I was born with a foot fetish. Is that a sin?
Question:
Hi,
I am a believer and I read all that you wrote about the subject masturbation. I am glad that your answers are right and correct and according to the Holy Bible, but I have this problem and I could use some help because I don't know what to think anymore. Here is the thing: I have had a foot fetish since I was a child. I was born with it. I didn't choose it or something else; it's just the way it is.
Masturbation was the way to fulfill my pleasures, which includes female feet. I have to mention that I am a normal guy and this particular fetish of mine doesn't cause problems at school or work and doesn't go to any extreme levels. It's just a part of my sexuality that few people know about it.
Now I was wondering if that is a sin (foot fetish) or the fact that I masturbate thinking only of feet excluding any sexual intercourse or pornographic content. I also have to mention that I like the whole woman's body. I am not obsessed with feet. I just happen to feel something special about them.
I've been honest with you in telling this. Please answer this mail. God bless you and your ministry and also your church!
Answer:
First, I would like you to read: What does the Bible say about having a fetish? You used the word "fetish" to describe your desire, but I suspect that after you read the article you are thinking that is too strong of a term to describe your behavior and thoughts. While feet are sexually arousing to you, it isn't that sexual behavior with your wife can only be expressed through her feet. It is for this reason that I think you used too strong of a label for yourself.
I am also going to disagree with you about being born with this fetish. Children are not sexual when they are born. In normal situations, a child is not really aware of sex as a personal matter until after puberty. Now you might have been fascinated with feet for as long as you can remember, but that is not the same as a fetish.
What can happen, and likely happened in your case, is that during puberty when the awareness of sex came into being, your fascination with feet became tied to your sexual desire. At puberty, the brain has new functions to operate, but it has no experience. A human learns by first overgeneralizing what is new, and then pruning off what doesn't fit. Thus, as you learned to express your sexual desire included in that was your fascination with feet.
In some ways, you saw it as a safe outlet. You weren't lusting after any particular person, you weren't staring at the parts of people normally associated with sex, it didn't lead to pornography, so it became a "safe" indulgence.
In many ways, this is a deviation from typical male behavior. Some guys get fascinated by a woman's breasts, others by a woman's bottom. You just picked a slightly more unusual area. So long as you don't let it control your behavior, just consider it one of your quirks. But at the same time, realize that as you indulge in pleasuring yourself while focused on feet, you are reinforcing that tie and it is possible to do so to the point that you aren't interested in intercourse, only in masturbating to the thoughts of feet. That is a fetish and crosses the line into being wrong.
