In our glossary of paraphilias today we make a stop at retifism. And it is that sexual pleasure can be achieved in many different ways. Retifism is a paraphilia characterized by fetishistic attraction to shoes , whatever type they may be. People who suffer from this pattern of sexual behavior, among other things, enjoy caressing, smelling, kissing or licking the shoes of others or feeling the shoes on top of themselves, since the foot and the shoe are associated with the genitals, normally female. This paraphilia occurs more in men than in women.
The term has its origin in the surname of the 18th century French writer Nicolás Edme Restif de la Bretonne , who was one of the first people to describe the symptoms of this sexual inclination and who gives name to this paraphilia. Retifism is considered, therefore, an eponymous (name of a person or place that gives name to a concept or object).
Although it may be more or less strange, sexual attraction to shoes is quite frequent and subparaphilias can even be found within it . Thus, the attraction to high-heeled shoes is called “altocalcifilia.”
Of all the types of sexual fetishes, one of the most common is foot fetishism. And it is that the three most common fetishes of the parts of the body are the feet, the hands and the hair.
Many names have been applied to the sexual love of feet, including foot fetishism, foot worship, and foot bias. It’s also worth noting that there are some people who have a pronounced interest in feet for aesthetic (attractiveness) reasons but for no sexual reason. Such people would not be classified as foot fetishists or podophiles.
If we Google “foot fetishes”, not only do hundreds of web pages appear, but the sheer diversity of what people like is puzzling to a newbie who knows nothing about such fetishes.
Foot fetishes can be very specific, and individual dimensions and characteristics are critical for the podophile. They are usually interested in size (of the foot, toes, heel), shape (flat feet, high arches), embellishments (footwear, jewelry, rings, ankle bracelets, etc.), aesthetics (nail polish, tattoos, pedicures, etc.), non-visual sensory characteristics (for example, touch, smell) and, perhaps most importantly, the type of interaction (massage, touch, kiss, kiss, tickle, lick, suck).
There are also subdimensions of the fetish, including those who are really interested in footwear rather than feet (as in this case, retifism, which we have already discussed that French novelist Nicolas Edme Rétif wrote extensively about his own footwear fetish) , or those who like bare feet with ornaments, aretifism.
Most psychological theories about fetishes in general and foot fetishes in particular refer to early childhood imprinting and conditioning experiences (where sexual responses are generally combined with non-sexual objects).
