The most common understanding of the word Fetish is related to people’s sexual desires and peculiarities. This meaning we owe to nonother but Sigmund Freud. While studying human sexuality, Freud found out that there are people that can only be aroused by specific parts of the body or an object that is either used or present during the act.
Freud’s theory about how the object becomes a fetish was that while the kid is searching for the penis of his mother, it is scared when it doesn’t see one and avert its gaze. The Austrian claimed that the object that the boy’s eyes lay on becoming his fetish. Yet, Freud didn’t empirically test his theory. What is more, the feminists claim that this theory is incapable of explaining the fetishes that women develop.
Fertilizing is studied in animals as well. Research shows that if a rat has had sexual intercourse (multiple times) in a specific cage, later just the presence of the cage arouses the rodent. Regardless of whether there is a female around or no.
Yet, people do fetishize objects not only in a sexual way. People tend to believe that certain socks are “lucky socks” or that wearing a specific shirt is always a source of trouble.
Roland Barthes believed that designing a text to be disruptive and provocative turns it into a product, and in turn, the product – into a fetish.
Karl Marx on his part, claimed that capitalism is making people fetishizing stocks and products.
