What is a fetish?

[AnthroHeart]

Is a fetish a bias? Does it come from unconscious desires?
I am fully conscious of my fetishes, but are they based in the unconscious as well? Why are some stronger than others?

For instance I like the light touch. I like touching another lightly. If I get great pleasure out of that, it could be considered a fetish.

[Unbound]

Of course fetishes are biases and they are unconscious desires if you do not know why you have that bias. It is one thing to be aware of the bias itself, another thing to be aware of the root or anchor for that bias in your own psyche. As for why some are stronger than others, that is a question I have been chasing for years.

[AnthroHeart]

Even the Logos has a bias towards kindness, so I don't think that bias unbalances us. I was wondering if somehow a bias keeps us from experiencing intelligent infinity.

And Ra has an STO bias as Monica puts it. That is my bias too, though I haven't explored love to the level of martyrdom.

[Stranger]

Fetishes indicate a diversion of sexual energy. Instead of seeing the sexual partner as an individual equal to oneself (as a Thou), in fetishism the partner is increasingly objectified (as an It). Rather than being motivated by love towards the other-self and a way to experience a loving union of self and other-self, the experience becomes one of sexual attraction towards an item or superficial attribute that can satisfy one's physiological sexual desire.

I would suggest that fetishes in fact often develop as a way to _avoid_ having a full I-Thou relationship with another individual. A full, deeply interpersonal I-Thou relationship can feel threatening if one is unsure of oneself; fetishizing and thereby objectifying the other can feel safer, since objects always act in predictable ways.

[xise]

Searching www.lawofone.info for the word "fetish" yielded zero results.

What's your definition of the word fetish? I've never heard of anyone comparing liking light touches to a fetish?

[darklight]

I wonder if the Confederation wears latex cat suits. xD