Toes are the windows to the sole

Hair brushed aside, eyes cast back over a cold shoulder, holding your chin up high, clasping your hands, getting on your knees, no skin off your back, etc.

Every part of our body is expressive and informative, from head to toes.

When a character takes their shoes off, that's a moment of relaxation and vulnerability. They feel safe and comfortable, and the floor is somewhere clean they can put them. Or, maybe they're forced to forego the protection of the shoe, heightening their vulnerability.

Die Hard (1988) shows us the duality of being barefoot. In the opening scene, Bruce Willis' character Die Hard is visibly nervous on the plane, and a stranger advises him: "Wanna know the secret to surviving air travel? After you get where you're going, take off your shoes and your socks, then you walk around on the rug barefoot. Then you make fists with your toes." This foreshadows the scene where Die Hard is forced to run away over broken glass.

Die Hard provides a thesis on barefootedness, which mercifully allows us to skip all the other examples.

There are a myriad of other ways that feet are used to characterize people and their circumstances. (A character who uses their feet as hands? How eccentric. A character with perpetually dirty feet? Don't let them inside, but also, what gives? Forgoing shoes for poverty, or by choice?)

For all its problems, Jesus Christ (from "The Bible" fandom) also provides an important bit of culture around feet. He notably washed his disciples feet, and there is some debate about whether he washed Judas, his betrayers, feet at the Last Supper. This is a big deal with a lot of symbolism, and it comes up in all sorts of different media, like the "foot scene" from Death Note. (For more information, google "Death Note feet").

Feet are an important part of media literacy. They're useful for symbolism, for allusion, for allegory, for characterization. All the basic literary elements.

Honestly, I'm not trying to convince you. This isn't an advanced take. Jstpst is a very media-literate site. I'm just using this as a reminder of feet in media, as a qualification for the rest of this post.

Foot fetishists catching strays

The thing is, all this thinking about feet is secondary to the fact that feet are funny, and that's because everyone knows about and thinks about foot fetishism.

While I lack the appreciation for feet, something like 1 in 7 people have a foot fetish. There's nothing wrong with having a foot fetish, I'm not here to demonize that.

But, I can't really comprehend the erotic element of it. When feet are on screen, I try to think of it in the same way I might think of a scene with gratuitous nudity.

Even then, I'm left unable to truly wrap my head around it. Are Bruce Willis' feet read in the same way as a woman's foot? Is it weird when children are barefoot on screen? Can a robot be barefoot? What about when Groot or an alien is barefoot? Or when we see Sonic's feet? Oh my God, am I missing out on alien feet?

But when feet are on screen, people seem to devolve into the most ingratiatingly deleterious discourse imaginable. I want to yell, "Not every filmmaker is Quentin Tarantino! Feet are part of our expressive bodies!"

But no. A shot of feet in the film and people ask, "What did Bravo Vince mean by this?"

When people see feet, 1 in 7 of them see something erotic. But 6 in 7 of them see foot fetishists.

The problem isn't foot fetishists being weird about feet.

The problem is the rest of us being weird about foot fetishists.

An aside, for farts

A few years ago, I read a long comment on Reddit from a lesbian fart fetishist. I won't recount the details, but it was truly an endearing, touching story. And an empowering, feminist one.

I think people view the words "empowering" and "feminist" as a joke nowadays, so I want to emphasize that I am 100% serious about the empowering feminist lesbian fart fetishist story. This is not a joke or a bit.

I don't have a fart fetish either, but I think I came to an understanding of how flatulence became part of the core of this persons sexuality. It made me realize that I could understand other peoples fetishes as a deep and meaningful thing, beyond a surface level, even if otherwise they were just funny to me.

Sigourney Weaver undressing at the end of alien

In the final scenes of Alien (1979), Sigourney Weaver embarks as the sole survivor of her encounter with the Alien. She strips down to to a tank top and low-riding panties, showing off her figure. Her nipples poke as the scant clothing slides with her movements.

It's very obvious sex appeal for the masses of scifi nerd boys. Sigourney, why don't you pull your underwear up?

But it also characterizes Sigourney's state in her journey. She feels safe enough that she can make herself vulnerable. She feels comfortable and is ready to relax. She might even make fists with her feet on the rug. This ups the ante for when it turns out, oh shit, the alien is on the life boat!

This kind of gives me the language to comprehend feet in film. The puerilely prurient purpose of this scene is not in contention with the characterization of comfort after conflict ceases. (But it does take on a voyeuristic quality, which allows us to stay firmly in 70s-era fetish discourse for the sequel essay, "Windows are the windows to the sole".)

I aint reading all that, TLDR?

My main points are:

1. Feet come up in literature in normal ways, because they're parts of the human body. Feet can be an important part of stories. It says so in the Bible. Importantly, I think characters taking their shoes off mean they feel safe and comfortable. They can relax.

2. I can't comprehend the erotic element some people see in feet. So, when I see feet, I need to remind myself about foot fetishism. But I think fetishism dominates the common discourse, which makes for worse discussion of film and TV with people, and maybe has a chilling effect on using feet in writing. Which isn't a big deal, and it's probably good for us to have fewer literary references to the Bible.

3. I can comprehend the erotic element of farts for fart fetishists (or, at least one person, for her account on the internet). So, I at least know I can come to understand someones kinks and fetishes, and that they can be deeply important.

4. I still can't grasp the erotic element of feet. I've really tried. But in the end of Alien, Sigourney Weaver gets naked. Like a character removing their shoes, this shows she is comfortable and relaxed. But this is also for sex appeal. That's not in contention. So maybe I don't need to understand what the big deal with feet is in movies.

After working through my thoughts and feelings, I think I can finally start watching Quentin Tarantino films. I sure hope there's not a bunch of slurs in them.

I'm not reading that TLDR either. Make a shorter TLDR

Feet are just one of the expressive parts of the human body and so they are important in fiction. But people are constantly vigilant for foot fetishism, which skews how fiction is discussed, and probably skews how it's made. I can't comprehend the erotic element of feet, but I don't think it matters.

Also, the reason this post is so long is because I estimate it will come out to about the length of 24 inches (or two feet) of scrolling when rendered on my mobile browser.