What Is Fetishism: A Paraphilia?
Fetishism- A Paraphilia Tahaira Tate The College Of New Rochelle The School Of New Resources Is: PSYAQEA Spring, 2015 Professor. Hassan Shabazz
Abstract
Fantasy, symbolism, ritualism, and compulsion are the four elements of sexual behavior. These are not necessary abnormal, but what is considered out of the norm by either the mental health organizations, and society.
Fetish is considered a sexual disorder. Someone you may know, a male close to you could be having a secret "affair" behind closed doors and you may not even be aware of it. Not to worry, …show more content…
it may not involve another woman, but a sexual fetishism. Kink means different things to different people. Forget the negative connotation and figure out what turns you on. There is a fetish to suit every need, and most people have more than one, whether they admit it or not. Does the sight of a woman in high heels turn your head? Welcome to foot fetish land! Does the idea of not being in control of an encounter make you giggle? Bondage is for you! Do you find really long hair one of the sexiest things about a woman? There’s a fetish for that, too! There’s a balloon fetish, a nail fetish, a combat fetish, a skin fetish, even an amputee fetish. There is a fetish for anything under the sun, and having one does not make you weird, just adventurous!
The Meaning
Fetishism it is important to understand the concept and definition of paraphilias. A paraphilia is the modern day psychiatric term for perversion. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Sexual fetishism or erotic fetishism is a paraphilia, fantasy or sexual focus on a nonliving object or nongenital body part. The object of interest is called the fetish; the person who has a fetish for that object is a fetishist. Note that this definition excludes crossdressing and objects that are specifically designed for sexual use (such as vibrators or dildos). A sexual fetish may be regarded as a non-pathological aid to sexual excitement, or as a mental disorder if it causes significant psychosocial distress for the person or has detrimental effects on important areas of their life. Sexual arousal from a particular body part can be further classified as partialism.
Fetishism is extremely varied by many types of objects, and therefore it is rather difficult to draw a dividing line between the acceptable and unacceptable..
The object of a fetishist's sexual desire might be used with a partner but more often than not the fetish becomes the entire focus of sexual pleasure mostly by men. Primarily in male heterosexuals, in which orgasm is impossible without the presence of their fetish. "In some cases, “fetishism” has been used to name aspects of a nation’s predominant ideal of beauty, e.g. the preference for small feet in old China or the modern Western preference for big breasts" (Bering, 2013). Having a sexual preference or “type” is a mild sort of fetish, for example if a white male is only attracted to darker-skinned females, or a female that is only attracted to men shorter than her. The attraction cannot typically be present without these features, though there is still a slight possibility for it to occur outside them. A preference that has developed into a fetish is marked by the absolute inability to feel sexually aroused and/or gain sexual release without this object or feature …show more content…
present.
The object of a fetish is most always used during masturbation. Inanimate object fetishes can be placed into two categories are form fetishes and media fetishes. A form fetish has to do with the shape of the object or object itself such as high-heeled shoes. A media fetish has to do with the material that the object is made out of, such as leather. Those fetishists that have inanimate object fetishes many times have a collection of that object, even if it takes robbery to get the right addition to their collection. The most common form fetish objects are bras, panties, slips, pantyhose, shoes, and gloves. The most common media fetish objects are rubber, fur, silk, and leather.
A little history
The word fetish derives from the French fétiche, which comes from the Portuguese feitiço ("spell"), which in turn derives from the Latin facticius (“artificial”) and facere ("to make").
In the late 19th century fetishism was first described as a sexual culture phenomenon by scientists. "Fetishism was introduced as a psychological scientific term in 1887 by Alfred Binet and meant sexual admiration of an inanimate object, mostly bodywear and shoes. By then, fetishism was considered pathological" (Milner & Dopke,1997).
Around the 1900's, a sexual psychologist by the name of Havelock Ellis brought up the revolutionary idea that in early childhood erotic feelings emerged and that it was the first experience with its own body that determined a child’s sexual orientation.
