https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=LVcESNMAvy0
I’ve been thinking lately about fetish and how prevalent fetishism is in our society, not just sexual fetishism but the fetishization of consumer objects. What is the nature and purpose of fetish and how does that relate and differ from the nature and purpose of symbol? I think that’s a really important question because the notion of the fetish, let’s say, even if you do see it as a sexual fetish, but if you also see it in terms of the idea of the traditional idea of an idol as a fetish, as this object that is in a way full of meaning, but the problem with the fetish is that it is not placed in its proper place in a normal hierarchy. So think about it, I think that if you think about someone who has a sexual fetish, I think it’s probably the easiest way to see it. If you think about somebody who is obsessed, let’s say, with feet, sexually obsessed with feet, then the foot comes to have a lot of meaning and in it you place a lot of your desire and your meaning into it. And so in that sense it becomes an idol because it in a way is not in its proper place. The foot has a purpose, which is to walk, which is to make you stand up, and it doesn’t mean that the foot cannot participate, let’s say, in sexual attraction. Of course, of course it can’t, but it has to, when it becomes the sole focus of that interest, then all of a sudden it loses its function and becomes a, really what you would call an idol, which is an object in which meaning is so, meaning is kind of so prevalent that it loses its place in a normal hierarchy. You can see the relationship between fetishization of an object and pride. You can do that for yourself. You can see yourself as being self-sufficient, as being self-containing, and in doing that you make the mistake of not seeing yourself in a normal spiritual hierarchy where you need to submit to different authorities, where you need to submit to God. And that is really, and so to me the fetish or the idol is directly related to the passion of pride. So I hope that makes sense. And so what is the symbol of kink and fetish is? It has to do with the fact that the capacity for humans to have desires is unlimited. And it’s also not only unlimited, but it’s also imprisoning. And so one of the reasons, let’s say, why in the Christian church sexuality is tried is there’s an attempt to bring sexuality into marriage because it’s a constraining of sexuality in a place where it can reach its fullest, sorry, its fullest realization, its fullest totality, which is that there’s an aspect of love, there’s an aspect of pleasure, there’s an aspect of also continuing the species. And it’s done in a way which represents the relationship between God and the soul. Now the difficulty with fetishes is that what happens with fetishes is that people’s desires go into a queer direction, in a strange direction, and then fall on strange things and then rest there and become obsessions. They become not just obsessions, but they become, to some point if you go too far in that direction, you will not be able to find satisfaction and reality in the normal relationship with a woman which produces a child. But you will be drawn out of that into the strangeness of your kink, of your fetish. And so if you look at the specific kinks and fetishes, like a lot of them, they manifest what they are. They manifest extremes, whether it has to do with using toys, with using exterior objects to participate in your sexuality, whether it has to do with reducing your attraction to certain parts of the body, whether it has to do with going towards violence, whether it has to do with, like whatever it is, they’re not arbitrary, they’re completely meaningful. But the meaning that they’re showing you is this kind of breakdown of sexuality into all its kind of weird possibilities and the trap that that does, like it can trap you in that desire. So, yeah, so I don’t know what to say, you know. And so, but it’s like you have to understand that Christianity understands that marriage is like a cross, it’s like a sacrifice. That marriage is a form of asceticism to a certain extent. It’s a form of constraining sexuality so that it doesn’t get out of control and drag you down into itself.