Aesthetics and Fetishism: Key Stimuli and Power Objects

Abstract

A fetish is a specific emotionally loaded object, body part, or situation that draws our attention and desire, and sexual fetishism is the sexual arousal that a person experiences when in contact with such a loaded object. Until now, psychology has had trouble understanding the distinctive lust objects and the orchestration of urges in the world of fetishism, so fetishism has therefore fallen into the category of perversions and abnormal behavior. In this study, fetishism is moved to the field of aesthetics, and a new theory is presented: Fetishism is the attraction to certain species-specific key stimuli that are perceived as especially beautiful and exciting. A topic or an object that contains important key stimuli automatically becomes a power object or a fetish. Therefore, we have to look into the innate sensibilities on which our aesthetics are based and into the micro-processes of the aesthetic impulse to understand why something captivates and fascinates us in a fetishist way.

The venus figurines of the upper paleolithic as sexual power objects: The first fetishing of the female body in human imaginative culture.

“…stimulus functions as a kind of alpha stimulus dominating other input in the human hierarchy of attention, and an object containing key stimuli, therefore, automatically gets our attention and becomes a power object or a fetish, if you like (Høgh-Olesen, 2018.…”

“…Each key stimulus fits like a key to the lock of an inborn stimulus filter: the innate releasing mechanism in the central nervous system, which releases instinct-like behavior in the form of fixed action patterns when the specific key stimulus is perceived. In that way, the key stimulus functions as a kind of alpha stimulus dominating other input in the human hierarchy of attention, and an object containing key stimuli, therefore, automatically gets our attention and becomes a power object or a fetish, if you like (Høgh-Olesen, 2018, 2019).…”

“…The extremely tight corset is a treasured fetish to some, simply because it acts as an irresistible supernormal stimulus that intensifies the normal sexual key stimulus of the female hourglass figure, by presenting them with an exaggerated wasp waist. It is woman reduced to feminine geometry—intense erotic essence—and elevated to sexual power object in one tightening effort (Høgh-Olesen, 2018, 2019). Maybe you or your partner does not have the ideal body shape, but with the right corset, you can cultivate and kid nature and treat yourself to a heightened sexual arousal by consciously engineering the key stimuli that excite you.…”