The Millennium Wombat wrote:
> If the numbers don't appear to be substantial,
> the word fetish is more appropriate. In modern
> psychology it doesn't have a pejorative meaning,
> it just refers to the normal variations you get
> on the spectrum of sexuality.
Yeah, I guess the best non-pejorative description of
"fetish" would be an aspect of the sexual experience
that is peculiarly enabling or stimulating, such that
without that emotionally significant element there is
likely to be aversion or disinterest.
And if we remove the question of "substantial" numbers,
we can use the concept to ask questions about what is
commonly taken for normal: for example, why do so many
"straight" guys display an intense breast fetish?
Or we could even view the concept of "vanilla" in such
terms - as a "normality fetish": in this case, the
"peculiarly emotionally significant" aspect of the
desired sexual situation isn't some object or activity
as such, but that it is whatever sort of sex happens to
be "marked" by internalized cultural convention as "the
kind of sex that Normal-People have".
-dave w