Can a distressing experience or trauma have caused a foot or shoe fetish?

01 · Sexuality

Introduction

To the best of my knowledge, there is no evidence of such a connection. Research cannot reliably trace the development of a fetish in an individual person back to a particular experience, whether pleasant or distressing. A fetish is also not an indication that something bad has happened to you. If an earlier experience is troubling you, it still deserves attention, independently of your fetish.

02 · Sexuality

Why the question seems so plausible

Anyone with a fetish eventually looks for the why. And whenever there is something unusual, it is easy to suspect a wound behind it. This way of thinking has a long tradition. Sigmund Freud, for example, understood fetishism as protection from a deep fear rooted in early childhood. Today, this model is regarded as greatly oversimplified, but it continues to influence many minds.

As early as 1887, the French psychologist Alfred Binet assumed that a detail in an emotionally charged situation could leave a deep imprint. But emotionally charged does not mean traumatic. It can just as easily be excitement, curiosity, or a pleasant feeling.

03 · Sexuality

What the research says

A systematic review from 2025 examined 47 theories on the origins of unusual sexual interests. The researchers judged only seven of them to be well-founded, and these explain their development more through an interplay of several processes than through a single cause. According to current knowledge, it is not possible to reliably reconstruct exactly how a particular fetish developed in a particular person.

An interesting finding comes from an older survey of 262 men with a foot fetish from an organization for gay and bisexual men. Many of them associated their preference with early experiences, and they had experienced those experiences predominantly positively. The group was very specific, and no cause can be inferred from it. However, the study does not support the image of a fetish as the consequence of an injury.

04 · Sexuality

My own story

For me, too, the earliest memories that I now associate with my fetish go back a long way. They were not distressing. At the time, I simply found certain situations pleasant without knowing why, and at that point they had nothing to do with sexuality. To this day, I do not know whether those moments really were the beginning.

05 · Sexuality

Caution when looking for a single cause

Memories are always formed in hindsight. Anyone looking for a trigger today tells themselves their story from their present-day perspective, and in doing so some scenes acquire a meaning that they may not have had at the time. This is especially true when you are looking with a fixed expectation.

That is why I would not advise anyone to dig for trauma in their own past merely to explain a fetish. It can create more unease than clarity.

Some people even fear that their fetish might be a sign of a repressed experience that they do not remember. I know of no evidence that a foot or shoe fetish indicates something like that. Anyone who goes to a professional with such a suspicion should make sure that the professional proceeds carefully and does not offer premature interpretations.

06 · Sexuality

If there was a distressing experience

It is different if you have actually experienced something distressing and it still troubles you today. Then that experience deserves attention, regardless of whether it has anything to do with your fetish or not. Sometimes memories and fantasies are so intertwined that it is difficult to disentangle them on your own. A professional with experience in trauma therapy can help you sort this out, at your own pace and without premature interpretations.

If you have experienced sexual violence or abuse and would like to talk about it, in Germany you can reach the Hilfetelefon Sexueller Missbrauch free of charge and anonymously on 0800 22 55 530.

07 · Sexuality

What really matters

We may never fully understand the why of a fetish. I find the what and the how more important. What belongs to your sexuality, and how do you deal with it well? A fetish says nothing about whether something went wrong in your past. It only says something about how your arousal works today.