Can Anyone Explain "foot Shyness"

I know the people who frequent this forum are on the opposite end of the spectrum, so to speak - but does anyone here have any idea why some people seem to experience "foot shyness?" I can understand being a little awkward going barefoot in social situations where people aren't normally barefoot... but then it seems like some people are almost terrified of going barefoot even in situations where people are supposed to go barefoot.

For example, a friend of mine... The other day a bunch of us were at a different friend's house, and his parents asked us to clean up some stuff in their yard. The snow was just melted and stuff was muddy, so our shoes and socks got wet and dirty. We went to go inside, so his mom asks us all to take off our muddy shoes... so we do, and she notices our socks are muddy too, so she says take them off to. So no problem, we all take off our shoes and socks and head down the basement to hang out... except my one friend, who kept his socks off. I've known the kid for a few years now, and I realized I've never seen him go barefoot.

So I notice his socks are obviously wet and dirty, and to me NOTHING is worse than walking around in wet socks. So I ask him, "dude, your socks are obviously all wet, why don't you just take them off?" I mean, he's sitting around with 4 of his good friends, we're just sitting around playing video games, and everyone but him is in bare feet. The first thing he says is "I don't know." So one of my friends kind of pushes him a little, like "what are you missing a toe or something?" He laughs and says no of course not, he just doesn't like the feel of dust and dirt on his feet.

We dropped it there since he was clearly uncomfortable... but it still got me thinking... what's the big deal? Why are some people flat out terrified, or so it seems, for other people to see their feet?

 

Well, I'm not expert, but I've given it some thought from time to time...

Best guess is always the simplest/most obvious answer - maybe the kid has warts/blisters/bunions/athlete's foot/whatever and doesn't want people seeing them?

Second best guess - social pressure? Like have you ever seen him go barefoot in his own house, at the pool/beach, in the locker room, whatever? Is he just not comfortable being barefoot somewhere where he thinks its socially awkward?

Complex theory where I'm kind of talking out of my ass since I'm by no means a psychologist or whatever - but I've been told that a foot fetish is the most common sexual fetish. So maybe if his brain is wired to sexualize feet, and he doesn't feel comfortable having them out in the open? Maybe for him it would be like lounging around in public with his dick hanging out (and sure, some people are into that, but most people probably aren't). Or maybe its some kind of "reverse" fetish or something?

Just a thought.

 

Explain reverse fetishes

 

i don't know if that's really true. a lot of posts in this forum seem to involve people who want to go barefoot but imagine that everyone else is judging them for it.

 

I can't, like I said, I'm talking out of my ass. But in a way it kind of seems logical or something.... Like instead of being sexual aroused by something, you're actually sexually repulsed by it? Why else would people spend so much time even thinking about feet?

 

a house divided with socks will fall..

 

If you like going barefoot, for whatever reason, just do it and s*d what anyone else thinks. Don't overthink it. If you're not into it, or don't see the point, then don't do it. Each to their own. No harm done either way. Peace x

 

It's a foot if you ask me. Take your socks off and go for a walk. How hard is that?

I have never understood the craze or problems that persistently pop up in this forum. I mean, it's feet? Feet.

Feet.

 

Could be a cultural thing. Like in some countries, women go topless and it's normal. I go bear-feet all the time. Some people may feel ashamed and/or insecure of the appearance of their feet (Shape, rash, toe jam, etc).

 

There are also the dramatic reactions from people.

So far, the most dramatic reactions have been only from black people. Cauasians either calmly ask you some questions or whisper to themselves. Asians don't seem to have any noticeable reactions. Kids in a group usually chuckle amongst themselves.

Black People reactions are the most bizarre. Someone took a camera out and attempted to secretly take a photo without shutting off the shutter sound. Another one eating in a Mc Donald’s stood up from his seat while I was waiting in line and kept laughing and acclaiming "Look, No Shoes!!! HAHAHAHA" repeatedly, again and again.

Black people culture encourages more expressiveness and animation. But it would be nice if they also learned to be more composed and discreet like other cultures at appropriate times.

 

I can't explain it for this guy, but I can do it for myself - and I think its the most common reason for people like me. I'm 21 years old, no one have seen my bare feet since I was about 12 years old.

Since I was a child, I experience a extreme female feet fetish, they just dragged my attention out of anything. For some reason, seeing a woman or girl barefeet was something quite similar to seeing
her naked. Even though most people don't have any problems with that, I always felt naked when I was walking barefoot or in flip flops - and it was really unconfortable in some situations.

When puberty came, it became evident that I experienced sexual pleasure and desire for it. With some "research" on the topic, It became clear that my mind sees feet almost like a genital, so
I decided to totally ban exposing my feet publicly.

I don't have any issues with my feet, I'm not ashamed of their appearance, I just don't expose it (as I don't expose my penis). It may sound weird, but it is the truth (you can laugh about it )...

And just to be clear: I have nothing against people who go barefoot out there, its their right, and I'm OK with that (as it is my right to keep my socks on).

 

That's a good explanation, I understand I don't have a fetish for feet, I'm one of those who just does not like shoes, but its all cool in a world of difference xx

Shayla xx

 

Some people don't like the idea of getting barefoot anywhere else than in their own house or garden. It can be because they do not know how clean other places are. Yes, they may be a little overly cautious about that (especially from the perspective of a barefooter) but I think this counts for many people. They just don't like it to get their naked feet on surfaces they don't have any control over or feeling about how clean it is.

