Feminine Fetishes. I have thus far mentioned almost exclusively fetishes from the female body. There are several reasons why feminine fetishes are far more important to both men and women than masculine fetishes. Children of both sexes are exposed to the influence of the mother's fetishes more intimately, more constantly and more "profitably" (nursing), than they are to the influence of the father's fetishes.
Hence masculine fetishes are fewer and less numerous. Woman is less of a fetishist than man. The most frequently mentioned masculine fetishes are the bodily attributes characteristic of strength, and which, hence, would afford most protection to the infant and the female.
No perverse fetishism is observed in women, no abnormal craving driving women into securing unlawfully men's hair or clothing, etc.
Some writers consider transvestite women, women who enjoy masquerading in men's clothes, as clothing fetishists, but such cases are extremely rare and can be accounted for in other ways.
Physiological Necessities. There is another reason, a physiological reason, for the great importance which men and women attach to the feminine fetishes. More sexual excitement and a greater muscular tension are necessary in the male than in the female at the time of the sexual union. The female, being physiologically submissive, can wait for her desire to grow under the influence of the male's caresses. The male, on the contrary, has to be aggressive and cannot fulfill his biological part unless his desire has been aroused by other sensations than that of the sexual union.
Hence the greater expenditure of time and effort on the part of the female to make herself attractive to the male. Hence also the long drawn courtship of flirtation thru which the female of every animal species endeavors to bring the male to the highest possible point of sexual excitement before surrendering herself to him.
Foot and Shoe Fetishism is more complicated. The mother's feet are the part of her body which the infant, crawling on the floor or attempting to walk, beholds most frequently and at the closest range.
That variety of fetish, however, should not be as strong as other fetishes more directly related to the child's nutrition, comfort and safety. When shoe fetishism become compulsive, it is a neurosis due to the repression of some erotic desire aroused in childhood by some striking incident. One case cited by Freud, illustrates that process.
"A man to whom the various sex attractions of woman now mean nothing, who in fact, can only be aroused sexually by the sight of a shoe on a foot of a certain form, is able to recall an experience he had in his sixth year and which proved decisive for the fixation of his libido. One day he sat on a stool beside his governess. She was a shriveled old maid who, that day, on account of some accident, had put a velvet slipper on her foot and stretched it out on a foot stool.