The papers now and then tell the story of some man who was caught in the act of clipping a little girl's braid of hair. That man is what is called technically a hair fetishist. Hair is his fetish, that is the part of a woman's body which attracts him more powerfully than any other part. A search of the living quarters of that variety of "delinquents" generally reveals that they are in the habit of collecting women's tresses acquired in that fashion. The tresses are almost always of the same color. The Hair Fetishist whose unlawful activities bring him sooner or later into the clutches of the police is a neurotic who presents to an exaggerated, abnormal extent, a trait we find in all normal human beings.
Every one of us is especially attracted by some part of the human body. The young man who raves over his sweetheart's hair, the young woman who blissfully runs her fingers thru her lover's hair are[Pg 18] also hair fetishists. But their craving is not strong enough to lead them into committing unlawful, perverse, socially inacceptable acts.
Another widely spread type of abnormal fetishist described by novelists and psychiatrists, but which very seldom gains newspaper notoriety, is the foot and shoe fetishist, who buys or steals all sorts of shoes. He too is merely the exaggeration of the man who is delighted by the sight of a Cinderella foot or a slim ankle.
With hair and shoe fetishists, the fetish is more than a mere attraction; it is generally a powerful sexual stimulant. Such fetishists experience, while kissing or caressing their fetish, sexual gratification of the autoerotic or of the involuntary type.
Everybody a Fetishist. There are hundreds of varieties of fetishism, normal or abnormal. There is no person living who is not more or less subject to the compulsive attraction of some fetish. There is in every man or every woman something which catches the onlooker's eye first and retains his attention longest.
This varies with every human being. Ask ten men to describe one pretty woman. Every one of them will probably head the list of physical qualities he has observed in her with a different fetish.[Pg 19] One will describe her as a blonde with a beautiful skin, rather tall and well shaped; another will state that she is a well-shaped woman, rather tall and with blonde hair; another will characterise her as a tall woman with an abundance of blonde hair, etc. I knew a man, in no way abnormal, who could not describe a pretty woman, regardless of whatever her build was, without making a gesture of the hand outlining ample breast curves.
Most Common Fetishes. Women's hair, throat, neck, shoulders, arms and breasts seem to be the most frequently mentioned fetishes. Fashion and the law recognise that fact. Whenever women plan to make a physical appeal to men or women, they dress their hair with special care and they wear low neck gowns, thereby exhibiting those various fetishes.
It will be noticed that the parts of the body constituting the most widely appreciated fetishes are those with which the nursing child comes in most intimate and continuous contact.
To the child, they mean safety, comfort, caresses, food. The color of skin or hair, the shape of neck, head and shoulders on which his glances rest while nursing or while being carried about by the mother, are the only ones which will appear[Pg 20] "natural" and safe, hence beautiful, to him in after life.
The breasts from which he derives a perfect food, at the right temperature, which flows easily into his stomach and is assimilated without effort, the breasts, whose texture and elasticity make them pleasant to lean upon while nursing, may eventually become to his simple mind the most valuable part of the female's body.
The Breast and the Bottle. My observations on several hundred men fed at the breast or on the bottle in infancy, have revealed to me that practically all the men nursed by a woman were greatly attracted to women with well developed breasts.
The majority of men nursed on the bottle, on the other hand, preferred thin, boyish looking girls, some of them even expressing a distinct repugnance for rather buxom women.
It may be stated that of the few who did not confirm that rule there were several more or less neurotic individuals, whom an unconscious fear of incest (see Chapter V) had conditioned to fear the very type of women by whom they had been nursed.
Arms and hands, which to the nursling mean protection, service, caresses, transportation, etc., derive therefrom their great attraction as fetishes.
[Pg 21]
Feminine Fetishes. I have thus far mentioned almost exclusively fetishes from the female body. There are several reasons why feminine fetishes are far more important to both men and women than masculine fetishes. Children of both sexes are exposed to the influence of the mother's fetishes more intimately, more constantly and more "profitably" (nursing), than they are to the influence of the father's fetishes.
Hence masculine fetishes are fewer and less numerous. Woman is less of a fetishist than man. The most frequently mentioned masculine fetishes are the bodily attributes characteristic of strength, and which, hence, would afford most protection to the infant and the female.
No perverse fetishism is observed in women, no abnormal craving driving women into securing unlawfully men's hair or clothing, etc.
Some writers consider transvestite women, women who enjoy masquerading in men's clothes, as clothing fetishists, but such cases are extremely rare and can be accounted for in other ways.
Physiological Necessities. There is another reason, a physiological reason, for the great importance which men and women attach to the feminine fetishes. More sexual excitement and a greater[Pg 22] muscular tension are necessary in the male than in the female at the time of the sexual union. The female, being physiologically submissive, can wait for her desire to grow under the influence of the male's caresses. The male, on the contrary, has to be aggressive and cannot fulfill his biological part unless his desire has been aroused by other sensations than that of the sexual union.
Hence the greater expenditure of time and effort on the part of the female to make herself attractive to the male. Hence also the long drawn courtship of flirtation thru which the female of every animal species endeavors to bring the male to the highest possible point of sexual excitement before surrendering herself to him.
Foot and Shoe Fetishism is more complicated. The mother's feet are the part of her body which the infant, crawling on the floor or attempting to walk, beholds most frequently and at the closest range.
