A high heel fetish is simply a sexual attraction towards heels, and let’s start by saying that there’s nothing wrong with that at all. A high heel fetish is not illegal, is far from immoral and is actually about as mainstream or common as so-called “kink” can get.
Which comes as a relief seeing as we all are likely know someone with a “thing” for high heels.
The attraction even has a fancy name: “altocalciphilia” is a term meaning a sexual desire towards, or fetish for high heeled shoes.
But how much do we really know about intense high heel lovers? Why do some people – almost always men – have this attraction to stilettos, and how common is it?
For a topic which is so often mentioned in the media, there is a lot said but little quality research done into altocalciphilia. Let’s take a deep dive into what we do know about fetishes or attractions for high heels.
Is it just about the shoe?
In psychology, the term fetish refers to objects or body parts which cause arousal or through which fantasies are played out. This may be to enhance an experience with your partner or it may be something you indulge in alone.
High heels unquestionably have a foot in both categories (see what we did there?).
Some people with heel fetishes are attracted just to the footwear; others need to see the shoes being worn to get their excitement levels up. Some will have a foot fetish as well as a heel fetish, and some people will only have one or the other. Let’s look at these more closely.
Some heel lovers just love the shoe
Some fetishists may primarily like (just) the high heel itself – the phallic nature of the shaft, the sensual feel of patent black leather perhaps or the tight, orderly look of the stitching. Again, there are sub-categories here and it may depend on the shoe, the shoe-lover or both.
And while so-called “bedroom heels” are often thought of as the holy grail for fetishists, that’s a generalisation: single sole work pumps, clacky mules and just about all heels can be objects of special affection. Preference is highly individual but what matters most to those in this category is the object not its broader context.
Other heel lovers like the shoe when it is being worn
Other people who identify as high heel fetishists are not primarily interested in the heel as a mere object. To them, it comes alive only when placed on a woman’s foot.
These high heel fetishists may like the way heels are used by the wearer to entice, perhaps through shoe dangling when sitting down or the way they raise the buttocks and promote the breasts when standing up.
Is heel-only attraction or partner-based attraction more popular?
There’s very little research about whether solo heel-based fetish activity is preferred to partner-included activities.
One 2017 investigation suggests that fetishised clothing items being worn by another person are more commonly preferred. However the sample sizes of the studies were very small, and the conclusions were not specific to high heels.
And, as we see below, heels aren’t necessarily the most popular clothing fetish, so that investigation could be skewed by other items.
How common is a high heel fetish?
High heels are either by far the most common fetish, or just one of the top few, depending on where you get your data from. It really is difficult to tell and the data is limited, although that hasn’t stopped the headline writers.
2007 analysis
Leading the charge for “heels are the most popular fetish” is an analysis published back in 2007 called Relative prevalence of different fetishes.
The authors (Scorolli, Ghirlanda, Enquist, Zattoni and Jannini) examined 381 fetish-related internet discussion groups on Yahoo! Groups. This was once one of the world’s largest collections of online discussion boards before being shut down for good in 2020.
The authors concluded that the majority of sexual preferences appeared to involve parts or features of the body and objects usually associated with the body. Within those results, they established that feet and toes, as well as objects associated with the feet, such as socks and shoes, received most of the preferences.
In a breakdown of sexual preferences for body parts or features, feet and toes topped the list with a relative frequency of 47%. The next highest category had only 9%.
However when looking at sexual preferences for objects associated with the body, an interesting nuance revealed itself. There, objects worn on legs and buttocks (such as stockings and skirts) topped the relative frequency with 33%. Feetwear (such as heels and sneakers) came second with 32%.
So, while feet came out clearly on top for body part fetishes, heels (or other footwear) did not come out clearly on top (or on top at all) for object fetishes. This suggests that, while there may be some overlap between foot fetishes and shoe fetishes, there are some significant differences too.
2015 discussion
The underlying data for the analysis by Scorolli and others discussed above was downloaded in October 2004, making it nearly two decades old.
However the essential conclusions that feet and shoes are popular fetishes are backed up by a more recent (2015) letter to the editor of the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy by Zack Zdenek Cernovsky, of the Department of Psychiatry, Western University, Ontario, Canada.
In the letter titled Fetishistic Preferences of Clients as Ranked by a Sex Worker, Cernovsky reports on a psychological interview conducted with an intelligent former escort and stripper with approximately two decades in the industry. We might note that the interviewee’s data therefore overlaps with the period of the earlier study despite being published nearly a decade later.
The woman described the relative frequencies of fetishistic requests from her clients. She emphasized that the most frequent request from her clients for an unusual erotic service involved the foot or a shoe fetish. The author stated:
Some of these clients satisfied themselves with fondling, kissing, or caressing her feet. Some instructed her to put on certain type of footwear, such as unusual sandals with numerous straps or shoes with very high heels.
Several of these clients asked her to press her shoe against their face, kick her foot toward them, or press her foot against their body.
So, once again, this shows us that feet and shoes are popular fetishes. However it doesn’t distinguish between them for relative popularity or attempt to explain whether heels are the most popular footwear (perhaps as opposed to the “unusual sandals with numerous straps” which are cited as an example).
