Von Krafft-Ebing reported the case of a man who loved only girls with a limp, which I can parallel by an observation of my own. A merchant, thirty-two years of age (with slight stigmata of degeneration—Darwinian pointed ears, slight asymmetry of the skull—but in other respects with a very powerful build of body, and having performed his year’s service in the cavalry), who since ten years of age has been addicted to excessive masturbation, is potent only in intercourse with a girl who limps. He cannot state when this perversion first manifested itself in him. In any case, it has developed into a typical fetichism.
To this category belong, also, the abnormal love towards elderly individuals, heterosexual “gerontophilia,” and the fetichistic influence of certain peculiarities of character. Thus, it is an old experience that a Don Juanesque, bold, and self-assertive appearance on the part of men, and even depravity and sexual lawlessness, exercise a fascinating influence upon many women. This is, as it were, homologous to the previously described influence of prostitutes and fast women upon men.
A peculiar fetich is constituted also by the human voice. A sympathetic voice has often been the cause of a violent love passion. Singers, both men and women, know something of this powerful fetichistic charm of the voice.
Finally, sexual fetichism can extend to objects in relationship with the beloved person, or with any human individual (“object fetichism”), and this is very readily accounted for by the personification and spiritualization of these objects of human use, and especially of clothing, which appears to be a part of the personality itself, and so quite naturally becomes a sexual fetich. (See the detailed description given on p. 140 et seq.)
Among the various forms of clothing fetichism, by far the commonest is shoe fetichism, or “retifism.” After the Marquis de Sade, who in his writings described the most important sexual perversions, active algolagnia has been termed “sadism”; and after Sacher-Masoch, passive algolagnia has been termed “masochism.” I consider, therefore, that with the same and even greater justification, as I have already suggested in my work on Rétif de la Bretonne,[635] foot and shoe fetichism may be denoted by the term “retifism,” for it is this sexual perversion which manifests itself most markedly in Rétif’s life (1734-1806), and in him, also, this perversion found its first literary interpreter and apostle, in exactly the same manner as sadism was made known in wider circles by de Sade and masochism by Sacher-Masoch. Rétif first described typical foot fetichism and shoe fetichism, and also wrote the first history of this subject. In him this tendency appeared at the early age of ten years, as he relates (vol. i., pp. 90-93) in his celebrated autobiography—a work greatly admired by Goethe, Schiller, Wieland, and other heroes of our classical literature. In this place, also, he gives a very good explanation of the genesis of foot fetichism and shoe fetichism:
“This fondness for beautiful feet, which in me is so strong that it unfailingly arouses my most powerful lust, and leads me to ignore any ugliness in other respects—does it arise from any physical or emotional predisposition? In all those who have this peculiarity it is very strong. Is it connected with any preference for an easy gait, for a gracious, voluptuous, dancing movement? The peculiar attraction which the foot-covering exercises is only the reflex of the preference for beautiful feet, which stimulate even an animal. Thus a man comes to prize the covering almost as much as the thing itself. The passion which, since childhood, I have felt for such beautiful foot-coverings was an acquired inclination, which, however, rested on a natural preference. But the love for a small foot has a physical basis, which finds expression in the Latin proverb, ‘Parvus pes, barathrum grande.’”
Rétif was a typical shoe fetichist. He trembled with desire on viewing a woman’s shoe; he blushed when he saw it, as if it were the girl herself. As a true fetichist, he collected the slippers and shoes of his mistresses; he kissed them, and smelled them, and sometimes masturbated into them. Especially fascinating to him were the high heels of women’s shoes, a sight of which sufficed to produce in him intense sexual excitement.
Shoe-fetichism existed in ancient times, and long ago it was assumed that there was a relationship between the foot and the vita sexualis. References to this matter will be found in my earlier work, “Contributions to the Etiology of Psychopathia Sexualis,” vol. ii., pp. 323-325. In modern shoe-fetichism masochistic ideas (ideas of being trodden on, of placing the beloved’s foot on the back of the neck) or sadistic ideas (ideas of treading upon the beloved’s feet, etc.) played a part; also there were associated sensations of smell proceeding from the leather; the colour of the shoes is likewise of importance. The “foot-wooers”—thus are the shoe fetichists named in the speech of prostitutes—have the most varied inclinations in respect of different shapes and fashions of shoes. One loves ladies’ boots, another riding-boots, a third dancing-shoes, a fourth slippers, a fifth actually loves coarse wooden peasants’ shoes. Also, in respect of ornamentation, colour, heels, etc., fancies vary. In one case known to me, a clergyman was purely a heel fetichist. Hirschfeld records (“The Nature of Love,” p. 148) the case of a man who was sexually excited only by means of the ankle-wrinkles in boots; also the case of a woman who was fascinated by the dusty boots of men, etc.[636]
Of other articles of clothing, the corset, petticoat, chemise, apron, and, more especially, stockings and handkerchiefs, form objects of sexual fetichism. Félicien Rops appears to have been at once a corset fetichist and a stocking fetichist, for he frequently draws feminine figures naked, except in respect of their wearing corset and stockings. There are many men who are able to complete intercourse with a woman only when she keeps on her stockings or shoes. Others are excited only by the articles of clothing; for instance, they represent in imagination corset shops, in order, by looking at the corsets, to produce orgasm and ejaculation; or they collect or steal[637] feminine underclothing, especially handkerchiefs, in order to obtain sexual excitement from smelling or looking at these, or to masturbate with them. Finally, there exist fetichists for particular materials, such as fur (loved especially by masochists), satin, silk, or even entire costumes, such as a woman’s riding-dress, tights, mourning, etc. D’Estoc describes, under the name “la course des araignées” (“the spider race”), the appearance of twenty women in a brothel, who were clothed only in long black gloves reaching to the shoulders and long black stockings. In the Berlin newspapers there recently appeared an account of the fetichism of a prince for long “gants de suède” on slender women’s arms. Unique in its kind would appear to be the case of the spectacle fetichist, of which Hirschfeld gives an account (op. cit., pp. 145, 146).