Do I Have a Foot Fetish?

My obsessive-compulsive mind jumps from conclusion to conclusion (like the time I thought I had a crabs infestation just because I was itching). So, it's no surprise that my habit of looking at girls' toes since the summer has arrived has made me nervous. Do I have a foot fetish?

All my life I've grown up hating feet. The first feet I was exposed to were my family's feet. My mom's side of the family has this terrible gene that produces foot odor. My little sister got the gene—her old boyfriend used to make her wash her feet when she went to his apartment. Beyond the smell of feet, I've grown up thinking they feet were generally disgusting to be around. I did not want them in my vicinity. On long family trips my older sister would hang her foot over the seat and attack me with it. I had nowhere to go—trapped in the back. My dad has this bizarre ability to pinch with his toes and he used to attack us with his toe pincers when we were little.

So I've had a traumatic upbringing when it comes to feet. And, up until this summer, I never noticed them. All I knew was that if I was going to date a girl for a long time, she didn't have to have cute feet—they just had to not be disgusting feet.

But now I'm noticing cute toes versus bad-looking toes. I notice shape, and complexion on feet. And I definitely notice a cute pedicure. I asked my friend if she got a pedicure for herself or for guys—she said she gets them to be pampered and feel pretty. Maybe it's a little bit of both: you want to feel pretty and appear pretty to guys? We definitely notice a hot color, and how your toes look in flip-flops.

Man it sounds like I have a foot fetish. Let's define (with the help of Wikipedia) fetish and see if I do have one:

Foot fetishism, foot partialism, foot worship, or podophilia is a pronounced sexual interest in feet. It is the most common form of sexual preference for otherwise non-sexual objects or body parts.

OK, so I don't think I'm that bad. My interest in cute toes is not pronounced. It's not a requirement for attraction. I just happen to be noticing cute toes because it's summer...I think. I definitely don't feel aroused when I see cute toes, I just say to myself:

That girl's got cute toes/feet.

I have a very attractive friend who I've noticed her only downfall is that she does not have cute toes. She has noticed it herself, mentioning that she is unhappy that her toes look like squares.

It's just natural for us to notice different things about our own/each other's bodies. I don't fantasize about kissing feet or having them touch me at all. My friends notice that I seem to go for girls with unique noses. But noses don't turn me on, and I don't seek them out. They are just part of the whole package. Maybe this is what cute feet are: part of the whole package.

I don't think I have any fetishes. A fetish involves a certain body part or even an inanimate object.

The thing that turns me on the most is when a girl is turned on with me—when I can hear her breathing, or sense that she's enjoying being close to me. I get turned on in response to that—and hopefully she responds the same way to me.

But there are people out there with fetishes. Do you have any fetishes, or did you ever date men with fetishes? What are your thoughts on fetishes: harmless and unique qualities in a lover...or do you think they are weird? Do you think that what I've described in my behavior would qualify as a foot fetish? I hope not because I don't think I want to have one.