Philadelphia Weekly

I'm a straight male foot fetishist and, like any other American male, I regularly Google my fetish. Last night I ran across a website promoting foot fetish parties in New York City: www.foot-worship-party.com. Have you heard of this event? Is it legit? Is it legal? For a guy with a foot fetish, it seems almost too good to true, which is why I'm worried. But it does seem like a great time for someone with my fetish.

"We're definitely legit," says Jason, the young entrepreneur who hosts the parties you read about, TOES. "We don't offer sex or prostitution. It's just about worshipping women's feet. It's an erotic party, but there's no sex."

Jason got started in the foot-fetish-party-hosting business four years ago and, like all the best kink entrepreneurs, he shares his clients' fetish. "I'm 26 now and I've been into feet pretty much since I was 8 years old. I didn't even know what a foot fetish was, though, until I was 15 and I started to have some experiences with girls. I paid a lot of attention to my girlfriends' feet and soon they started asking if I had a foot fetish."

Jason was working in marketing at a health club in Manhattan when he mustered up enough courage to attend his first foot-fetish party.

"It was awful," Jason recalls. "The women weren't attractive, there were 100 guys to 20 girls, and the people who worked there were really unfriendly. My business mind kicked in and I thought, 'What if I took this concept and did it right? A better ratio of guys to girls, hot girls with beautiful feet, friendly people?' Boom, I had my first party, and ever since then I've been very successful."

Indeed, Jason's monthly parties were such a success that he decided to open a studio in Midtown Manhattan to cater to foot fetishists who couldn't or wouldn't attend his parties. He calls his studio the Foot Worship Palace (www.footworshippalace.com). Private foot worship sessions at Jason's studio cost $200 an hour; entrance to Jason's foot worship parties is $150.

"Women can attend the parties at no charge," Jason says. "Any woman who wants to drop by and have men worship her feet is more than welcome. But we ask women to send an email first with a face shot and clear pictures of the tops and bottoms of their feet."

But why give it away for free, ladies? Attractive women who don't mind having their feet kissed, licked and massaged can make between $250 and $300 working at one of Jason's parties. And what should a woman expect when she walks into one of his parties?

"She's basically going to have men who are mostly submissive at her feet. These are men who like the idea of giving up their power and control and being at a woman's feet, worshipping her feet, massaging her toes."

Because he's not asking them to do typical sex-industry work, Jason says he's able to hire women who wouldn't normally do erotic work.

"We get real models and actresses, not prostitutes who claim they're models and actresses, along with good-looking professional women, and college students."

Before we got off the phone I congratulated Jason on his success. "Your parents must be so proud," I said.

"Actually they don't know what I do," Jason replied. "I grew up in a very conservative, very religious family. They still think I'm in the fitness industry."

I recently posted an Internet ad seeking to purchase used panties from women. I got emails from women who were interested, but I also got a lot of hurtful email from people telling me I'm sick and perverted. Surely sniffing used panties while masturbating isn't that bad, is it? What harm am I inflicting upon anyone or anything?

Maybe you should post an Internet ad seeking some balls, VPL. When people write in to tell you that you're sick and twisted, you don't lock yourself in the bathroom and have a good cry, you unbelievable pussy. No! You blast back an email that says, "You're damn right I'm sick and perverted-and I'm lovin' every fucking minute of it!"

What do you think of new pronouns for transgender people such as "zim" and "hir"? A transgender friend has asked that we start referring to zim by such pronouns. I don't want to hurt hir feelings, but I question the efficacy of the strategy. Aren't we supposed to be moving toward eliminating gender from pronouns? And isn't simplicity the point of pronouns?

I think they're ztupid.