Fifty Shades of Socks
By Gabriella Laporte-Virot
As she picks up her phone she sees three new messages, none of the numbers seemed familiar. Her curiosity peaks. She's seen these types of requests before but only from a certain few. Who, she asked herself could these be from? She’d been very private about the transactions between herself and her clients so why were others now contacting her with similar intentions? It dawns on her that their conversations may not been as private as she thought.
The very first time she’d received these messages was in October, from an almost bare social media account. She recalled being asked whether she was interested in making some easy money. A simple “hand/feet nails model” was all that was needed. After agreeing that she’d be willing to send photos and videos, she was asked what colour her nails were. She’d painted them red just a couple of days beforehand. With prices discussed, the final request from the strangers Instagram account was to “make it sexy”. With her curiosity caught, she handed over her shoe size and Paypal details.
Aryana Azodi, 19, has a pretty standard office job working for a marketing agency during the day, but in her spare time, she sells pictures of her feet online to people with foot fetishes. She’d never done anything like this before, but she didn't seem the harm in making some extra money.
Images by Emily MacMillan
Foot fetishes, also known as Podophillia is the sexual interest in feet. In 2006, AOL publicly released the search log of their users for research purposes. It was a controversial move which exposed peoples private browsing habits, but it gave us a glimpse of what we’re all looking at behind closed doors. It showed that the most searched word accompanied by fetish, at 86%, was foot. If that was the most searched term, why are foot fetishes still considered pretty taboo twelve years later?
Aryana was initially approached out of the blue through her Instagram direct messages. The account had very little too it. It was private and had only 1 upload. The profile picture was of a guy in his 30s or 40s with a goatee, reflective sunglasses and a black muscle tee. Aryana and her client agreed on £5 per photo and £10 per video. Looking back, she realises she could have gotten more, but at that point she was a novice. Their initial transaction was worth £30. Two hand photos, two feet photos and a 5 minute video. She sent them on WhatsApp.
After initially only having one client, Aryana was contacted by Jeremy through twitter. She commented that he clearly knew his requests were unusual by the way he introduced himself. He opened with “don’t be weirded out, but I have a foot fetish and am willing to pay certain amounts for photos or videos”. These two instances weren't the sole times she’d been approached, but its not a common occurrence either. She commented that “these straight to the point messages were pretty standard. Foot fetishes are kind of a niche thing and they probably get rejected for these requests a lot, so theres no point wasting time. There’s definitely an air of embarrassment when they first approach me”.
Aryana has no foot fetish herself and did find the whole idea pretty weird when she first considered the subject. “I was really skeptical as I was selling photos of myself to complete strangers. I’ve got no idea who these people really are, their age, or how and why they chose to approach me.” She came around to the idea because “it’s feet, it’s just another part of the body. It’s not that bad.” She continued to explain that “to them, it’s sexual but to me it’s nothing. I’m profiting, so who cares?” She laughed.
The most Aryana has made is £30 from a single video, but she can easily make £50 from a series of photos. “It’s great, I could make a days wages in about 15 minutes while I’m sat on my bed if I really wanted too”. Having been asked to think about the most unusual request she’d ever received, there was no hesitation in her answer. Aryana laughed when recalling the unusual incident. Her client had asked her to walk around her garden bare footed. He wanted her to make sure her feet were particularly grimy in preparation for the video he’d requested. Once she thought they were sufficiently dirty, he wanted a video of her washing her feet in the bath, specifying seeing all the brown mud dripping off and washing away. She politely declined. There are limits to what Aryana will agree to do. “I’ve been asked to send old or worn socks or shoes, which is where you can make the most money, but I’ve never agreed to do anything like that.” There’s a certain safety from the distance that being online allows, its a bit “like a security blanket. I’d never actually meet anyone from online even though I've been asked and I always make sure you can’t tell my identity in the photos.” She specifies that she never shows her face or has anything in the background that is particularly distinctive. When asked why she is so strict on not being identifiable, she said it was simply a precaution she took. “It’s not that I'm embarrassed, I’ve told boyfriend, he thinks its pretty funny, and I’ve even referred my clients to some of my friends who are interested in making some extra money, its all a bit of a laugh”.
