Since becoming involved n barefoot running around 2005 or so, I've fielded a million questions covering all aspects of life without shoes. Most questions involve the logic or logistics of barefootedness. One group of questions, however, buck that trend.
I get a fair number of female friends that report a sudden increase of friend requests (on Facebook) from dudes asking to post more pictures of their feet. The requests are usually framed in a way that implicitly or explicitly indicates the piictures arouse them sexually. Almost all of these women have been creeped out by the phenomenon. After all, getting random requests from strangers that are obviously using your pictures for masturbatory practices can be a bit disconcerting for some.
I've always found this to be humorous and suggest they just block the friend requests. I also suggest the women (or other men) take it easy on the foot fetish fellows. We all have our unique turn-ons, and it's a good practice to avoid judging others. It's like offensive TV shows- instead of freaking out and calling for silly things like censorship, simply change the channel.
Anywho, the book I've been reading (How We Do It by Judy Dutton... which I would recommend for the sexually illiterate) discusses an article published in 1998 titled "Sexualization of the Female Foot in Response to Sexually Transmitted Epidemics." The authors note there seems to be an increase in female foot fetishes in response to historical STD epidemics. According to this hypothesis, the current increase in female foot fetishes is a direct result of the AIDS epidemic.
If this is the case, the current crop of men (any maybe some women) that have developed a fetish for the female foot hit the jackpot. The barefoot running movement has produced an huge influx of easily-available female foot pictures easily accessible via the Interwebz. The ease of availability would theoretically add even more fuel to the fire that is female foot fetishes.
What do you think? Many of my readers are also current or former barefoot runners OR dudes that may have a foot fetish. Is the theory plausible? Leave your thoughts in the comments section!
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