Society has recently become obsessed with feet. TikTok is full of people asking for feet pics and OnlyFans users have been making bank by supplying feet pics to meet this demand. This new phenomenon has shocked both the public and psychologists while providing a boom to the foot care industry. The number of feet buffers sold has gone up 500 percent in the last four months, while stocks for the start-up FeetMasksTM have risen for the twentieth day in a row. FeetMasksTM rose to prominence after getting its start through a massive investment of $250,000 by Mark Cuban on Shark Tank. The rise of feet and feet pics in society is rather impressive, but many politicians, entrepreneurs, and academics are beyond confused about the reasoning behind society’s obsession with feet. In this excerpt from my master’s thesis, I explore the sole cause for our fascination with feet.
There is no tiptoeing around it: we as a society are moving faster than ever. We are constantly on our way to our next appointment. We are forced to be fleet-of-foot. It is constant go-go-go: running to yoga, the new hottest sale at American Eagle, and the newest Avengers movies. This has led to undue amounts of societal stress, our Achilles’ heel to our enjoyment of life. Our ability to ground ourselves, to stand our ground, and to take stock of the world around us is f(l)eeting.
This rushed and busy lifestyle is what drives our desire for feet pics. In a recent study by Taylor and Boddy (forthcoming), a whopping 90 percent of participants identified feet as a symbol of connection to the earth and grounding. I hypothesized that society’s collective need for connection and grounding would generally come in the form of symbolism rather than meaningful connection. I also hypothesized that the deep need for connection and grounding has transcended to sexual desire as we move further and further away from it in our busy society. In combination, the deeply sexual desire for stability and the symbolism of the foot is a no-brainer. The rise in the desire for feet pics makes total sense. We have replaced our psychological need for stability with the material form of the human foot. It is much easier to pay five dollars for an immediate sense of stability from a foot pic that remind us of our humanity than to form genuine and caring support systems. These feet pics are ready on demand and are anonymous. It is truly astounding.
My thesis supervisor did not find this argument compelling. In my thesis defence, my thesis supervisor asked if I had done research on the exposure of children to foot-shaped candy. I had not refuted this claim and could not defend this. In a recent study by Jarvis and May (forthcoming), 90 percent of millennials had eaten Big Foot candy. Four out of five of those millennials also admitted to buying feet pics. I was completely shut down by the review committee but pursued Stranded as a reputable academic journal to publish my work. Thank you for reading.