 

Asmo, I used to be one of those people. I wouldn't even walk around in my house barefoot for just those reasons. Now, I can go anyplace barefoot & it doesn't bother me. I actually love going everywhere barefoot now. I'm just cautious not to step on things that might cut me & I do make sure to wash my feet when they get really dirty and before I go to bed.
I can't explain what changed, other than the fact that I really love to be completely nude & that has to include my feet!

 

Good for you, H1. I've been to naturist places and seen people wandering around completely nude apart from their shoes, even indoors. It's like, wtf!

As I said earlier though, if barefoot's not for you, no worries. If it is, just go for it. Either way don't overthink it!

 

Interesting discussion, and I'd like to offer yet another perspective to it. I'm in the Autism spectrum, and for the longest time showing ANY part of my body, that wasn't my head or my hands, naked to others publicly made me feel very awkward and uncomfortable. Related or not, as an Asperger I've always been very self-conscious about my body. Showing off too much is an invasion of my privacy, to put it in simple terms. I've never been shirtless in public, unless it was on a public pool, where it'd make sense in context. I still don't like to wear shorts, and until recent times, barefooting outside of taking a shower was something that I just... did... not... do.

Change, however, started to come to me at age 27. For reasons I'm sure you may guess, I noticed that my toenails had begun to develop a fungal infection. They'd started to become yellow and brittle, and the telltale smell was there. I was now at a crossroads. How much would the well-being of my body really mean to me? At age 27 I was in a unique situation, however. The people around me had changed, my surroundings had changed. There was nobody around me left anymore who would know about my childhood history and aversion towards baring myself. For all intentions and purposes, I was now free to try new things and say whatever I liked about it, and no one would be able to tell any different, nor throw any annoying remarks about my past behaviour.

I took the first new, barefoot steps in my life during the summer that I turned 27. In private at first, because I didn't wanna risk drawing other people's potentially negative attention towards myself, as I do not handle it very well. During my first few summers in bare feet, I limited my newfound lifestyle strictly to my home yard. But I experimented with a variety of surfaces nevertheless. Grass, tarmac, wood, even gravel, a world of new sensations opened up to me. But because I was only barefooting seasonally at that point, the pesky nail fungus persisted.

3 years ago I shifted to a higher gear. I had become interested of snowfooting, or barefooting even troughout the winter. The feel of cold snow and icy surfaces against my bare feet was something I was yet to experience. Suffice to say, I jumped straight into the deep end. That year I kept barefooting all troughout the fall months well into October. When the 1st snow landed, I hopped right in, and felt a surge coursing trough me, like something had really jump started me. My blood had never before coursed trough my body with such unique intensity. I came to realize that I had found an all new way to even improve my health.

That winter I had my bare feet plough trough the snow almost daily around 5-10 minutes per trip outside, plus nearly every moment that I spent inside the house I stayed almost perpetually barefoot. I also used nail clippers to eliminate as much of the fungus infected area of my nails as possible. When spring came, I noticed that I had finally become fully free of the nail fungus infection that drove me into discovering a new lifestyle. My toenails had returned to their healthy, pearly white color.

I'm now a happily barefoot person. I'm not going to preach about it, nor try to force anyone's foot into it because I still believe in choice, and feel that this is something that should remain an individual one, but let it be known that I now fully vouch for the much advertized health benefits of barefoot living. Not only do I find my new, thicker and more muscular soles feeling immensely pleasant to touch things with, but I've also remained free of flu for the past 3 years now, with the exception of just one case this winter that healed in just couple of days. The only regret that I really have at this point is the loss of what would probably have been some very happy childhood barefooting memories. I wish I could go back in time now to tell my younger self that this really is something worth getting into, without actually freaking him out. The whole point of this story of course is that mental blocks resulting from innate neurological issues can and will make you do bad choices.

Having said all that, Hi, I'm the new guy. Maybe we'll discuss all things barefoot in the future as well.

 

I'm curious as to how severe was your block, did you wear shoes all the time? I spend most of my active life on socks (without shoes), and it has not affected my health for the past 9 years.

I couldn't agree more on this. Although I still have some serious mental blocks, I believe true freedom can only be achieved once you have no more mental blocks - you have nothing to lose, nothing to worry about.

 

My massive foot fetish of female feet is the direct cause of my foot shyness, it took me years to finally come to this hypothesis. Wearing flip flops or barefoot caused me to feel naked, unprotected or vulnerable. I've been told I have nice feet. Getting validation from someone else has been very helpful in ridding of any uncomfortable feelings while gaining confidence of going barefoot and wearing flip flops.

 

Shoes no, because wearing shoes indoors would drag all the dirt in, but socks most of the time between early childhood to mid-20's. Basically, I only took my socks off while swimming/showering. I even slept wearing socks. I simply did not want my feet to be seen, as I was not (and to an extent still am not today) very welcoming to any sort of criticism towards my body, as it nearly always holds some sort of deliberately malicious intent. The cold climate here also played a part, back then barefooting in this frigid weather just didn't make sense, nor sound logical. Imagine my reaction, when trough the Internet I learned that there are people who actually do it.

The socks that I wore were often pretty thick (intented for winter), so the sweat had really no place to go. In retrospect, no wonder the fungus came, it had the optimal platform to grow.

 

Body Shaming would be your answer.

People are shamed about every part of their bodies.

Society has lost its mind.