Oh my. So many issues to consider here. My wife Melinda and I have been involved together in kinky and fetish activity as a couple since 1991. Before that we each had begun exploring all that stuff in the early 1980’s. When we met we found that we had a lot of mutual interests, such as BDSM, bondage, spanking, tattoo art, and yes, feet.
The tickling would come a bit later, but in combination and relative to some of our other “things”. I have always been an SM “Top” (or “Dom”). When we met, M manifested her ideals and roles as only an SM bottom (or “submissive”). However, after a few years she developed some of her own Dominant side as well, with others. At home and in our own relationship we maintained the same roles we had always had. Thus she only bottoms/subs/”lees” to me and select other Ler’s.
With our foot interest it was a bit different. We both enjoyed a bunch of footsie play. We didn’t see top or bottom roles in our foot play time, at least with each other. I thoroughly enjoy shrimping toes, and kissing feet of my missus, and a small handful of very close lady friends. And they seem to enjoy it pretty much as well. Granted ladies who’s feet are sensitive and are already attuned to foot play find a more natural and immediate enjoyment of that than those who are less foot oriented.
M and I participated in the first ever “Foot Fetish” panel that the Black Rose Society (Washington, DC’s BDSM support organization) put on in autumn 1994. Following that we presented at The Eulenspiegel Society’s 25th anniversary convention (“TES25”) in 1996, and the following year, a similar DC based convention at “BR10”. We have been always aware, that we are in a –very- small minority of foot fans. While nearly all male foot fans, who do shrimp toes and kiss female feet identify themselves as submissive; we guess the ratio may be as high as 90 to 98 percent of male foot fans who are primarily sub.
With that high of a prevalence, they frequently (and rather mistakenly imho) think and post “as if” all guys are like that, as if there is a one hundred percent co-relationship between foot “worship” and submissiveness to Dominant women.
So much so that I have to state in our presentations that from my p.o.v. that I don’t view the footsie play that I do with ladies as “foot worship” at all, but instead foot ‘admiration’. I hasten to add, as does my wife, that we feel foot play can be viewed as virtually non-fetishistic between loving couples, and can easily be regarded as ‘vanilla’ play to be enjoyed by any folks who are attuned to sensory mutual love-play. A friend of ours (a former Ms Ohio Leather) labeled what we used to do as “toe 69”.
I don’t view my kissing feet and toes as ‘degrading’ at all. To me it is merely a loving and sensual act that I can share with my wife and some few ladies who are close friends of M and I.
I do know that many loving and sensual activity is attached to very personal, individual, primal, and ‘subjective’ emotions. Thus a person’s individual thoughts on how they feel about performing certain acts are involved with and connected to the emotions they bring with them about the activity itself.
Unfortunately since such a huge majority of male foot fans view foot kissing as the virtually exclusive domain of the submissive, they have skewed the public’s viewpoint such that it is generally not regarded as something that many (or any) male dominant’s would do with their lover or play partner.
We must realize, ---PARTICULARLY--- those of us in the world with admittedly, more special and extraordinary (“kinky and fetishistic”) ways of expressing our sensuality with each other, that there are myriads of varieties of different ways of such expression. There may be predominant forms and styles, but “nothing” absolutely nothing is only done one way or for one reason, or emotion.
Another reason that the notion of guys kissing women’s feet is the exclusive domain of submissives is that there are very large amounts of money to be made by Female Dominatrices from guys who are willing to pay for the hope of kissing Dommes’ feet. Even though my wife did some Pro Domme work a couple of years ago (and made quite a bit of money at it per session), she would not allow her customers to do foot kissing.
We feel that it’s a rather intimate act ourselves, thus why we usually reserve it for ourselves and only a few very close friends.
But I personally feel that there is nothing degrading in any way to my sharing that intimacy with someone close to me. Two of my closest male friends are also foot fetishists. One is a dominant and the other a submissive, and both (just as I myself) enjoy kissing the peds of their ladies, and they both simply enjoy the pure sensuality of the act itself.
It’s been at least 3 or 4 years since the last time M and I trotted out our footsie presentation. I think we both just got tired of attempting to present some of the things we find enjoyable about foot fun and fetish, and to try to present that our views are only some of many that are available to foot fans. But when the larger community is not really interested in hearing us, we’re kinda just wasting our time, and we slip back into our silent observation modes.
Spenser