Psychology Today: Get Kinky With It
The Victorian Era also spawned another fetish: spanking.

The 10 Weirdest Sexual Fetishes
By: Jen Kim
Date: 11/10/2009

The mere mention of the word "fetish" usually makes people squirm and feel really uncomfortable--like they just wet their pants. It's not pleasant, which is why I only feel safe discussing this taboo topic behind a protective 15-inch screen. But you know what? Fetishism isn't hiding anymore.

Gary Brooks writes in The Centerfold Syndrome (1995): "The difference between the sexual fetishist and the mainstream American man may not be as extreme as we have wanted to think. American boys, adolescents, and men are being taught, classically conditioned if you will, to become sexually obsessed with constant, intense, sexually arousing fantasies, and to make their sexual arousal more dependent upon use of sexualized images of nonliving objects than on real women with whom they are in relationships." He cites a study in which a whopping 88 percent of Stanford MBA students "read" the Victoria's Secret Lingerie catalog. Oddly, Playboy, a magazine devoted to the bare physique, also publishes a special lingerie addition. Hmmmm.
In the past 15 years, what was once a taboo fetish (lingerie) has become a ho-hum obvious fabric of the American male psyche. Same goes for Baywatch (specifically a certain blond bombshell's mammaries) popularizing and celebrating the "giant boob" fetish that has enlarged the lucrative plastic surgery industry.

Since both these fetishes have gained mainstream acceptance, they are hardly stigmatized. Today, they are considered normal, perhaps, even healthy. Why? Simply, because enough of us admit to it. Back in the Victorian Era--remembered fondly for its extreme sexual repression--men got turned on by the sight of bare ankles. Sounds weird now, but then, that was the trend. Imagine how well Birkenstocks would have done back then! The Victorian Era also spawned another fetish: spanking. Myriad engravings, photos, and fantasy novellas depicting spanking and flagellation were circulated secretly among the conservative Victorians. I wonder if Lady Bumtickler's Revels ever became a best seller. So who else likes getting spanked? Apparently lots. Spanking magazines were hits in the 1980s. They featured spank fiction and photos that catered to both man-spank-woman and woman-spank-man audiences.

A google search reveals that there are about 2,740,000 websites relevant to "spanking fetishes." Still, it's considered abnormal or strange. So, I can't help but think: Are fetishes bad? Not necessarily. Dr. Daniel Harrop says, "There is nothing particularly wrong with fetishes, as long as no one is being hurt." According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), it is only when a person is experiencing "fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors [which] cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational functioning," that he should seek help. One technique in cognitive therapy aims to change the patient's behavior through aversive conditioning (exposing patient to a displeasing stimulus once he is aroused by fetish). In "thought stop," the therapist tells the patient to think of the fetish, and then immediately shouts, "Stop!" so the patient will be irritated and lose his focus. Eventually, the patient learns to interrupt these undesired thoughts using the same technique. Psychoanalysis studies the patients' traumatic unconscious experience, which is the root cause of the fetish. Typically, dream analysis, talk therapy, and play therapy are common methods of psychoanalysis.

Take a look at the next generation of fetishes. Will they one day join the ranks of the once stigmatized, but now widely accepted foot fetish? 10 Weirdest Sexual Fetishes

Introducing an entirely new class of weird fetishes:

Physical/Corporal Punishment of Children in Schools