An introduction to sexual fetishism, with emphasis on wool fetishism
By Harold Lamb, Ph.D.
Ramsey Institute of Sexual BehaviourThis article has been especially adapted
to the supporters of Shagging Sheep.
Introduction
Fetish, as a medical and sex term, was coined by Alfred Binet, a renowned French psychologist, in 1888. The word originates from the Portuguese word fetico, which means "charmed" or "obsessive fascination". Binet felt that everyone in some way was a fetishist to different degrees (Tussi, 1977). By 1994, fetishism had experienced many changes as a diagnosis, ranging from "perverse lunatic" to "broad-minded". In the DSM-IV, a few criteria were set. First, fetishism involves the use of non-living objects, e.g. particular kinds of materials and fabrics. Second, the fetishist usually holds, rubs, or smells the fetish object while masturbating (or asks the partner to wear the object during sexual encounters). Hence, a typical wool fetishist shows a strong obsession for thick sweathers or socks, say (Babel, et al, 1981).
Acquisition
In their 1980 work, Christian Gross and Wynton Willie give one theory as to how a fetish might emerge. They argue that learning has a large part to play in the development of fetishes. To further qualify their explanation, they state that genetics might have a role to play, in the fact that the genes can give a person the characteristics needed to be a fetishist, but only learning can teach the person how to use those characteristics to become a fetishist. As an example of this statement they point to a magazine article that questions the existence of vinyl fetishist before vinyl was invented, and the answer the magazine provides is that they would have been fetishist for something else. This gives some support to the popular assumption that wool fetishism was much more common earlier, since fetishism of today is subject to greater variation due to the numerous types of modern materials and objects.
One might ask what makes a particular kind of object or material a fetish in each case. So far, statistics indicate that a general predisposition for fetishism could be directed towards any everyday object which is easily available. It is evident, however, that there should, in general, be some kind of positive feeling associated with the object before the fetishism is developed. This line of reasoning may readily explain why a cold climate seems to play such a major role in directing fetishism towards woolen objects. As for the social background and environment in early childhood, this is also consistent with the fact that wool fetishism is more common in rural areas, especially in typical sheep districts.
Gender-specific mechanisms
There is another puzzle concerning the learning of fetishism. If fetishism is a matter of learning, why do men learn fetish behavior more easily than women do? One probable reason is visual focus. Studies involving perception have shown that men are more sensitive to visual stimuli than women. This distinction does of cause apply to any kind of fetishism. Considering the more spesific case of wool fetishism one should also take into account the fact that women are more sensitive to touch than men. Hence, since wool has a tendency to itch, this may explain why wool fetishism is an even more male-spesific phenomenon than any other kind of fetishism.
A second reason more men than women might be predisposed to fetishism has to do with the mechanism of biofeedback. Biofeedback is the summing up of all the communication, small and large, that the body sends back to the brain as to what it is carrying out and what it experiencing. Men have one of the best biofeedback amplifiers for information about sexually stimulatation, namely their penises. This becomes especially important when considering how coarse fabrics might be rubbed against the genitalia. Women do not have an exact part of the body that gives such an immediate reaction to sexual stimulation. This makes woman’s sexual arousal points more diffuse, and hence physical associations less definite and less noticeable.
Learning fetishism
Arousal is another important concept in the process of learning a fetish. Gross and Willie state that as far as the learning process is involved the arousal, which occurs as a consequence of environmental stimuli, need not be directly sexual at all. It might just as well be any kind of excitement, thrill, slight fear, or even some kinds of confusion and conflict of emotions. If the body has trouble determining one type of arousal from another, almost any strong emotion can be translated in the mind, given the proper conditions, into sexual arousal. This can be seen by experiments conducted by Steven Bahlow, in which the effects of adrenaline could be described as fear, anger, or, in one specific case, a vague feeling of being naked and smacked in the head with a pair of dirty silk panties.