According to Havelock Ellis's theory of erotic symbolism, to which unusual sexual practice symbolically replaced normal sexual intercourse, and his thoughts about erotic thoughts in children, had laid the foundations for psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. In 1927, Freud published his psychoanalytic view stating that fetishism was the result of a psychological trauma, which reached non-scientific readers as well. The term fetish became
popular. Look at Sigmund Freud's theory of psychosexual development. Although the name would imply that this development would center around the development of our sexual selves, it is quite the opposite. The fixations occur around erogenous zones of the body. There was case study observed by Freud, some fetishes may not even be visible to the other person at all. In one case a patient of Freud was obsessed with the shine on the noses of women. With specific fetishes like that, the fetishist usually needs to look at, touch, or smell during or in preparation for the sexual act. In some cases just the sight of the fetish could result in an orgasm.
The Freudian view of fetishes changed over the years. His early view stated that fetishism was a result of some childhood fantasy or exposure that resulted in the fetish, but he later changed the view. Freud later theorized that the fetish was a fear of castration on the part of the male. He believed that the association with the penis to the female reproductive organ was a reminder to men that castration is possible. This anxiety would cause the fetishist to associate his or her sexual desire with another body part or object. By doing this he or she can connect sexual experience with another part of the body and forget about infertility, humiliation, or anxiety. Usually the desire is linked closely to the genitals, it could be something seen when the genitals were first exposed, such as, underwear, or something to that experience (i.e. fur, which could be symbolic of pubic hair).
Here are a few weird fetishes that you may never heard of....
Autoandrophilia – This fetish is defined as the arousal by a biological female imagining herself as a male.” I don’t know if the definition of this fetish implies a chick dressing up as a dude or literally just imagining herself with a penis. I began wondering, if the man who hooks up with an autoandrophiliac be considered gay?
Pyrophilia – Fire! This isn’t pyromania. This is a fetish where one can actually jet their joy juice at the sight of fire or fire-starting activity. Reminds me of a arsenious case on Criminal Minds.
Chremastistophilia – The arousal when being robbed or held up. This one could be useful to have in NYcity. A burglar rolls up and pulls a gun on you.
Autoandrophilia – This weird fetish is defined as “the arousal by a biological female imagining herself as a male.” I don’t know if the definition of this fetish implies a chick dressing up as a dude or literally just imagining herself with a stem. I scratch my head wondering, can a man who hooks up with an autoandrophilia be considered gay?
Formicophilia – Pleasure derived from having insects crawl all over your body. I mean, I guess that I can see somebody becoming aroused when they are tickled, which might be a bit similar to this fetish.
Lactophilia – This fetish is the arousal from breast milk.
Nasophilia – A fetish for the sucking of a person's nose. The attraction can be to a specific shape of nose, a certain part of the nose (for example, the nostrils or the bridge), the act of penetrating the nostrils, or even trans-species variations of the nose (for example, a human with a bear’s nose).
Dacryphilia – The fetish to witness a person tearing up and crying. This one is actually quite disturbing because of its close relationship to sadism. Dacryphilia is typically associated with males who intimidate others into crying as a form of submission, which gives the causative a psychological feeling of superiority. Additionally, dacryphilia even implies a sexual arousal while experiencing one’s own tears.
Apotemnophilia – This is the fetish for having an amputation. Ursusagalmatophilia – fetish for teddy bears. Watch out Mr. Snuggles.
The Most Common Fetish
Autonepiophilia The image of one's self in the form of an infant. Behaviors may include drinking from a bottle or wearing diapers. Some actually have a bowel movement and wants to have their diaper changed.
Autogynephilia this fetish is when a biological male imagining himself as a female, or crossdressing which is define as transsexual typology (e.g. Bruce Jenner). Ray Blanchard proposed, male to female/MtF transsexuals are either sexually attracted exclusively to men (homosexual) or are sexually attracted primarily to the thought or image of themselves as female (autogynephilic), (like the fictional character “ Buffalo Bill” played in the Silence of the Lambs),and that autogynephilic transsexuals seek sex reassignment to actualise their autogynephilic desires.
Latex fetishism is the fetishistic attraction to people wearing latex clothing or, in other cases, to wear the garments themselves. PVC fetishism and rubber fetishism are closely related to latex fetish, with the former referring to shiny clothes made of the synthetic plastic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and the latter referring to clothes made of rubber, which is generally thicker, less shiny, and more matte than latex. PVC is sometimes confused with the similarly shiny patent leather, which is also a fetish material. Latex or rubber fetishists sometimes refer to themselves as "rubberists". Gay rubberists tend to call themselves "rubbermen".
