Of course the preceding point begs an important question: how do we get from a foot fetish to the main themes I have extracted from Zizek and this particular book: the role that push/pull Jouissance plays in our personal and social behaviors (most notably in acts of human cruelty) and the role it plays in Capitalist hegemony that somehow always seems to pull all human acts back into the fold.
We can start by delving deeper into “the unbearable” that defines the Jouissance of the foot fetish and the foot as objet petit a: that which is more than itself. The foot is a thing in itself. Beyond that, it has no meaning. However, in terms of the foot fetish, we are dealing with an absence that surrounds it that is filled by the presence of fantasy. However, the fantasy that surrounds it does not have the full presence of being that the foot itself does (or even the curling of the toes). And this is what creates the magical aura that seems to surround this particular fetish or objet petit a. It comes from the tension that emerges between presence and absence or that which offers the possibility of satisfaction while not fully satisfying and which, therefore, must always keep us in a state of desire or demand.
To get a sense of the unbearable nature of it, one only need think of a scene in one of the Hellraiser series in which one of the chambers of Hell consisted of a couple fucking, clearly enjoying it at some level, but condemned to never reach the threshold of climax. And we can see this same unbearable dynamic at work in the foot fetish: it offers the possibility of satisfying while never truly satisfying: a constant state of demand.
Of course, a foot is not the only object we can form a fetish for by forming a magical aura around it. Take money, for instance. It too is a partial object (objet petit a) with surrounding gaps that we must fill in with fantasy. This is why, when we think about it (or having more of it), we tend to think in terms of the possibilities it offers us. And we have to ask how that possibility is any less unbearable than a couple fucking with no possibility of passing the threshold of satisfaction. Is it any wonder that money has been considered the root of all evil?
And don’t we, as the creatively and intellectually curious, suffer from the same dynamic? I mean what is this very post but a partial object (an objet petit a), a fetish with a magical aura, or any other thing we can create, that satisfies through the promise of satisfaction while never truly satisfying. We always stand before the next creative hymen (the elastic barrier). We ram against it only to have it stretch, our faces forming on the other side as we push against it. Eventually, if we stay with it, the barrier weakens and we break through. But for what? To find ourselves in yet another chamber with yet another hymen to break through.
And while it may offer a tentative experience (the illusion) of satisfaction, how far is it from the Hell of the eternal fuck with no possibility of climax?