With this information, a model can now be formed. A young child experiencing arousal (which could be occurring accidentally or because of some emotional climactic moment) is presented with a fetish-material-to-be, an old rug or a pair of woollen gloves, say. A male child becomes more easily aware of the stimulus than the female child and links it to the increased arousal state, and not necessarily connected by sexual connotations, it is registered in the genital area. When the same material is found again, the child remembers the previous pairing.
If the child is forming conventional scripts along with fetishistic scripts, why do the fetishistic scripts linger while the conventional scripts recede? In his youth, a child might be given messages from his parents, members of his society, or anyone with any authority on his life, telling him that conventional objects for his genital feelings are not to be touched or have any contact with because they are bad, dirty, naughty, disgusting, etc. (McInquire, Cartman, Horn, 1965). Because he is more easily conditioned and more emotional, he will listen to this message, take it seriously, and believe it more easily. If he makes an effort to defy the message, he will be over-powered by anxiety and guilt paired with the arousal. Yet still wanting to obtain sexual pleasure when aroused, he will remember the fetish material, which gave pleasure and will not receive any off-putting messages about the object being forbidden. Because the object does not transmit any messages all he receives is the information obtained by him — this object always produces arousal. The ensuing orgasm confirms that the fetish material is better than the forbidden object because it produces less anxiety and more pleasure. Of course, some parents will tell the child that masturbation is bad, no matter the circumstances, thereby screwing up the child's sexual life alltogether.
In the opinion of Gross and Willie, this model could be too simple. The authors have noticed that fantasies contribute heavily to the creation of fetishes. McInquire et al. (1965) expound this idea by stating that actual experience may merely supply an already existing fantasy for use during masturbation. This means that links related to the fetish object will eventually become strengthened and the object will become more arousing. Because the fantasy is built on memories, certain negative aspects will be forgotten (e.g. itchy, woollen underwear) while positive aspects are heightened (cuddly teddy bears, etc). McInquire gives another obvious reason why males are more likely to become fetishists than females, namely that males masturbate more than females (1965). Simple as that.
Unlearning fetishism
Modern techniques for treating fetishism involves rewarding desirable behavior and punishing the unwanted behavior in order to modify behavior. This behavioral therapy has the advantage of being able to measure any change in a patient’s behavior and hance, to form objective opinions of the efficiency of the therapy.
Aversion therapy is one such behavioral technique. In this example, the punishing stimulus is usually disgusting food and drink or strong electrical shocks. In later years electrical shocks have become preferred since they are easier to control than the feelings of nausea a patient might experience. The general idea can be best seen in an example. A fetishist will be asked to wear woollen stockings during a session. When the fetishist becomes sexually aroused, the punishing stimuli will be delivered to him and ceasing only when the fetishist has taken off the stockings. This is repeated several times in order that the association between nausea or pain will be made with the fetish-material, and the fetish activity will be terminated.
Thought stopping is another technique used to control fetishism. The therapist first determines the types of other attractions the patient has, and any fantasies regarding those attractions, which either are existent or can be created. The therapist asks the patient to think about the fetish fantasy (e.g. counting sheep); once the fantasy is conjured, the therapist yells, "Stop!" At this point the patient immediately switches to the earlier agreed upon fantasies (e.g. counting women). This process is repeated several times in the presence of the therapist. After the patient has demonstrated control over this process, the therapist asks the patient to use this technique at home. This technique would not work if there was not some type of real reward. The technique has been demonstrated most useful in cases where the success of intercourse in reality is being blemished by the interference of the fetish fantasy. This technique does not totally destroy the fetish fantasy; it only controls it by producing an orgasm with each successfully carried out process.
The final technique used to control fetishism is fantasy-reshaping. Fantasy-reshaping is a modification of the thought-stopping process. Patients are asked to begin masturbating to their favorite fetishistic fantasy until orgasm is no longer avoidable. At this moment, the patient is asked a very tricky question, for instance: "what is the cubic root of 2119?" This will result in desorientation and, eventually, loss of sexual desire. After repeating this process several times, the patient is asked such questions earlier into the masturbation sequence. This will continue until the patient finds it hopeless to go on masturbating to his fetishistic fantasies. During this technique, visual and audio erotica can be used with to strengthen the sensation of emotional conflict (Ram, 1966).