One reason why latex or other tight shiny fabrics may be fetishised is perhaps that the garment forms as a second skin for the wearer's own skin. Maybe skin-tight latex garments may be perceived by the viewer as being naked, or simply coated in a shiny substance like paint. The tightness of the garments may also be viewed as a kind of sexual bondage. A compelling reason that people are turned on by wearing rubber is its transformative abilities. As with any costume, a rubberist can imagine themselves having a new identity, especially one that permits a different code of behavior.The smell of latex rubber is also a turn-on for some rubber fetishists. Some rubberists also enjoy the idea of exhibitionism and some fantasise about going out in public wearing fetish attire. Some do this, especially in the more liberal areas like Berlin, New York, Montreal, San Francisco.
Foot fetishism, foot partialism, foot worship, or podophilia is a sexual interest in feet. It is the most common form of sexual fetishism for otherwise non-sexual objects or body parts.Foot fetishism has been defined as a pronounced sexual interest in the feet or footwear. Sigmund Freud considered foot binding as a form of fetishism.For a foot fetishist, points of attraction include the shape and size of the foot and toes (e.g., long toes, short toes, polished toenails, high arches, soles.),even jewelry (toe rings, ankle bracelets, etc.), how it looks in different types of shoe. Bundy himself claimed to have something of a foot fetish. While on the run in Florida, he bought 30 pairs of socks.
The difficulty lies in deciding what type of sexual behavior is normal and what is not. “In the past homosexuality was considered a form of paraphilia and it was classified as so in the DSM. Today it is regarded as a variant of normal sexuality. Also toys, sexual role-play, and different aspects of some fetishes which are considered normal adult entertainment have often been confused with this condition” (Carroll, 2010). There is also trouble with deciphering whether certain types of paraphilia fall under the psychiatric disorder category.
“These elements are true in either normal or deviant sexual behavior” (Holmes and Holmes, 2009). Sexual fantasies are needed for one to be sexual, some of the fantasies being more difficult or in depth than what some imagine. When rape is the situation sexual activities take place without the woman, or sometimes even the man having no sexual fantasy. Everyone has fantasies, they just vary from person to person. Symbolism, also known as a fetish or partialism is a visual element. Next we have ritualism. Rituals play a big role in who we are as a person, as there are rituals in just about all the we do. “Sex offenders are as ritualistic as in their sexual predations as others who are sexually active” (Holmes and Holmes, 2009). De River speaks of sadism as an element in some lust murders. Compulsion is when the offender feels they are compelled to commit the act they committed. The offender has no sympathy toward their victims, feeling the need to act out on the crimes they commit (Holmes and Holmes 2009). As Ted Bundy explained, there were urges inside of him that needed to be fulfilled that he had no control over. It’s basically the addiction one has to sex.
Sadism
Sadism is the conscious knowing of a sexual pleasure arousal through infliction of physical or emotional pain on another person. “The DSM-IV describes sexual sadism as follows: Over a period of at least six months, recurrent intense sexual urges and sexually arousing fantasies involving acts in which the psychological or physical suffering( including humiliation) of the victim is sexually exciting to the person” (Geberth, 1990)
Sadism involves activities that indicate the dominance of the person over his victim like forcing them to engage in unwilling behaviors while threatening them or restraining them, blindfolding spanking, burning, rape, or any other torture or even killing. There is no universally accepted cause or theory explaining the origin of sexual sadism. Some researchers attempt to explain the presence of sexual paraphilias in general as the result of biological factors. Evidence for this viewpoint comes from abnormal findings from neuropsychological and neurological tests of sex offenders. Not everyone with a paraphilia is a criminal, but some urges and sexual activities conflict with the law.
Its said that paraphilias develop because the person is required to suppress, or squelch, inappropriate sexual fantasies. Because the fantasies are not acted out initially, the urge to carry them out increases. When the person finally acts upon the fantasies, they are in a state of considerable distress and/or arousal. It showed through the FBI's database that these people are almost always males, that start out by collecting pornographic materials that depict sadistic acts, or they may draw ropes and chains on the photographs of models in swimsuit or lingerie advertisements. They then typically progress to following women at a distance this is how most serial killers start.
