Solemates: A History of Our Fetish for Feet

404 Inklings #25

by Adam Zmith

Why are feet so hot? When Jesus washed his bros' feet, what kind of love was he showing? Why did feet show up in poetry written during a medieval outbreak of gonorrhoea? How did early sexologists convince us that loving feet is deviant? And what did Victorian lesbians make of all this?

These are the questions thrusting Adam Zmith into a history of toe-botherers who will guide the reader through the sex archives, the online forums and a millennium of art, with his trademark queer lens.

Solemates will bring to light the history of this peculiarly popular kink. From Tarantino films to Bible stories, from Renaissance paintings to OnlyFans, Solemates is the rich and messy tale of our obsession with everything below the ankle, and what it reveals about how we view our bodies and our sex lives.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sexuality

102 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 7, 2024

About the author

Adam Zmith is the recipient of the London Writers Award 2019-20, and is the author of several shortlisted and published short stories. He is also one of the producers of The Log Books podcast, winner of Gold in the Best New Podcast category at the British Podcast Awards 2020.

Adam Zmith's work includes fiction and journalism, films and podcasts, talks and thoughts. His themes are bodies and sex, media and tech, power and community.

At The Economist, he helped to establish and run the editorial social media team over nearly four years. He led the newspaper's practice in hosting civil conversation online and involvement in the Trust Project, a consortium of publishers committed to raising levels of trust in the media.

Reviews

[Maddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting read, but I expected a little more from it, to be honest! The content doesn’t match how attention-grabbing and weird/subversive the cover art is.

[Isaac Badger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing to see here, keep scrolling soldier

[Alex George · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun! Glad I've finally got round to reading one of these 404 Inklings. Kinda like reading someone's dissertation but with some bants along the way. Could've been mOre expressive tho, I thought. Hasn't converted me to getting into feet. I guess you could say it didn't 'blow my socks off'.

[Ren Parks · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m all about the ideology behind this funky lil book — destigmatizing “perverse” sexualities by revealing who stands to benefit from their stigmatization (spoiler, it’s always cishet white men). The ideas are good. Execution? Oh, brother.

I often felt that Zmith was trying to reach a word count? I think editing for concision would have chopped this book in half, and by then it would resemble something more like a blog post.

Much of Zmith’s research feels like it touches just the tip of the iceberg of human sexuality, visiting big names like Richard von Krafft-Ebbing, G. Stanley Hall, and Sigmund Freud as well as some of the major recent scholarly opinions on the subject, but then it just barely scratches below the surface with any unique perspective. I think his research would have been more groundbreaking and community-focused had he committed more deeply to his more non-empirical style and involved more voices of self-professed “toe-botherers.”

I’ll skeptically take a gander at some more of Zmith’s work or some other books in the Inklings series but probably more as a supporter than an enjoyer of their work so far.

[Kitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prefacing this that I don't have a foot fetish but this book kinda makes me wish I did. To get so much erotic pleasure from an innocuous body part I see as predominantly utilitarian and slightly gross would be kinda cool. Mostly, however, I just found this book pretty funny - Zmith has some pretty unhinged opening lines. . . "I loved feet before I loved fucking" . . . "when you think about the history of sex you probably think about diseased pricks and restricted cunts" . . . not sure how quoting girl, so confusing will age but this was a great source of entertaining quotes for dramatic reading to my friend throughout my holiday. it sort of reads like being cornered by that quite weird but well meaning friend at a party and fighting the urge to escape the conversation while wanting to know what new logical extreme they will take their reasoning to (the was Jesus a foot fetishist aside springs to mind).

It's a short work so don't expect anything too involved on the history of sex studies/deep dives into queer theory etc. just enjoy the ride.

[Lew Dominey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think the most annoying thing about this book is that it’s written by a foot fetishist, so all information given becomes too self gratifying to be interesting. I didn’t learn much, but boy do I know that this guy is into feet!

It’s like 88 pages of a conversation you really don’t want to be in. It’s 88 pages of someone trying to justify being into feet, which I’m sure is thrilling if you are!

[Leo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a short and fun non fiction, it was both written in a informative way but Adam Zmith had a very funny way of writing and some sentences had me caught of guard and laughing but also making a topic I got no understanding and knowledge about easy to understand. The opening sentence is one of the best and more intruiging once if read before.

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bro was fighting for his life tying to justify his fetish...

[Beth Staples · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 starts. Short and sweet book explorating foot fetish, it's place in history, why people like it and why we are culturally so weird about it. I find reading about the different things people are into wildly fascinating, so I was all over this book! It wasn't particularly ground breaking and I was maybe expecting a bit more from it, but nevertheless it was interesting, engaging and enjoyable, if very brief.

[The Thirsty Goblin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I see this book as a series of essays pieced together, with it ultimately being a loved info dump with references a plenty. Whether you have an interest in feet or not, these essays take us through their colourful history, breaking down initial reactions and making us challenge our assumptions. A fascinating read!

[陈宇杰 · Rating 5 out of 5]

life changing. best book i’ve read this year

[Guilherme · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading it, but I was expecting much more given the depth of Adam Zmith’s research. It felt like going to the supermarket to buy a product, only to be handed a free sample instead!

[Amy Moo · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75
A bizarre book for me to buy but I had to read it to see whether I could actually understand the fetish more.
I hate feet so I don't get it at all but I guess this gave me more understanding for those that do 🤷🏻‍♀️
Whatever tickles your pickle.

[Andreas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trying to get back into reading after moving flat and starting with these little 404 ink books. Interesting stuff, written in a fun way, honestly would read a whole book on the topic

[Georgeena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wrote my thesis on high heels and fetish, so it was fun to read from Zmith’s take on this topic throughout history and today.

[Ash · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read above all else. Maybe feet are pretty hot?