That variety of fetish, however, should not be as strong as other fetishes more directly related to the child's nutrition, comfort and safety. When shoe fetishism become compulsive, it is a neurosis due to the repression of some erotic desire aroused in child[Pg 23]hood by some striking incident. One case cited by Freud, illustrates that process.
"A man to whom the various sex attractions of woman now mean nothing, who in fact, can only be aroused sexually by the sight of a shoe on a foot of a certain form, is able to recall an experience he had in his sixth year and which proved decisive for the fixation of his libido. One day he sat on a stool beside his governess. She was a shriveled old maid who, that day, on account of some accident, had put a velvet slipper on her foot and stretched it out on a foot stool.
"After a diffident attempt at normal sexual activity, undertaken at the time of his puberty, a thin, sinewy foot like that of his governess, had become the sole object of his desires. The man was carried away irresistibly if other features, reminiscent of his governess, appeared in conjunction with the foot. Through this fixation, the man did not become neurotic but perverse, a foot fetishist, as we say."
I wish to call the reader's attention to the expression "after a diffident attempt at normal sexual expression." It indicates a feeling of inferiority, likely to cause failure and also increased by failure which is always in evidence in every neurotic and[Pg 24] which drives him toward easier goals, along the line of least effort.
Some of the Freudians have suggested that foot fetishism is due to the repression of an early craving for the unpleasant odors emitted by perspiring feet. As against such a far-fetched explanation, I would offer the fact that foot and shoe are always associated in the unconscious of neurotic patients with the male and female genitals, respectively.
We find the association of shoe and genitals clearly indicated in the old custom of throwing shoes and rice at departing newlyweds (rice symbolising the fertilising seed).
Odors, sounds, tactile sensations, etc., may also be powerful fetishes or antifetishes, according to the impression they may have made on the nursling. This will be discussed in more detail in the Chapter entitled "The Senses in Love."
Fetishes may be of a non-Physical Kind. A profession may be a fetish, and so can a mental attitude, in short, anything which in childhood may have been considered as a source of safety, comfort, egotistical gratification, etc.
Age itself, is at times a fetish. Gerontophilia is a neurosis, the victims of which are only attracted to very old men or women, safety, comfort and food[Pg 25] having been assured them probably by a grandfather or grandmother to whom they clung for neurotic reasons.
Many Fetishes are Purely Symbolical. Some women fall in love with a uniform because that type of garment symbolises to them physical strength, virility, courage, etc.
A uniform fetishist who consulted me during the war had given herself to half a dozen officers who appeared to her irresistible until they undressed or donned civilian clothes. After which she felt indifferent to them and suffered remorse.
Antifetishes, parts of the body or their symbols which repel us in persons of the opposite sex, can be due either to unpleasant experiences of childhood connected with such parts of the body or to a neurotic fear of incest. A neurotic's resistance to a mother fixation may be so strong that in his (unconscious) fear of committing incest, he shuns everything which in any woman reminds him of his mother.
A man whose violent mother and sister fixation had kept him till forty-five away from all women and made him homosexual, felt extremely uneasy and slightly ashamed in the presence of tall blonde women, the mother and sister type. While he never[Pg 26] enjoyed greatly the company of any woman, he felt more at ease with small brunettes.
In his case, blonde hair and a high stature had become strong antifetishes.
The Quest of the Fetish means then, in last analysis, the quest of safety. If fetishes are so closely linked with sexuality, it is mainly because a feeling of safety is one of the necessary conditions for sexual potency in the male and the female alike.
As soon as fear dominates, the pelvic regions are starved of blood, for the blood is then needed in other parts of the body, head and limbs, for fight or flight. Sexual impotence is the result. This is probably why in primitive races we often find the erect phallus used as a symbol of safety, as a primitive "fetish" vouchsafing imaginary safety and confidence.
This throws an interesting sidelight upon the real meaning of morbid fetishism. As I said in one of the preceding paragraphs, every neurotic feels inferior and seeks safety. The hair fetishist, for instance, is inferior in some respect or considers himself inferior, which is about the same and has the same consequences, as far as ultimate mental or physical results are concerned.
The normal hair fetishist seeks a woman whose[Pg 27] hair will symbolise to him the safety he enjoyed close to his mother's hair. The abnormal fetishist will crave the possession of hair which alone will place him in turn in possession of safety, a condition in which his sexual cravings will be easily satisfied. Not feeling capable of conquering a woman, however, he will cut off some one's tresses, which will symbolise to him woman, and the safety enjoyed in woman's (his mother's) arms. In that fashion, he also gratifies his craving for the line of least effort. Unwilling to face the social, economic, biological responsibilities that go with the possession of a woman, he seeks in the fetish which he steals, an easy, selfish, unsocial form of gratification. That gratification is also a regression, for it leads him back to the autoerotic practices of childhood.
Attraction or Obsession. In the normal man, then, the fetish is an attraction, influencing his choice of a mate. In the abnormal man it becomes an obsession, the fetish at times becoming infinitely more important than the part of the body it suggests, at times causing the elimination of the sexual mate which it replaces entirely.
In the normal man, the fetish, being the bearer of pleasant memories from childhood days, facilitates one's adaption to a life partner. The abnormal in[Pg 28]dividual, unwilling to part with his childhood ways, which were easier and safer, either demands that the life partner be the absolute image of the person from whom he acquired his fetishes or prefers one safe fetish to any life partner.
In the next chapter we shall see how mental and physical, real and symbolic fetishes are forced upon us by the various developments of the family romance which is always accompanied by a more or less marked family feud.