Is our hobby actually a Fetish?

[Blondie]

Was watching High Fidelity again the other day, with John Cusack. He had this line looking at the camera:

" I get by because of the people who make a special effort to shop here - mostly young men - who spend all their time looking for deleted Smith singles and original, not rereleased - underlined - Frank Zappa albums. Fetish properties are not unlike porn. I'd feel guilty taking their money, if I wasn't... well... kinda one of them."

How many of you believe you are at the fetish level with the shaves?

 

[krissy]

It's only a fetish if you get sexual gratification from it.


It's something I enjoy but it's definitely not a fetish for me.

 

[TheHatter]

Given the ridiculous amount of shaving goodies I just bought this week, I'll toss myself in that category.

Edit: well....ok, it doesn't get me quite that aroused...

 

[bearbear]

almost fetish... i feel as though i can achieve sexual gratification with a partner until i've got a bbs shave.

 

[joshmpdx]

it's a passion, similar to Bocce ball, smoking cigars, driving vintage vespas, surfing the oregon coast, and playing tennis

 

[SilverB]

fetish? No...Obsession, may be the better word that expresses how we feel about shaving, but even that is too much of a strong word.

I admit though, I think about shaving way more now since using a DE, always trying to find ways to achieve that "perfect" shave.

 

[eclipse75]

fetish, i agree is a bad term to describe it. so lets just pretend you meant "obsession" because everyone seems to be getting off track here. i would say i am not quite to being obsessed, but it is getting there. it is only shaving, yet i take notice and spend an explicit amount of time during my morning routine on it. although i argue that i am learning and trying to better myself for it. so i dont know, it is a toss up. in my opinion, it is something i have to do for the rest of my freaking life, so i am putting emphasis on it to get it right and good.

 

[HoratioCaine]

It's only a fetish if you get sexual gratification from it.

I actually know people who do get sexual gratification from it, although that's a different kind of shaving. But that's beside the point. From Webster's:

fetish:
1 a : an object believed to have magical power to protect or aid its owner

b : an object of irrational reverence or obsessive devotion

c : an object or bodily part whose real or fantasied presence is psychologically necessary for sexual gratification and that is an object of fixation to the extent that it may interfere with complete sexual expression


One need not get sexual gratification from something in order for it to be a fetish. Conversely, when a fetish is sexual in nature, it must be "required" by the fetishist to such an extent that sexual gratification is not capable without the fetishized object.

 

[SiBurning]

Behold the power of Rooney

 

[OpusX]

it's a passion, similar to Bocce ball, smoking cigars, driving vintage vespas, surfing the oregon coast, and playing tennis

Definitely a passion. I have found a love of this craft, and art. Also I can now appreciate the skill I am learning, as well as the craftsmanship of the tools I use.

Then again....I've only been at this a few weeks

 

[Monkeydad]

It's only a fetish if you get sexual gratification from it.


It's something I enjoy but it's definitely not a fetish for me.

Ewwww...my blades are not going there.

 

[guru]

Yeah, I guess it depends on what you do with your razor. I just shave with mine. So I just have a useful hobby.

 

[krissy]

Ewwww...my blades are not going there.

How many of you believe you are at the fetish level with the shaves?

Next time I'll quote the OP, I would hope this topic would be about the act of shaving not doing other things with their razor, The later would belong on another type of forum. LOL It's about the simple act of shaving giving them sexual gratification. I just happen prefer smooth legs to stubbly and hairy ones.


but i knows yo' were jest makin' a joke,

 

[Vermifuge]

Was watching High Fidelity again the other day, with John Cusack. He had this line looking at the camera:

" I get by because of the people who make a special effort to shop here - mostly young men - who spend all their time looking for deleted Smith singles and original, not rereleased - underlined - Frank Zappa albums. Fetish properties are not unlike porn. I'd feel guilty taking their money, if I wasn't... well... kinda one of them."

How many of you believe you are at the fetish level with the shaves?

One of my favorite movies. I also have a huge collection of original Smiths albums.

 

[Left Coast DJ]

I want Jenna Jameson to shave me every day with Tabac!

 

[Vermifuge]

It's only a fetish if you get sexual gratification from it.

It's something I enjoy but it's definitely not a fetish for me.

This is incorrect. That would be a sexual fetish. In this case it would be a commodity fetishism. This is the Marxist idea that people have a compulsion to collect things often to gain status is social communities. In other words an object obtains value to an individual or group of individuals who see value in it more then the sum of it's parts (Raw materials, Labor to Manufacture, retail price.)

If you look at the Etymology the word originally meant "To charm" in a magical sense. More commonly a fetish is something that is irrationally revered. Obviously this was later manipulated to describe people who find gratification from nontraditional sources.

 

[salisburyyates]

One of my favourite aspects of this hobby (this is what it is to me) is the fact that every morning, theres a new beard that I can shave and that will allow me to use my various scented products.

I would say it was an obsession, a passion, a fixation, and now a hobby.

I only started this about a month ago, but decided to stop buying things recently after I noticed a little SSAD here, a little SCAD there, and some ASAD when time permitted. This became too involved, and I was thinking about shaving more than other vastly more important things.

So now it is a pleasurable activity that I engage in for 10-15 minutes every day to every other day.

 

[ClubmanRob]

"Fetish", despite its enchanted origins, is generally used to describe a sexual kink in modern etymology. Right now we're at the fork in the road in the history of the word's usage where roughly half of us hear it and think "sexual fixation" and the other half hear "general fixation". We're probably just as confused as the folks in the 1600's who heard fetish and thought "a magical amulate" while the rest of the crowd heard "obsessive desire".

So, is shaving a fetish? Sure, it's a pretty obsessive hobby for most of us. It's also a very popular sexual fetish. Don't believe me? Tell a stranger on the street that you have a hardcore shaving fetish and see what they think you mean.

 

[Vermifuge]

"Fetish", despite its enchanted origins, is generally used to describe a sexual kink in modern etymology. Right now we're at the fork in the road in the history of the word's usage where roughly half of us hear it and think "sexual fixation" and the other half hear "general fixation". We're probably just as confused as the folks in the 1600's who heard fetish and thought "a magical amulate" while the rest of the crowd heard "obsessive desire".

So, is shaving a fetish? Sure, it's a pretty obsessive hobby for most of us. It's also a very popular sexual fetish. Don't believe me? Tell a stranger on the street that you have a hardcore shaving fetish and see what they think you mean.

As per the context of the movie it was a Marxist comment and not meant to be sexual.

 

[ClubmanRob]

As per the context of the movie it was a Marxist comment and not meant to be sexual.

What movie? And what does Karl Marx have to do with a term that means the same thing now that it meant two hundred years before his birth?

Edit: I see now, we're still talking about John Cusack for some strange reason.