Gen Z hates feet, so why is everyone jerking off to them?

There is almost nothing as divisive for young people as feet. 

On the one hand, feet are extremely popular. A 2020 study by social psychologist and sexual desire expert Justin Lehmiller found that one in seven people have had a foot-related fantasy at least once, making it one of the most common fetishes. Young people are also more likely to be foot-enjoyers: according to Pornhub’s 2025 Year in Review, Gen Z watched 347 per cent more feet porn last year than all other generations.

But as much as some Gen Zers love feet, others hate them with equal fervour. The foot is reviled. Toes are blurred or cropped out of posts, flip flops are replaced with Birkenstocks and socks. My generation views “having your dogs out” as a strange, deviant and even inherently sexual act. 

When I (journalistically) asked friends their thoughts on feet, the immediate response was often disgust, but when pressed for their reasoning, they couldn’t really answer. Gen Z is masturbating to and hating feet more than anyone else, and it’s not entirely clear why.

There’s no consensus on where foot fetishes come from. Sigmund Freud thought they could come from a desire misplaced too early when “the inquisitive boy peered at the woman’s genitals from below.” Some experts suggest that because the parts of the brain for genital and foot stimuli are right next to each other, there could be an “accidental link.” Others attribute them to evocative foot-related moments during youth.

No_Fortune_, a foot fetishist who requested to be referred to only by his Reddit username, is a moderator of the subreddit r/footfetishtalks, a group with over 90,000 members. He told me his fetish has always been there, like it’s “hard-wired.”

I’d never thought twice about my feet, but while working on this article, my eyes keep drifting away from my laptop and towards my digits — and honestly, there is something weird going on down there.

Feet aren’t treated like other body parts; they’re usually a private affair, covered more often than everything else, besides literal private parts. 

No_Fortune_ found an inherent taboo around feet from a young age, before he even understood his fetish.

“It almost felt like taking my socks off might have been the same as taking your trousers and your [underwear] off. Like you almost shouldn’t be showing this.” 

Foot fetishes have seemingly always existed, across centuries and cultures. There is something distinctly unusual about feet — not as overtly sexual as genitilia, butts or boobs, but far more than any other body part. 

As Vice put it in 2016, “The foot is both literally and figuratively an extension of the sex drive — attractive yet disgusting, totally natural yet completely strange.” 

It would make sense for feet to be an extension of the sex drive — both are facing a revolution in Gen Z’s relationship to them.

Eighteen to 24-year-olds make up the largest percentage of Pornhub viewers. One 2025 survey from Lad Bible found that over 88 per cent of respondents aged 18 to 28 reported watching porn. 

Yet at the same time, Gen Z is having far less sex and fewer relationships than any other generation at their age. But this isn’t a “generation of virgins” just because of an inability to get laid; part of it can be understood through their love/hate relationship with feet. 

The internet has fundamentally changed how feet are proliferated: it’s never been easier to look at — or masturbate to — feet, especially those posted innocuously. Some fetishists take unassumingly posted pics and use them, or send creepy messages.

No_Fortune_ believes that people having their feet fetishized without consent, by a minority of fetishists, creates paranoia and disgust toward foot fetishes. People worry that an unassuming flip-flop pic can be masturbated to at any given moment.

This isn’t feet-exclusive. The rest of the body can be sexualized online just as easily and anonymously.

As the first generation to grow up online, Gen Z has an ingrained paranoia of constant anonymous perception, ruled by the knowledge that anyone can sexualize them, and their toes, against their will. This results in subconsciously associating feet with the worst thing someone could do with pictures of them, leaving Gen Z with the perception that their feet are deviant and gross. 

The same perception of disgust and deviancy applies to the body and sex drive beyond feet. While not the sole reason for understanding Gen Z’s aversion to bodies and fornication, it may be helpful to look down.