The topic is Sexual Fetishism and Commodity Fetishism with regard to luxury footwear in the 21st Century. This topic has been influenced heavily by the TV series and movie ‘Sex and the City’, the book series and movie that is ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ and most recently the ‘Pleasure and Pain’ footwear exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The relationship between footwear and fetishism is rather complex, the shoe itself can be included in orthodox sexual fetishism and it also fits in within commodity fetishism. Many theorists discuss footwear in fashion with sexual fetishism whilst confusing this with erotisicm. This is usually because many fashion campaigns use a stiletto heel to elongate the body and legs providing the consumer …show more content…
Human beings transform other ‘human beings into something tangibly real’, this means that the human is transmogrified into a commodity thus meeting Karl Marx’s theory of surplus labour. The second principle is “Fetishism transforms ambiguity and uncertainty into something knowable and certain and in doing so snuffs out any sparks of creativity that might ignite the fires of rebellion.” (Kaplan, 2006) The fetish object is a tangible thing, it provides reassurance as the person can see and hold the object which in turn combats the fear of entering unknown territory. The third principle is “Fetishism brings certain details into the foreground of experience in order to mask and disguise other features that are thus cast into the shadows and margins and background.” (Kaplan, …show more content…
Occasionally people explore particularly perverse fetishes but the most discussed and accessible fetish is the tangible products such as underwear, whips and stilettos. As mentioned above, fetishes can begin from a very young age. Like a child being nurtured and carrying their teddy bear around with them, to growing older and not requiring that sense of security as they develop; fetishism is much the same. The tangible object is seen as their security blanket as they step into the daunting activity that is