Origins of a fetish

Yesterday’s post on the reality of medical facilities got me thinking about the origins of fetishes. Scott left a comment about his recent medical procedures and how unerotic they were, which aligns with my personal experiences of hospitals. Yet, the medical fetish seems to be a very popular one. I think that offers a great illustration of just how complex fetish origins can be.

Looking at ‘simple’ fetishes like feet, latex or stockings it’s tempting to come up with a very reductive explanation, involving just the right mixture of the item in question, a female figure of desire and an impressionable child. A suitable blend of positive elements and poof, fetish wiring imprinted into the brain. But how does a child subvert something as unpleasant as a hospital stay into an erotic charge later in life? That’s not an obvious ‘positive’ origin at all. One might guess that fear, female authority figures, clinical intimacy and a focus on the body all play a role. But it would seem impossible to boil it down to some sort of Pavlovian response to basic stimulus.

I’m not really a fetish person, but like a lot of areas of human sexuality, I do find them fascinating to ponder. They may manifest themselves in a similar fashion (fetishized+fetishist=fun), but their origins must be highly variable and complex.

Nurse about to examine patientThis seems to be a suitable image to continue the medical femdom theme. I found it on the iHonorHer blog. I believe this is Stephanie Seymour from Vogue France in 1995.

Author: paltego

See the 'about' page if you really want to know about me.

4 thoughts on “Origins of a fetish”

  1. I have some understanding of this fetish. I had a sub who had spent most of childhood in and out of the hospital. Especially during the puberty stage when the sexual wiring is taking place. He experienced nurses standing by and sometimes helping while he would shower; sponge baths; and a very naughty student nurse who took his virginity at 15!

    We did have great fun while together playing ‘Naughty Nurse’! I did love giving him exams! 😉 But I never did get into the medical instruments part. My stomach is too queasy for that! I’d make a lousy nurse…can’t even stand the sight of blood! Thank god, sexual arousal was the theme for us!

    ~ Vista

    1. Interesting. Sounds like he actually ended up with some positive reinforcement of the medical scene. I’ve always tended to think of it as a negative twisted into a positive, but that seems like a mixture of the two. Can’t say being in or out of hospitals as a child would have been pleasant, but a naughty student nurse would have been welcome addition to my teenage years!

      Sounds like you had scope for some great roleplaying scenarios given that background.

      -paltego

  2. When I was in early puberty (1958 or so) we had to have a physical for PE. This would never happen in today’s world of tight budgets – heck some school systems don’t even have PE. But back then If you didn’t get a physical on your own, the School had a Doctor come in and give all the slackers one. It was a pretty simple physical – no needles – just a “say ahhhh” and “take a deep breath”, and “Cough” while I hold your testicles.

    The thing is – the doctor was this REALLY HOT blond. That was, without a doubt, the first woman doctor I had ever seen – in her white lab coat, stethoscope, and everything. She was cold and business like, put on the latex gloves and went to work.

    And at 14, she ordered me to drop my pants, then held my testicles while I coughed.

    And you don’t understand how medical fetishes start? 🙂

    1. That’s funny. I heard rumor of that kind of medical exam I was a kid. It was a playground story passed around to scare people. But it must have been phased out years before I hit puberty, as it never happened to me. I can’t say I would have objected to the kind of doctor you were lucky enough to experience!

      -paltego

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