I don’t have a foot fetish.
For quite a while, I thought I did. I mean, nothing extreme. Nothing even necessarily particularly notable. But yeah, there are certain kinds of footwear which, when worn on certain women, I find attractive. So I had long thought that it was A Thing for me.
But what I’ve come to realize is that isn’t a fetish nearly as much as it’s just appreciation of some things worn by some women. Guess what: Some pants look great on some women. So do some shorts. Some shirts, too. So do some earrings and tattoos and scarves and glasses, and, and, and…
I think you catch my drift.
Point being, I’ve come to realize that it’s not so much that I like certain footwear or feet, per se, but rather, who’s wearing it. Certain clothing works well on certain people, per everyone’s subjective tastes, and I’ve rejigged my perspective on things to realize that footwear is just a part of the overall appeal rather than being a specific.
I mean, chokers are a whole other thing…
Er, um… I mean…
*ahem*
I digress.
Having said all that, yesterday I happened to notice a few unusual things going on with feet. All with men, as it happened. Odd enough in itself. And it stood out to me as a day when I noticed more weird things about feet than I think I ever have.
Chronologically:
A man in GO Transit clothing stepped onto my morning train in sandals. Which was odd because I don’t know that I’ve ever seen any GO Transit employee in anything but heavy black work boots. I mean hey, maybe he wanted to wear sandals on the way to his shift and was changing for the day and would then change back. Could well be, and more power to him. Whatever. You go, guy. But it was the first time I’d seen that.
Then on my shift at work I saw a guy sitting at a table in an indoor public area who’d taken off his shoes and was just stretching out his bare feet on the floor. As a side note, I’m pretty sure he’d kicked off just shoes to let his tootsies free. No socks, that I could tell. Just leather shoes. That he’d had his bare feet in. Suffice to say, that remains one fashion I’ll never understand. Among many, mind you.
In any case, I’m going to go ahead and say this is a faux pas.
I’m no foot prude (as you may have heard, at times I rather like them), but it’s a bit weird to see bare feet in indoor public areas. If you’re at a beach or chilling on a patch of grass somewhere, there’s going to be bare feet everywhere, and damn well there should be. Bare feet on sand and cool grass feels great.
But it’s odd and not terribly appealing (in this man’s opinion) to see any totally bare feet indoors—I don’t mean in sandals or flipflops, but just feet without anything on them—where you’re in an office building at table and there’s polished stone tiling under your feet.
To say nothing about the fact that he was at one of a small group of tables where people stop by to chat and have coffee and eat food. You know who wants to see a stranger’s bare feet while they’re trying to have lunch in an office building? Not many. On any given day, I’d say slim numbers to none.
So let’s play the odds, my dude: Do everyone a favour and do something with them. In your case, I guess slip them back into the warm, non-breathing, maybe sweaty comfort of your leather shoes.
*shudder*
Finally, I saw an older guy who had a pretty distinct look. For starters, he has long, bright white hair. This stuff wasn’t thinning. I’m talking an enviable mass of hair that was really well kept and shaped. That was echoed by an equally bright white goatee, and both were offset by black hornrim-ish glasses. Not to seem like put down in any sense but just for an image, picture Colonel Sanders’s hipper brother, and you’ll get the idea of what this guy looked like.
He was in a blue, white and black paisley shirt, a black suit vest, blue jeans, and… drum roll, please… white sandals.
Now again, no insult meant. It all worked. This guy had more style on this one day than I think I’ve had in my whole life combined. He knew exactly what he was going for and he nailed it. But what struck me most was those white sandals. I don’t know—and again, I’ve got the shoddy memory always working against me, but I really don’t think—that I’ve ever seen a man wearing white sandals.
It’s rare enough for a woman to wear them, but for a guy? I believe that was a first for me.
All in all, quite a day. And seemingly out of nowhere.
Perhaps next up on Things I Pay Bizarre Attention To For No Clear Reason: Knees.