"The authors reviewed historical literature and hypothesized a relationship between epidemics of sexually transmitted diseases and foot fetishism. They tested this hypothesis by quantifying foot-fetish depictions in the mass-circulation pornographic literature during a 30-yr. interval. An exponential increase was noted during the period of the current AIDS epidemic. The authors offer reasons for this possible relationship."
Bonus excerpts from the main text:Introduction"During the current millenium, there have been four major epidemics of sexually transmitted disease as noted by contemporaries. In the Western World there was an apparent gonorrhea epidemic in the Thirteenth Century, syphilis epidemics in the Sixteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, and AIDS in the current century (Moodle, 1923; Long, 1929; Bayon, 1990). During each of those periods there seemed to emerge a sexual focus on the female foot. This focus apparently coincided with each of the first three epidemics and disappeared with the epidemic's subsidence, usually after 30-60 years ...
