Case 61. Mr. X. aged 25, parents healthy, never sick before, places the following autobiography at my disposal: “I began to practice onanism at the age of ten, without ever having any lustful thoughts during the act. Yet at that time—I am sure of this—the sight and touch of girls’ elegant boots had a peculiar charm for me; my greatest desire was also to wear such shoes,—a wish that was occasionally fulfilled at masquerades. But I was also troubled by a very different thought: My ideal was to see myself in a position of humiliation; I would gladly have been a slave, and whipped; in short, I wished to receive the treatment that one finds described in many stories of slavery. I do not know whether the reading of such stories gave rise to my wish, or whether it arose spontaneously.
“Puberty began at the age of thirteen; with the occurrence of ejaculation lustful pleasure increased, and I masturbated more frequently, often two or three times a day. From my twelfth to my sixteenth year, during the act of onanism, I always had the idea that I was forced to wear girls’ boots. The sight of an elegant boot, on the foot of a girl at all pretty, intoxicated me; I inhaled the odor of the leather with avidity. In order to smell leather during the act of onanism, I bought a pair of leathern cuffs, which I smelled while I masturbated. My enthusiasm for ladies’ leathern shoes remains the same to-day; only, since my seventeenth year, it has been coupled with the wish to become a servant, to blacken shoes for distinguished ladies, to put on and take off their shoes for them, etc.
“My dreams at night are made up of shoe-scenes: either I stand before the show-window of a shoe-store regarding the elegant ladies’ shoes,—particularly buttoned shoes,—or I lie at a lady’s feet and smell and lick her shoes. For about a year I have given up onanism and go ad puellas; coitus takes place through intense thought of ladies’ buttoned shoes; or, if necessary, I take the shoe of the puella to bed with me. I have never suffered from my former onanism. I learn easily, have a good memory, and have never had headache in my life. This much concerning myself.
“A few words about my brother: I am thoroughly convinced that he is also a shoe-fetichist. Of the many facts that demonstrate this to me, it is only necessary to mention that it is a great pleasure for him to have a certain cousin (a very beautiful girl) tread upon him. As for the rest, I might undertake to tell whether a man who stands before a shoe-store, and regards the shoes on exhibition, is a “foot-lover” or not. This anomaly is uncommonly frequent. When in the circle of my acquaintance I turn the conversation to the question of what woman’s charm is, I very frequently hear it said that it is much more in attire than in nudity; but every one is careful not to reveal his especial fetich. I think an uncle of mine is also a shoe-fetichist.”
Case. 62. Reported by Mantegazza in his “Anthropological Studies,” 1886, p 110. X., American, of good family, mentally and morally well constituted; from the beginning of puberty capable of being excited sexually only by a woman’s shoe. Her body and naked or stockinged foot made no impression on him; but the foot, when covered with the shoe, or a shoe alone, induced erection and even ejaculation. Sight alone was sufficient for him in the case of elegant shoes,—i.e., shoes of black leather, buttoning up the side, and having very high heels. His sexual desire was powerfully excited by touching, kissing, or drawing on such shoes. His enjoyment was increased by driving nails through the soles so that their points would penetrate his feet while walking. This caused him terrible pain, but he had real lustful feeling at the same time. His greatest enjoyment was to kneel down before the elegantly-clad feet of ladies and have them step on him. If the wearer were an ugly woman, the shoes would not affect him, and his fancy would cool. If the patient had shoes alone at his disposal, his fancy would create a beautiful woman wearing them, and ejaculation would result. His nightly dreams were of the shoes of beautiful women. He considered the exposure of ladies’ shoes in show-windows immoral; while talk about the nature of woman seemed to him harmless, but in bad taste. X. attempted coitus several times without success; ejaculation never occurred.
In the following case the masochistic element is also plain enough, as is also the sadistic (comp. “Torture of Animals,” under “Sadism”):—
Case 63. A young, powerful man, aged 26. Nothing in the opposite sex excites his sensual feeling except elegant shoes on the feet of a handsome woman, especially when they are made of black leather and have high heels. The shoes without the wearer are sufficient. It gives him the greatest pleasure to see, touch, and kiss them. The feminine foot, when bare or covered with a stocking, has no effect on him. Since childhood he has had a weakness for ladies’ fine shoes.
X. is potent; during the sexual act the female must be elegantly dressed and, above all, have on pretty shoes. At the height of sensual excitement cruel thoughts about the shoes arise. He is forced to think with delight of the death-agonies of the animal from which the leather was taken. Sometimes he is impelled to take chickens and other animals with him to Phryne, in order to have her tread on them with her pretty shoes for his pleasure. He calls this “sacrificing to the feet of Venus.” At other times he has the woman walk on him with her shoes on, the harder the better.
Until the last year it was sufficient—since he did not take the slightest sensual pleasure in women—to caress ladies’ shoes that pleased him, thus attaining ejaculation and complete satisfaction. (Lombroso, Archiv di Psichiatria, ix, fascic. iii.)
The following case reminds one of the third of this series, on account of the interest in the nails of the shoes (as capable of inflicting pain); and of the fourth, on account of the slight accompanying sadistic element:—