2018 analysis and later foot data
A more recent 2018 Pornhub Insites piece (link NSFW) took a look at all apparel related pornography searches on the site and was more circumspect about the popularity of high heels as a fetish.
That analysis had “heels” appearing only in sixth place in terms of popularity for apparel related searches. Panties took the number one spot, followed by yoga pants, lingerie, bikinis and dresses. (Socks closely followed heels in seventh place.)
Admittedly the analysis was not qualified by requiring the word “fetish” but it did indicate that heels are not necessarily the most sought after apparel-related stimulus material.
Whatever its exact popularity, heel fetishism may be growing. Pornhub’s 2021 Year in Review noted (link NSFW) that Gen Z (18-24) visitors were 68% more into feet videos compared to older age groups, although of course that is feet not heels.
And while we can presume some correlation or overlap, the amount is far from certain.
The foot trend does appear to be continuing particularly amongst the younger generations.
The 2022 PH Year in Review (link NSFW) found that the feet category was viewed +38% more than the previous year, which included a +145% increase in popularity among women, and +10% for men. Foot related searches grew by +31% in 2022. This time it was Gen Y visitors (aged 25-34) who viewed feet +58% more than other age groups.
To conclude therefore, a high heel fetish is very common but we’re not completely sure exactly how common. And we can’t distinguish it completely from a foot fetish although we do know that they are not the same thing and produce different data.
Is a high heel fetish harmful?
Whatever the numbers, there is no evidence that a fetish for heels is harmful, providing – like all sexual activity – it is conducted consensually and lawfully.
It’s also not correct to say that those with a fetish need the particular object in order to achieve climax, enjoyment or even arousal. These harmful myths were seemingly debunked in a 2017 paper by Giselle Rees and Justin R. Garcia called All I need is shoe: an investigation into the obligatory aspect of sexual object fetishism.
This paper reported the results of two studies, with relatively small sample sizes (63 and 195 respectively). In the first study, the majority of participants reported enjoying sexual activity without the fetishised object while preferring activities involving their fetish.
In the second study, the majority of participants reported having both satisfying fetish and satisfying non-fetish sexual activities, and that their fetish was not required for sexual arousal. The fetish sex was rated as more satisfying, as might be expected.
While these are small studies, they do tend to indicate that involving a fetish might improve sexual activities for the fetishist, it is not a “deal breaker”. It might be thought more as a cherry on the top, which is again contrary to some popular thought.
These are important conclusions because they remove the stigma associated with a fetish as taking sexual activities outside “normal” boundaries in order to achieve satisfaction. That simply doesn’t seem true.
Where does a high heel fetish come from?
The origin of high heel fetishes is yet another topic on which there really is little satisfactory explanation. There are several theories, but no real evidence of why people have high heel fetishes.
Freud linked the fetish to a childhood spent around a mother’s feet, a theory for which there was no evidence whatsoever and no heel fetishist amongst millions has ever thought even vaguely plausible. After all, if the theory were correct it would apply to all forms of footwear (and mothers do not often wear heels around their children). As we have seen, heels and feet are different fetishes even if overlapping.
Freud also though that feet were fetishised because they resemble penises. As feet no more resemble penises than Freud resembles a cabbage, this can also be discounted.
Respected podiatrist / podologist Cameron Kippen meanwhile theorises that subconsciously a love of heels may relate to a primal instinct to identify lame prey.
“Throughout recorded history limping has been seen both as a physical weakness as well as a sexually attractive impediment,” he states. “Wearing high heeled shoes can accentuate the limping characteristics in a very tantalising way…”
If that is correct, it doesn’t really explain an attraction simply to the shoes as opposed to the way they are worn. And it is difficult to find a fetishist who would agree that it is “limping characteristics” that attract them to heels. Of course, like any theory it can’t be yet ruled out.
Finally, neurologist Vilayanur S Ramachandran has claimed that cross-firing in the human brain is the reason for foot fetishes. His theory is that the feet and genitals occupy adjacent areas of the somatosensory cortex and could therefore interchange.
That theory doesn’t provide any explanation for high heel fetishism, or any other fetishism either. So it is hardly convincing at this point.
In the end, the words of Dr Mark Griffiths from Nottingham Trent University sum up the current position most accurately. “Most of the academic writing I have read on this topic is anecdotal at best,” says Dr Griffiths.
“There is much speculating and theorizing but little data,” he continues. “However, there is no doubt that high heel fetishism exists and that of all fetishes it appears to be one of the most common.”
Conclusions
Given that sexual preferences come in a broad range of both areas and strengths, we probably shouldn’t be surprised that high heels (and many other objects) are the subject of a fetish or of the different sub-genres within the fetish.
After all, there are fetishists who get aroused from topics as diverse as fingernails, sitting on cakes to watching other women have their hair cut.
In this respect heel fetishism is just another topic that floats some people’s boats and not others but what is perhaps surprising is just how common and varied a high heel fetish actually is.