Everybody a Fetishist. There are hundreds of varieties of fetishism, normal or abnormal. There is no person living who is not more or less subject to the compulsive attraction of some fetish. There is in every man or every woman something which catches the onlooker's eye first and retains his attention longest.
This varies with every human being. Ask ten men to describe one pretty woman. Every one of them will probably head the list of physical qualities he has observed in her with a different fetish. One will describe her as a blonde with a beautiful skin, rather tall and well shaped; another will state that she is a well-shaped woman, rather tall and with blonde hair; another will characterise her as a tall woman with an abundance of blonde hair, etc. I knew a man, in no way abnormal, who could not describe a pretty woman, regardless of whatever her build was, without making a gesture of the hand outlining ample breast curves.
Most Common Fetishes. Women's hair, throat, neck, shoulders, arms and breasts seem to be the most frequently mentioned fetishes. Fashion and the law recognise that fact. Whenever women plan to make a physical appeal to men or women, they dress their hair with special care and they wear low neck gowns, thereby exhibiting those various fetishes.
It will be noticed that the parts of the body constituting the most widely appreciated fetishes are those with which the nursing child comes in most intimate and continuous contact.
To the child, they mean safety, comfort, caresses, food. The color of skin or hair, the shape of neck, head and shoulders on which his glances rest while nursing or while being carried about by the mother, are the only ones which will appear "natural" and safe, hence beautiful, to him in after life.
The breasts from which he derives a perfect food, at the right temperature, which flows easily into his stomach and is assimilated without effort, the breasts, whose texture and elasticity make them pleasant to lean upon while nursing, may eventually become to his simple mind the most valuable part of the female's body.
The Breast and the Bottle. My observations on several hundred men fed at the breast or on the bottle in infancy, have revealed to me that practically all the men nursed by a woman were greatly attracted to women with well developed breasts.
The majority of men nursed on the bottle, on the other hand, preferred thin, boyish looking girls, some of them even expressing a distinct repugnance for rather buxom women.
It may be stated that of the few who did not confirm that rule there were several more or less neurotic individuals, whom an unconscious fear of incest (see Chapter V) had conditioned to fear the very type of women by whom they had been nursed.
Arms and hands, which to the nursling mean protection, service, caresses, transportation, etc., derive therefrom their great attraction as fetishes.