Podophillia can take many forms. For some people, the focus can be on the shape, size or appearance of the foot, for others it could be the taste or the foot paired a stiletto shoe; the preferences are as individual as the people who have them. For example, one of Aryana’s clients, she explains likes the arch of the foot while the other has mentioned wanting to put her feet in his mouth and have her walk on his back. Despite it being such a common sexual preference, foot fetishes are still considered fairly taboo and a cliche commonly joked about. This is an issue Joe, who himself has a foot fetish, has been dealing with for most of his life.
Twenty-six year old Joe has been aware of his unusual preferences from around the age of five. “You're aware very quickly that the stigma is there, its a very overbearing thing and people tend to make a joke of it or treat it like a gimmick, but it’s actually something that is quite deep. I think it can be quite painful for a lot of people because they feel like what they enjoy is frivolous in the eyes of others and thats a depressing thing to deal with.” Joe is studying a degree in Cordwainers Footwear: Product Design and Innovation at a London University. The course essentially covers the design and development of fashionable footwear. It’s rumoured that Podophillia is fairly common within the shoe industry, which Joe comments isn't particularly surprising. “I think as an industry it does draw people like that because most footwear design is for women and focused on high heeled shoes, which are designed to incur a sexual response,” he explains. When asked to talk about his own interest in the craft, he expressed his interest in the design and construction of things. “It was more the fact that I liked fashion in terms of shoes in itself as a subject. I think that having a foot fetish was just a bonus because I think it allows me to see things in a different way and improve my designs accordingly.”
Joe realised that his tastes were not particularly mainstream at about 7 or 8 years old, which knocked his confidence. “It really changed the way I saw myself and made me quite reclusive.” He continued to explain just how severe the effects on him were. “The early years of having it were actually quite traumatic, which is probably why I don't remember it very well. I think I was stressed about it,” he laughed to break the tension. The negative reactions from people who have learnt of Joe’s foot fetish can give light to the reasons of Joes initial distress and anxieties. “Some people have found out and they’ve just never talk to me again, they’ve just gone and that can hurt,” he sighed. After a short pause, he continued. “It’s tricky. I can’t connect with people in the same way. People can be really judgemental and I’m very careful about who knows and how much they know.”
In contrast, Aryana’s online relationships with her clients are solely based on their fetish. Staying online can give a sense of security, however, regardless of the precautions you take, you can never be completely safe. Aryana discovered this the hard way when she started receiving more messages than usual. With a following of over a thousand, she’s pretty active online, posting selfies regularly and updating her followers, so she was used to receiving DMs from strangers. However, her recent inbox content was slightly different. Over the past few days Aryana had been receiving disproportionately high numbers of messages from people interested in her feet. She knew that this couldn't be a coincidence and that one of her two prior clients must have shared her information. She and her clients had been very clear about the fact that their transactions were private for, what she thought, would be for the benefit of both parties. However, realising that their agreement had been taken advantage of, she felt betrayed. “Obviously I'm curious about who my clients are, but I never pried out of respect. I kind of wish that respect was returned,” she commented.
When talking to Joe, I told him about Aryana’s story to which he expressed his thoughts on the situation. “Its terrible that people do stuff like this. We’re already perceived in a negative light and this kind of behaviour just makes the situation worse.” As someone who is fairly private about his tastes, Joe understands the importance of trust. He commented that to others, the bad behaviour Aryana has experienced is just another reason give people within his community a bad name, even if just one person is the problem. He continued to explain his stance on arrangements like the ones Aryana is in. “I’ve never paid for photos or anything like that online and I don't think I ever would. I don't blame people for doing it, its fine, but I personally think that if I were to start paying for something I liked it would make me feel even more lonely.”
Having heard Joe and Aryana’s stories its clear that within these situations, trust is paramount in making relationships functional. With what is still considered a fairly taboo topic, sensitivity needs to be applied for the sake of all parties to create a more open and accepting space for people to share their interests and enjoyments without fear of being demonised.