Serial Killers with Fetishes
Jerry “Jerome” Brudos was a shoe fetishist, serial killer called the “Lust Killer”. Jerry Brudos love for shoes began at the age of five, after he rescued a pair of high-heel shoes from the junkyard. His mother scolded him repeatedly for wearing the shoes and eventually burned them. As he grew older, his unusual interest in shoes developed into a fetish which he satisfied by breaking into homes to steal shoes and women's underwear. At sixteen, Brudos began to go through puberty. His mother again showed her disgust for anything sexual in nature. She beat him for having a natural wet dream and forced him to wash his stained sheets by hand after his nighttime "indiscretion"s. He then added violence to his fantasies, and began knocking down girls, choking them until they were unconscious, then stealing their shoes What is known is that he married, moved to Portland, Oregon and he and his wife had two children. Brudos marriage began to fade after he approached her dressed in women's underwear.
His first victim was a woman in Portland whom he followed home. He waited for her to fall asleep and broke into the house attempting to steal her shoes. She woke up and he choked her until she passed out, raped her, stole her shoes, and fled the scene. On January 26, 1968, Brudos committed his first murder. Linda Slawson an encyclopedias door to door sales women and Brudos convinced her to come down to his workshop. He hit her with a two by four, and then strangled her to death. Brudos then sent his family out for hamburgers so he could play with her corpse. He dressed her up like a doll in clothes he had been collecting and cut off her left foot bearing a high-heeled shoe and put it in the freezer. Brudos found himself another victim, twenty-three-year-old Jan Whitney. He took her home and hung her in his garage, once she died, he anally raped her and spent hours playing dress-up with her corpse, and slicing off one of her breasts as a keepsake. Brudos had claimed two more victims after.
Dayton Leroy Rogers, Serial Killer With Bizarre Foot Fetish, the brutal murderer, sawed off his victim’s feet.
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer also known as the “Milwaukee Cannibal”, was a serial killer and, who committed the rape, murder and dismemberment of seventeen men and boys between 1978 and 1991, with many of his later murders also involving necrophilia (sexual act involving corpses), cannibalism and the permanent preservation of body parts.
We cannot say what is normal and what is not. The Normal is problematic because our ideas about sex have changed. I remember going growing up telling one of my friends that I had oral sex for the first time with my child's father, and as soon as we had an argument she repeated it. Meanwhile, she was having anal sex, back then this was considered not normal, morally. The boundaries of normal shifts rapidly, and continue to shift. So what was abnormal yesterday, like autogynephilia becomes normal today. And what is shunned today may just as easily become normal tomorrow. No matter how unethical your desires, how absurd your fetish, everything is normal. Your desire to dress up as stuffed animals, (which I saw in once on CSI tv show, about a murder in the "plushies" community, fetish where people have sex while dressed up as stuffed animals) your obsession with rubber as long as it's sexually driven it's ok and consented with your partner.
Even willing consent, is not enough to justify maiming or killing a person for sexual satisfaction. Bering showed how most sexual deviancy isn't a choice, but rather is the result of a genetic predisposition over which the individual has no control. The key is to remember that we are creatures of balance. What we present to the world and feel on a daily basis often needs to be countered by it’s polar opposite, which could be presenting it’s face in our sexual fantasies and fetishes. This is not to say that the individual who fantasizes about being sexually dominated in bed is weak and helpless in real life. In fact the opposite is quite true. Our sexual fantasies are often times a representation of something in our life, whether past or present and when we break them down and take a much closer look, we will see that they are a normal reaction to some set of our own life experiences.
In conclusion, there seems to be two basically distinctive thoughts about fetishism. There are people who condone it and people who feel it is strictly a sexual perversion. A publicly published article on the Internet by an anonymous author, whose fetish was bestiality, the desire to engage in sexual relations with animals, best sums up the side of the fetishists, "...this is the pain of being 'different', shunned by society and the self appointed morals police.
Reference
Bering, J. (2013). Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us.; Scientific American/
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. NY.
Bennett, Paul. (2011). Abnormal and Clinical Psychology: An Introductory Textbook, 3rd ed.;McGraw-Hill Education. Berkshire, GBR.
Carroll, J. L., & Wolpe, P. R. (2010). Sexuality now: embracing diversity.; Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. Belmont,CA.
Corsini, R. & Wedding, D. (2008). Current Psychotherapies, 8th ed.; Thomas Higher Education. Belmont, CA.
De River, J. (1958). Crime and Sexual Psychopath.; Charles Thomas and Co. Springfield , IL.
