Common Misunderstandings of Fetishism

Fetish -

Also spelled: fetich or fetisch (fêt'îsh, fea'tîsh) Noun.
1. A material object or a non-sexual part of the body that arouses sexual desire; and may be necessary for sexual gratification.
2. An object of unreasonably excessive attention or reverence.
3. An object that has magical or spiritual powers, especially such an object associated with shamanistic spiritual practices.

The meaning of the word fetish is dependent on whom you are asking to define the word. Outside of the dictionary, the popular definition of a fetish is anything that causes a strong sexual appeal; whether it be an object or an act, and is outside of 'normal' sexually arousing things. Others might add that the fetish is necessary for sexual gratification to be accomplished.

Both of the above definitions, the one from the dictionary and the one from popular culture, are either wrong or incomplete, and seem to be used only by those who don't really understand fetishism (clinical psychology, for example; and even those who have fetishes often don't understand fetishism. Having a fetish does not necessitate comprehension of the object's meaning). By the way, who gets to decide what 'normal' sexual attractions are? The fact that no one really knows what 'normal' is makes the popular definition of fetish invalid, and the fact that fetishes do not have to be associated with sexuality makes the dictionary definition wrong. Well, the dictionary is sort of admitting that fetishes don't have to be sexual; but it says that if they aren't, then they are objects that are "worshipped", and that is wrong.

I can see why many people think fetishes are being worshipped; because people uneducated in fetishism, looking from the outside at a fetish act; to them it could easily appear that the fetish object is being worshipped, but that's not true, the object is not being worshipped; the object is being used as a conduit to reach an altered state or a higher state of consciousness; at least that is what is being attempted by the fetishist, whether they realize what they are doing on a conscious level or not.

For those who do not realize what they are doing in essence, for them, fetishes end up just being objects to enhance sexual gratification, but that is lowest, most unskilled realm of fetishism, and is also the most common conception of fetishism in pop-culture.

Most fetishes are used in non-sexual rituals, though the common conception of a fetish seems to be that they are always used in sex rituals. That is simply not true and is an indication that pop-culture is very ignorant about fetishism.

The main error in pop-culture's definition of the word fetish is that it is thought of as either an act or an object: that is incorrect. A fetish is an object, not an act. (The dictionary does recognize that it is always an object, not an act; so that part of it is actually right.) If a fetish object is being used in a certain act, then and only then can an act be called a fetish act; only because the fetish object is being brought into the act. For example, many people who enjoy being spanked say that they have a "fetish" for spanking. Well, that's not accurate; instead, I would call that a strong affinity, a fixation, or a high interest in spanking, but not a fetish. However, if a person has a particular affinity for a certain object being used on them during a spanking (such a hairbrush) and the sight of the object itself arouses a fantastic interest, this indicates that the object of high interest during spankings is the fetish and the spanking with the object is the fetish act.

Why do so many people have a hard time defining the word fetish? My guess is because there really is no word to label specific (ritualistic) actions that do not involve special objects; but are held in strong interest by their participants, and are often done in a very particular way. Not only does the English language lack a word to describe strong affinities for certain types of activities, the German language does not even contain the word: spanking! They have to use the English word! Since there is no special word to define strong affinities, they are often mistakenly called fetishes.

The best definition The Dictionary uses is the latter one; though even that one has a long way to go to become accurate. The objects in Shamanism are not 'worshipped' by their holders: They are symbolic objects used as mediums and conduits to reach a spiritual plane or a certain deity or spirit. Further, Shamanism is not a religion. (I can imagine how the inexperienced men who wrote that dictionary might watch a fetishistic ritual and assume that the objects are being worshipped because they don't understand what the objects represent to the creators of them.)

Worship does not go beyond the object; worship ends at the object. That is the difference between worshipping an object vs. using an object as a conduit to reach something beyond the object itself. Unskilled fetishists attempt to go beyond their fetish objects, though they don't know how, so they try to worship the objects deeper, harder, faster, whatever; in a natural, though unconscious effort to go beyond the object into an entirely new realm of consciousness. This natural phenomenon occurs both inside and outside of the sexual realm of fetishism (sexual concepts of fetishism are relatively recent, probably a result of Industrialization).

Modern cultures have lost touch with their ancient cultures; nevertheless, the natural, primal tendency to use fetishes in ritual acts in order to reach deeper levels within the self, in order to open doorways of communication to the spirits, the higher self, the deeper self, god, goddess, whatever your conception of is of higher and/or deeper, remains ingrained in the collective psyche (to use an ancient African/Egyptian Obehan term, commonly regarded as a modern Jungian term; Jung made a lifetime of studying obscure and ancient cultures, taking their concepts and applying them to his Western views). Whether this natural phenomenon is encoded in the collective unconscious, in our DNA or in our genes, does not matter; the point is that this tendency is archaic and modern at once, and is not likely to disappear from our species anytime soon (if ever).

It is natural that Western culture has sexualized the primal urge towards altered states and communion with the Divine or The Higher Realm, whatever you want to call it; since most people don't know how else to fulfill their primal need for reaching ecstacy and altered states. Using a fetish to reach the altered state is simply using a tool to accomplish the agenda. Most people have not been taught how to do something about their inherent urges towards Divine Communion (which may be thought of as communion with something outside of us, or with a part of ourselves; either way, it's really the same place people are trying to reach; they just think of it differently; so it naturally comes out in the form of a sexual fetish because the culture is so obsessed with sexuality and because sex is the most intense experience most people have ever had; so people try to use it unconsciously to reach an even deeper intensity of a different kind (ultimately beyond the sexual, though very few are successful at getting beyond the sex part of a sexual fetish though that's what they are trying to do unconsciously).

Western culture always sexualizes things that it does not know how to deal with any other way. If our culture does not know what else to do except sexualize the compulsion towards altered states, or deeper states of being, then naturally this urge is expressed through the sexual medium; because there are no other mediums readily available in Western Culture.