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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 15, 2024

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A distinction I often see made online, though I'll admit this might be like The Simpsons Jealousy vs Envy distinction (that is to say, not actually a distinction consistent with current or historical use), is that a fetish is required for arousal/climax while a kink is not.

So someone who gets off on feet would have a foot kink, someone who needs feet to get off would have a foot fetish.

So someone who gets off on feet would have a foot kink, someone who needs feet to get off would have a foot fetish.

I thought it was the other way around. a fetish was something unusually specific and arrousing, and a kink was the same but obligatory. "kink" like a kink in a hose, a blockage, an obstruction, something you have to work around.

Would this suggest that someone having multiple different fetishes would need all of them present to get off?

It would more likely suggest to me that those aren't their actual fetishes, but are merely triggers for a deeper fetish. For instance, a person who gets off on being peed on may have a piss fetish or they may have a humiliation fetish (or some other fetish) that being peed on happens to trigger.

It would explain how deep the e.g. doujinshi iceberg goes.

I think one could argue they would still be fetishes if the person has, say, 3 and they need at least 1 of the 3 at any given time but not necessarily all 3 at once.

Though if someone has 99 and they need just 1 at any time, it could surely just be rounded off to just not liking vanilla sex.