Geberth, V.J. (1990). Practical Homicide Investigation: Tactics, Procedures, and Forensic Techniques. 2nd ed.; CRC Press, FL.
Holmes, R. & Holmes, S. (2009). Sex Crimes. 3rd ed.; Sage Publications. Thousand Oaks, CA.
Jerome Brudos. (2015). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 11:47, Apr 26, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/jerome-brudos-403432.
Milner, J. S., & Dopke, C. A. (1997). Sexual deviance: Theory, assessment and treatment. 2nd ed.; Guilford Press, New York, NY.
Ortmann, David. (2013). Sexual Outsiders: Understanding BDSM Sexuality and Communities.; Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc.
Schultz, D. & Schultz, E. (2009). Theories of Personality, 9th ed.; Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Belmont, CA.
Schur, E. (2006). Sociological Perspective on Sexual Deviances. 13 (7). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/docview/614251546?accountid=8289.
Abstract
Fantasy, symbolism, ritualism, and compulsion are the four elements of sexual behavior. These are not necessary abnormal, but what is considered out of the norm by either the mental health organizations, and society.
Fetish is considered a sexual disorder. Someone you may know, a male close to you could be having a secret "affair" behind closed doors and you may not even be aware of it. Not to worry, …show more content…
it may not involve another woman, but a sexual fetishism. Kink means different things to different people. Forget the negative connotation and figure out what turns you on. There is a fetish to suit every need, and most people have more than one, whether they admit it or not. Does the sight of a woman in high heels turn your head? Welcome to foot fetish land! Does the idea of not being in control of an encounter make you giggle? Bondage is for you! Do you find really long hair one of the sexiest things about a woman? There’s a fetish for that, too! There’s a balloon fetish, a nail fetish, a combat fetish, a skin fetish, even an amputee fetish. There is a fetish for anything under the sun, and having one does not make you weird, just adventurous!
The Meaning
Fetishism it is important to understand the concept and definition of paraphilias. A paraphilia is the modern day psychiatric term for perversion. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Sexual fetishism or erotic fetishism is a paraphilia, fantasy or sexual focus on a nonliving object or nongenital body part. The object of interest is called the fetish; the person who has a fetish for that object is a fetishist. Note that this definition excludes crossdressing and objects that are specifically designed for sexual use (such as vibrators or dildos). A sexual fetish may be regarded as a non-pathological aid to sexual excitement, or as a mental disorder if it causes significant psychosocial distress for the person or has detrimental effects on important areas of their life. Sexual arousal from a particular body part can be further classified as partialism.
Fetishism is extremely varied by many types of objects, and therefore it is rather difficult to draw a dividing line between the acceptable and unacceptable..
The object of a fetishist's sexual desire might be used with a partner but more often than not the fetish becomes the entire focus of sexual pleasure mostly by men. Primarily in male heterosexuals, in which orgasm is impossible without the presence of their fetish. "In some cases, “fetishism” has been used to name aspects of a nation’s predominant ideal of beauty, e.g. the preference for small feet in old China or the modern Western preference for big breasts" (Bering, 2013). Having a sexual preference or “type” is a mild sort of fetish, for example if a white male is only attracted to darker-skinned females, or a female that is only attracted to men shorter than her. The attraction cannot typically be present without these features, though there is still a slight possibility for it to occur outside them. A preference that has developed into a fetish is marked by the absolute inability to feel sexually aroused and/or gain sexual release without this object or feature …show more content…
present.
The object of a fetish is most always used during masturbation. Inanimate object fetishes can be placed into two categories are form fetishes and media fetishes. A form fetish has to do with the shape of the object or object itself such as high-heeled shoes. A media fetish has to do with the material that the object is made out of, such as leather. Those fetishists that have inanimate object fetishes many times have a collection of that object, even if it takes robbery to get the right addition to their collection. The most common form fetish objects are bras, panties, slips, pantyhose, shoes, and gloves. The most common media fetish objects are rubber, fur, silk, and leather.
A little history
The word fetish derives from the French fétiche, which comes from the Portuguese feitiço ("spell"), which in turn derives from the Latin facticius (“artificial”) and facere ("to make").
In the late 19th century fetishism was first described as a sexual culture phenomenon by scientists. "Fetishism was introduced as a psychological scientific term in 1887 by Alfred Binet and meant sexual admiration of an inanimate object, mostly bodywear and shoes. By then, fetishism was considered pathological" (Milner & Dopke,1997).
