How common are foot fetishes?
It's hard to say exactly how common foot fetishes are, Lehmiller says. (According to
Psychology Today, they're among the most common sexual fetishes.)
"The best source I can cite would be the data I collected for my book
Tell Me What You Want," Lehmiller says. "I found that 14% of my participants reported having had a sexual fantasy before in which feet or toes played a prominent role."
"It’s important to note that just because someone has fantasized about feet before doesn’t necessarily mean that they have a fetish for feet—just that they’ve been turned on by the idea of feet at least once," he adds. "So while about 1 in 7 people reported having had a foot fantasy before, the number who have a true fetish for feet, in the sense of being primarily or only attracted to feet, is likely much smaller than that."
Here's the breakdown of how many people had fantasized about feet before, broken down into different groups:
- 5% of heterosexual women
- 18% of heterosexual men
- 11% of lesbian and bisexual women
- 21% of gay and bisexual men.
"So men and persons who identify as anything other than heterosexual are more likely to have fantasized about feet," Lehmiller says.