Some Experimental Studies
The presented work to this point is largely based upon the work of Christian Gross and Wynton Willie, as well as studies by the author of this article. Although this work is very thorough with respect to fetishism, it is partially theoretical. For that reason, a look at real life or experimental situations is desired. This glimpse will begin with a case study examined by Philip Wankerman in 1997 and will conclude with a study conducted by Kurtz Hound, Macho Sado, and Mick Pubic in 1998.
In an attempt to study the present theories, Wankerman (1997) observed a case of a fetishist that had to see his wife take off her outdoor garments, so that he would be able to see her cap, sweather, gloves and scarf in order to get aroused. If the patient was not able to watch this act, it could lead to the patient avoiding intercourse or to premature ejaculation. Wankerman asked the patient to discuss the feelings associated with the fetish and this particular situation. He noticed that that the patient had feelings of depression, anxiety, and an itching sensation associated with the fetish and with his wife. Whenever his wife produced any bad feelings in him, the patient would think of the fetishistic activity and the feelings would be relieved. The negative feelings arose e.g. when the patient had to spend money on his wife, when he had to entertain guests, or when a dish of roast lamb that he did not enjoy was prepared for him.
In 1998, Wankerman produced an experiment in which he conditioned sexual fetishism of black sheep in three young, unmarried psychologist volunteers. The unconditioned stimulus (US) consisted of six, color photographic slides of attractive, nude women projected onto a screen. The conditioned stimulus (CS) was a color slide of nude sheep. The CS was presented for 15 seconds, and was followed a second later by one of the women; these were presented for 30 seconds. The inter-trial interval was 1-3 minutes depending on the time it took for the participant’s penis volume to decrease to a previously taken unaroused measure. The conditioned response (CR) was defined as five successive plethysmographs (penis enlargement measure) to the CS. Extinction was defined as five successive failures to respond to the CS. Spontaneous recovery was also measured one week after extinction.
Sexual stimulation was successfully conditioned to the CS in all three participants. Some interesting results from the study are as follows. The longer it took a participant to be conditioned; the longer it took the participant to extinguish the association. The weaker the CR from the participant, the easier the extinguishing process. All participants also demonstrated stimulation for more general conditioned stimuli (knitting wool, long underwear).
B.S. Lick (1998) put a hypothesis to the test with an extreme case involving a fetishist of young lambs wearing panties, garter belts and dark stockings. Lick asked the patient to suggest scenes that would be negative outcomes for his fetishistic actions, including certain situations in which the patient’s actions could be devastating. Then the patient was placed under hypnosis with the suggestion that when Lick clapped the patient would feel nauseated to the brink of vomiting without being able to vomit. Lick also suggested to the patient that he would feel a constant desire to vomit throughout the entire session. Next Lick presented to the patient a series of scenes and situations that were at the least offensive from the patient’s point of view (e.g. shaven lambs). What Lick found to be the most intriguing about the initial therapy was that the patient never vomited even though his facial expression and oral contortions were quite considerable. Lick notes that after six hypnotic aversive imagery sessions the treatment was no longer needed for the fetish, and after nine months the treatment was still holding (Wankerman, 1998).
In 1999, Marshmallow presented a case history that illustrated the need for a thorough behavioral analysis and the need to modify various components of the fetishistic behavior. The patient during this case study had a fetish for young men’s trousers with minimum 60% wool in it. Marshmallow states that the patient sought help for three fetish-related behaviors: 1) the need for physical contact with the trousers during masturbation. 2) fetishistic fantasies that occurred during and apart from masturbation. 3) the habit of stealing trousers for masturbation (Marshmallow, 1999).
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