Around the 1900's, a sexual psychologist by the name of Havelock Ellis brought up the revolutionary idea that in early childhood erotic feelings emerged and that it was the first experience with its own body that determined a child’s sexual orientation.
According to Havelock Ellis's theory of erotic symbolism, to which unusual sexual practice symbolically replaced normal sexual intercourse, and his thoughts about erotic thoughts in children, had laid the foundations for psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. In 1927, Freud published his psychoanalytic view stating that fetishism was the result of a psychological trauma, which reached non-scientific readers as well. The term fetish became
popular. Look at Sigmund Freud's theory of psychosexual development. Although the name would imply that this development would center around the development of our sexual selves, it is quite the opposite. The fixations occur around erogenous zones of the body. There was case study observed by Freud, some fetishes may not even be visible to the other person at all. In one case a patient of Freud was obsessed with the shine on the noses of women. With specific fetishes like that, the fetishist usually needs to look at, touch, or smell during or in preparation for the sexual act. In some cases just the sight of the fetish could result in an orgasm.
The Freudian view of fetishes changed over the years. His early view stated that fetishism was a result of some childhood fantasy or exposure that resulted in the fetish, but he later changed the view. Freud later theorized that the fetish was a fear of castration on the part of the male. He believed that the association with the penis to the female reproductive organ was a reminder to men that castration is possible. This anxiety would cause the fetishist to associate his or her sexual desire with another body part or object. By doing this he or she can connect sexual experience with another part of the body and forget about infertility, humiliation, or anxiety. Usually the desire is linked closely to the genitals, it could be something seen when the genitals were first exposed, such as, underwear, or something to that experience (i.e. fur, which could be symbolic of pubic hair).
Here are a few weird fetishes that you may never heard of....
Autoandrophilia – This fetish is defined as the arousal by a biological female imagining herself as a male.” I don’t know if the definition of this fetish implies a chick dressing up as a dude or literally just imagining herself with a penis. I began wondering, if the man who hooks up with an autoandrophiliac be considered gay?
Pyrophilia – Fire! This isn’t pyromania. This is a fetish where one can actually jet their joy juice at the sight of fire or fire-starting activity. Reminds me of a arsenious case on Criminal Minds.
Chremastistophilia – The arousal when being robbed or held up. This one could be useful to have in NYcity. A burglar rolls up and pulls a gun on you.
Autoandrophilia – This weird fetish is defined as “the arousal by a biological female imagining herself as a male.” I don’t know if the definition of this fetish implies a chick dressing up as a dude or literally just imagining herself with a stem. I scratch my head wondering, can a man who hooks up with an autoandrophilia be considered gay?
Formicophilia – Pleasure derived from having insects crawl all over your body. I mean, I guess that I can see somebody becoming aroused when they are tickled, which might be a bit similar to this fetish.
Lactophilia – This fetish is the arousal from breast milk.
Nasophilia – A fetish for the sucking of a person's nose. The attraction can be to a specific shape of nose, a certain part of the nose (for example, the nostrils or the bridge), the act of penetrating the nostrils, or even trans-species variations of the nose (for example, a human with a bear’s nose).
Dacryphilia – The fetish to witness a person tearing up and crying. This one is actually quite disturbing because of its close relationship to sadism. Dacryphilia is typically associated with males who intimidate others into crying as a form of submission, which gives the causative a psychological feeling of superiority. Additionally, dacryphilia even implies a sexual arousal while experiencing one’s own tears.
Apotemnophilia – This is the fetish for having an amputation. Ursusagalmatophilia – fetish for teddy bears. Watch out Mr. Snuggles.
The Most Common Fetish
Autonepiophilia The image of one's self in the form of an infant. Behaviors may include drinking from a bottle or wearing diapers. Some actually have a bowel movement and wants to have their diaper changed.
Autogynephilia this fetish is when a biological male imagining himself as a female, or crossdressing which is define as transsexual typology (e.g. Bruce Jenner). Ray Blanchard proposed, male to female/MtF transsexuals are either sexually attracted exclusively to men (homosexual) or are sexually attracted primarily to the thought or image of themselves as female (autogynephilic), (like the fictional character “ Buffalo Bill” played in the Silence of the Lambs),and that autogynephilic transsexuals seek sex reassignment to actualise their autogynephilic desires.
