microwave dinner with the ideal object of their affections.