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Fetishism

I've heard of it but exactly what is it? Do I have one? Does that make me a deviant?

Thankfully, yes. Some people don't like the sound of this word, but I always think it is important to use the proper terminology when discussing any subject as complex as sex. It simply means that it deviates from a statistical norm. So for the purposes of quantifying it as being outside statistically normal reported behaviour, it is correctly called deviant. Fetishes are probably more common than many people realize, but still not a mainstream sexual agenda item.

A fetish is any atypical stimulus, which induces sexual arousal in an individual. There. Is that so scary? Atypical stimuli might include objects, such as people's feet, stockings, shoes, and leather garments as well as situations like wearing masks or diapers, smoking, getting tied up or being spanked. The potential for variety of fetishes is as limitless as the imagination. If it turns you on, and it's not the same stuff that turns most other people on, then it probably qualifies as a fetish.

It is remarkable however that some of the stranger fetishes have such large followings. Please believe me dear reader when I tell you that I am not one to judge another person for their sexual proclivities, but I find it quite strange indeed that a fetish around smoking women seems to be so prevalent within the otherwise hyper-original fetish community. Now I've enjoyed the sight of a sexy woman or two blowing smoke rings across the bar in my direction before, but it certainly didn't give me an erection. And yet, as long as they're consenting adults, using protection, and in a non-public area with separate ventilation…why not I say?

The movie Crash, which explores a sexual fetish around automobile collisions, won Canadian director David Cronenberg a special jury prize for originality, creativity, and audacity at the Cannes film Festival in 1996. It remains a controversial movie, often provoking fear and much heated debate about its relevance to actual people and genuine sexual response. And yet, it is based on sound scientific evidence, which points to a direct correlation between danger and sexual arousal - something that many people prefer not to acknowledge.

Granted, this is carried to an extremely distilled essence in the movie Crash, as so often art is, but its premise derives from the very same human impulse that makes people slow down and gawk at traffic accidents, attracts young girls to leather-clad kamikaze kids on fast motorcycles, and causes mini baby-booms after air raids, as was recorded after the Battle Of Britain. The act of confronting our human mortality has a profoundly simulating, even erotic effect on many of us.

So, whether or not we are fetishists, it is always useful to try to understand others' points of reference. In so doing we often learn something new and valuable about ourselves. Think of the recent explosion of interest in tattooing and body piecing. Once considered a deviant behaviour, associated with biker gangs, carnies, freaks and ex-cons, this is no longer the case. It has become a mainstream obsession, with tidy, well-decorated piercing and tattoo parlours popping up in nice suburban shopping malls all over. While not in itself a fetish unless it elicits a sexual response, it is never the less a good conduit from the realm of normalcy into the world of the fetishist.

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