Latex fetishism is the fetishistic attraction to people wearing latex clothing or, in other cases, to wear the garments themselves. PVC fetishism and rubber fetishism are closely related to latex fetish, with the former referring to shiny clothes made of the synthetic plastic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and the latter referring to clothes made of rubber, which is generally thicker, less shiny, and more matte than latex. PVC is sometimes confused with the similarly shiny patent leather, which is also a fetish material. Latex or rubber fetishists sometimes refer to themselves as "rubberists". Gay rubberists tend to call themselves "rubbermen".
One reason why latex or other tight shiny fabrics may be fetishised is perhaps that the garment forms as a second skin for the wearer's own skin. Maybe skin-tight latex garments may be perceived by the viewer as being naked, or simply coated in a shiny substance like paint. The tightness of the garments may also be viewed as a kind of sexual bondage. A compelling reason that people are turned on by wearing rubber is its transformative abilities. As with any costume, a rubberist can imagine themselves having a new identity, especially one that permits a different code of behavior.The smell of latex rubber is also a turn-on for some rubber fetishists. Some rubberists also enjoy the idea of exhibitionism and some fantasise about going out in public wearing fetish attire. Some do this, especially in the more liberal areas like Berlin, New York, Montreal, San Francisco.
Foot fetishism, foot partialism, foot worship, or podophilia is a sexual interest in feet. It is the most common form of sexual fetishism for otherwise non-sexual objects or body parts.Foot fetishism has been defined as a pronounced sexual interest in the feet or footwear. Sigmund Freud considered foot binding as a form of fetishism.For a foot fetishist, points of attraction include the shape and size of the foot and toes (e.g., long toes, short toes, polished toenails, high arches, soles.),even jewelry (toe rings, ankle bracelets, etc.), how it looks in different types of shoe. Bundy himself claimed to have something of a foot fetish. While on the run in Florida, he bought 30 pairs of socks.
The difficulty lies in deciding what type of sexual behavior is normal and what is not. “In the past homosexuality was considered a form of paraphilia and it was classified as so in the DSM. Today it is regarded as a variant of normal sexuality. Also toys, sexual role-play, and different aspects of some fetishes which are considered normal adult entertainment have often been confused with this condition” (Carroll, 2010). There is also trouble with deciphering whether certain types of paraphilia fall under the psychiatric disorder category.
“These elements are true in either normal or deviant sexual behavior” (Holmes and Holmes, 2009). Sexual fantasies are needed for one to be sexual, some of the fantasies being more difficult or in depth than what some imagine. When rape is the situation sexual activities take place without the woman, or sometimes even the man having no sexual fantasy. Everyone has fantasies, they just vary from person to person. Symbolism, also known as a fetish or partialism is a visual element. Next we have ritualism. Rituals play a big role in who we are as a person, as there are rituals in just about all the we do. “Sex offenders are as ritualistic as in their sexual predations as others who are sexually active” (Holmes and Holmes, 2009). De River speaks of sadism as an element in some lust murders. Compulsion is when the offender feels they are compelled to commit the act they committed. The offender has no sympathy toward their victims, feeling the need to act out on the crimes they commit (Holmes and Holmes 2009). As Ted Bundy explained, there were urges inside of him that needed to be fulfilled that he had no control over. It’s basically the addiction one has to sex.
Sadism
Sadism is the conscious knowing of a sexual pleasure arousal through infliction of physical or emotional pain on another person. “The DSM-IV describes sexual sadism as follows: Over a period of at least six months, recurrent intense sexual urges and sexually arousing fantasies involving acts in which the psychological or physical suffering( including humiliation) of the victim is sexually exciting to the person” (Geberth, 1990)
Sadism involves activities that indicate the dominance of the person over his victim like forcing them to engage in unwilling behaviors while threatening them or restraining them, blindfolding spanking, burning, rape, or any other torture or even killing. There is no universally accepted cause or theory explaining the origin of sexual sadism. Some researchers attempt to explain the presence of sexual paraphilias in general as the result of biological factors. Evidence for this viewpoint comes from abnormal findings from neuropsychological and neurological tests of sex offenders. Not everyone with a paraphilia is a criminal, but some urges and sexual activities conflict with the law.
