Footsie (flirting)
Footsie (footsy, or footsies) is a flirting game where two people touch feet under a table or otherwise concealed place, often as a romantic prelude. It is a game played either as an act of flirtatious body language, or simply for enjoyment. Although footsie is not inherently romantic, the nature of it as playful touching is often done between lovers as a sign of affection, and most often without discussion. The term comes from a 1940s humorous diminutive of foot.[1]
Effects
In a 1994 study on secret relationships, participants (college students from the US) played a partnered card game in which a subset were instructed to play footsie with their card playing partner.[2] Of these, individuals whose footsie was kept a secret rated the attractiveness of their partner significantly higher than either those who did not play footsie, or those whose footsie was publicly known.[3]
Law
Playing footsie is not sexual molestation according to a decision of the Supreme Court of Cassation in Italy in 2000.[4][5]
Use in popular culture and medicine
American comics author Robert Crumb published an autobiographic comic strip named "Footsy" in 1987[6] which deals with ″his teenager encounters with the feet of various lusty creatures at school″ and is a "typically self-lacerating portrayal of one of Crumb's myriad sexual fetishes".[7][8]
In training of the plantar fascia a device called footsie roller is used for the foot.[9]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Footsie. |
References
- "Footsie". oxforddictionaries.com. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
- Bryan Marquard. "Daniel M. Wegner, 65; Harvard social psychologist unraveled mysteries of thought and memory". The Boston Globe. Retrieved April 15, 2015.
- Wegner DM, Lane JD, Dimitri S (1994). "The allure of secret relationships". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 66: 287–300. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.66.2.287. Retrieved April 15, 2015.
- Italienisches Gericht hat entschieden: "Füßeln" ist keine sexuelle Belästigung, Rheinische Post, 4. März 2000
- The Italian Court of Cassation (the Supreme Court) ruled that playing “footsie” is not a crime
- Lan Dong: Teaching Comics and Graphic Narratives: Essays on Theory, Strategy and Practice, McFarland & Company, 2012, p. 21
- The Return of Robert Crumb, Time, August 20, 2002
- The Complete Crumb, Vol. 16
- Art Riggs: Deep Tissue Massage: A Visual Guide to Techniques, North Atlantic Books, 2002, p. 65