Its said that paraphilias develop because the person is required to suppress, or squelch, inappropriate sexual fantasies. Because the fantasies are not acted out initially, the urge to carry them out increases. When the person finally acts upon the fantasies, they are in a state of considerable distress and/or arousal. It showed through the FBI's database that these people are almost always males, that start out by collecting pornographic materials that depict sadistic acts, or they may draw ropes and chains on the photographs of models in swimsuit or lingerie advertisements. They then typically progress to following women at a distance this is how most serial killers start.
Serial Killers with Fetishes
Jerry “Jerome” Brudos was a shoe fetishist, serial killer called the “Lust Killer”. Jerry Brudos love for shoes began at the age of five, after he rescued a pair of high-heel shoes from the junkyard. His mother scolded him repeatedly for wearing the shoes and eventually burned them. As he grew older, his unusual interest in shoes developed into a fetish which he satisfied by breaking into homes to steal shoes and women's underwear. At sixteen, Brudos began to go through puberty. His mother again showed her disgust for anything sexual in nature. She beat him for having a natural wet dream and forced him to wash his stained sheets by hand after his nighttime "indiscretion"s. He then added violence to his fantasies, and began knocking down girls, choking them until they were unconscious, then stealing their shoes What is known is that he married, moved to Portland, Oregon and he and his wife had two children. Brudos marriage began to fade after he approached her dressed in women's underwear.
His first victim was a woman in Portland whom he followed home. He waited for her to fall asleep and broke into the house attempting to steal her shoes. She woke up and he choked her until she passed out, raped her, stole her shoes, and fled the scene. On January 26, 1968, Brudos committed his first murder. Linda Slawson an encyclopedias door to door sales women and Brudos convinced her to come down to his workshop. He hit her with a two by four, and then strangled her to death. Brudos then sent his family out for hamburgers so he could play with her corpse. He dressed her up like a doll in clothes he had been collecting and cut off her left foot bearing a high-heeled shoe and put it in the freezer. Brudos found himself another victim, twenty-three-year-old Jan Whitney. He took her home and hung her in his garage, once she died, he anally raped her and spent hours playing dress-up with her corpse, and slicing off one of her breasts as a keepsake. Brudos had claimed two more victims after.
Dayton Leroy Rogers, Serial Killer With Bizarre Foot Fetish, the brutal murderer, sawed off his victim’s feet.
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer also known as the “Milwaukee Cannibal”, was a serial killer and, who committed the rape, murder and dismemberment of seventeen men and boys between 1978 and 1991, with many of his later murders also involving necrophilia (sexual act involving corpses), cannibalism and the permanent preservation of body parts.
We cannot say what is normal and what is not. The Normal is problematic because our ideas about sex have changed. I remember going growing up telling one of my friends that I had oral sex for the first time with my child's father, and as soon as we had an argument she repeated it. Meanwhile, she was having anal sex, back then this was considered not normal, morally. The boundaries of normal shifts rapidly, and continue to shift. So what was abnormal yesterday, like autogynephilia becomes normal today. And what is shunned today may just as easily become normal tomorrow. No matter how unethical your desires, how absurd your fetish, everything is normal. Your desire to dress up as stuffed animals, (which I saw in once on CSI tv show, about a murder in the "plushies" community, fetish where people have sex while dressed up as stuffed animals) your obsession with rubber as long as it's sexually driven it's ok and consented with your partner.
Even willing consent, is not enough to justify maiming or killing a person for sexual satisfaction. Bering showed how most sexual deviancy isn't a choice, but rather is the result of a genetic predisposition over which the individual has no control. The key is to remember that we are creatures of balance. What we present to the world and feel on a daily basis often needs to be countered by it’s polar opposite, which could be presenting it’s face in our sexual fantasies and fetishes. This is not to say that the individual who fantasizes about being sexually dominated in bed is weak and helpless in real life. In fact the opposite is quite true. Our sexual fantasies are often times a representation of something in our life, whether past or present and when we break them down and take a much closer look, we will see that they are a normal reaction to some set of our own life experiences.
In conclusion, there seems to be two basically distinctive thoughts about fetishism. There are people who condone it and people who feel it is strictly a sexual perversion. A publicly published article on the Internet by an anonymous author, whose fetish was bestiality, the desire to engage in sexual relations with animals, best sums up the side of the fetishists, "...this is the pain of being 'different', shunned by society and the self appointed morals police.
Reference
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