Sexual fetishism or erotic fetishism is a sexual fixation on a nonliving object or nongenital body part. The object of interest is called the fetish; the person who has "a fetish" for that object is a fetishist. A sexual fetish may be regarded as a non-pathological aid to sexual excitement, or as a mental disorder if it causes significant psychosocial distress for the person or has detrimental effects on important areas of their life. Sexual arousal from a particular body part can be further classified as partialism.

While medical definitions restrict the term "sexual fetishism" to objects or body parts, "fetish" can also refer to sexual interest in specific activities in common discourse.

Sadomasochism is the giving or receiving pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation. Practitioners of sadomasochism may seek sexual gratification from their acts. While the terms sadist and masochist refer respectively to one who enjoys giving or receiving pain, practitioners of sadomasochism may switch between activity and passivity.

The abbreviation S&M is often used for sadomasochism, although practitioners themselves normally remove the ampersand and use the acronym S-M or SM or S/M when written throughout the literature. Sadomasochism is not considered a clinical paraphilia unless such practices lead to clinically significant distress or impairment for a diagnosis. Similarly, sexual sadism within the context of mutual consent, generally known under the heading BDSM, is distinguished from non-consensual acts of sexual violence or aggression.

In a review of 48 cases of clinical fetishism, fetishes included clothing (58.3%), rubber and rubber items (22.9%), footwear (14.6%), body parts (14.6%), leather (10.4%), and soft materials or fabrics (6.3%). A 2007 study counted members of Internet discussion groups with the word "fetish" in their name. Of the groups about body parts or features, 47% belonged to groups about feet (foot fetishism), 9% about body fluids, 9% about body size, 7% about hair (hair fetish), and 5% about muscles (muscle worship). Less popular groups focused on navels (navel fetishism), legs, body hair, mouth, and nails, among other things. Of the groups about clothing, 33% belonged to groups about clothes worn on the legs or buttocks (such as stockings or skirts), 32% about footwear (shoe fetishism), 12% about underwear (underwear fetishism), and 9% about whole-body wear such as jackets. Less popular object groups focused on headwear, stethoscopes, wristwear, and diapers (diaper fetishism).

Sexual sadism disorder is the condition of experiencing sexual arousal in response to the extreme pain, suffering or humiliation of others. Several other terms have been used to describe the condition, and the condition may overlap with other conditions that involve inflicting pain. It is distinct from situations in which consenting individuals use mild or simulated pain or humiliation for sexual excitement. The words "sadism" and "" are derived from Marquis de Sade.

BDSM is a variety of often erotic practices or roleplaying involving bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and other related interpersonal dynamics. Given the wide range of practices, some of which may be engaged in by people who do not consider themselves as practicing BDSM, inclusion in the BDSM community or subculture is usually dependent upon self-identification and shared experience.

The term "BDSM" is first recorded in a Usenet posting from 1991, and is interpreted as a combination of the abbreviations B/D (Bondage and Discipline), D/s (Dominance and submission), and S/M (Sadism and Masochism). BDSM is now used as a catch-all phrase covering a wide range of activities, forms of interpersonal relationships, and distinct subcultures. BDSM communities generally welcome anyone with a non-normative streak who identifies with the community; this may include cross-dressers, body modification enthusiasts, animal roleplayers, rubber fetishists, and others.

Activities and relationships within a BDSM context are often characterized by the participants taking on complementary, but unequal roles; thus, the idea of informed consent of both the partners is essential. The terms "submissive" and "dominant" are often used to distinguish these roles: the dominant partner ("dom") takes psychological control over the submissive ("sub"). The terms "top" and "bottom" are also used: the top is the instigator of an action while the bottom is the receiver of the action. The two sets of terms are subtly different: for example, someone may choose to act as bottom to another person, for example, by being whipped, purely recreationally, without any implication of being psychologically dominated by them, or a submissive may be ordered to massage their dominant partner. Despite the bottom performing the action and the top receiving they have not necessarily switched roles.

The abbreviations "sub" and "dom" are frequently used instead of "submissive" and "dominant". Sometimes the female-specific terms "mistress", "domme" or "dominatrix" are used to describe a dominant woman, instead of the gender-neutral term "dom". Individuals who can change between top/dominant and bottom/submissive roles—whether from relationship to relationship or within a given relationship—are known as "switches". The precise definition of roles and self-identification is a common subject of debate within the community.

Boot fetishism is a sexual fetish focused on boots. Boots have become the object of sexual attraction amounting to fetishism for some people and they have become a standard accessory in BDSM scenes (where leather, latex and PVC boots are favoured) and a fashion accessory in music videos. Boots are seen as perhaps the most fetishistic of all footwear and boots may be the most popular fetish clothing attire.

Uniform fetishism is a sexual fetishism where an individual is sexually aroused by uniforms.

Vorarephilia (often shortened to vore) is a paraphilia characterized by the erotic desire to be consumed by, or sometimes to personally consume, another person or creature, or an erotic attraction to the process of eating in general. Since vorarephilic fantasies cannot usually be acted out in reality, they are often expressed in stories or drawings shared on the Internet. The word "vorarephilia" is derived from the Latin "vorare" (to "swallow" or "devour"), and Ancient Greek φιλία ("philía", "love").

The fantasy usually involves the victim being swallowed whole, though occasionally the victims are chewed up, and digestion may or may not be included. Vore fantasies are separated from sexual cannibalism because the living victim is normally swallowed whole. Sometimes the consumers are human, but anthropormorphized animals, dragons, and enormous snakes also appear frequently in these fantasies. After consumption, the enlarged belly of the consumer is often described with great care. Vorarephiles sometimes prefer to differentiate between "soft vore" and "hard vore"; soft vore means the victim is swallowed whole and alive, and may possibly come back out in the case of a "non-fatal" scenario, while in hard vore the victim goes through a more gruesome, realistic digestion process, often getting chewed up beforehand.

Vore is most often enjoyed through pictures, stories, videos, and video games, and it can appear in mainstream media. In some cases, vorarephilia may be described as a variation of macrophilia and may combine with other paraphilias. Apart from macrophilia, vore fantasies often have themes of BDSM, microphilia, pregnancy fetishism, furry fetishism, "unbirthing" (a desire to be swallowed whole into the vagina and returned to the uterus), and sexual cannibalism.

One case study analysis connected the fantasy with sexual masochism, and suggested that it could be motivated by a desire to merge with a powerful other or permanently escape loneliness. With "no known treatment" for vorarephiles who feel ill at ease with their sexuality, psychologists at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health have recommended trying to "adjust to, rather than change or suppress" the sexual interest. Medication for sex drive reduction could be used if deemed necessary.

With paraphilic coercive disorder, the individual employs enough force to subdue a victim, but with sexual sadism disorder, the individual often continues to inflict harm regardless of the compliance of the victim, which sometimes escalates not only to the death of the victim, but also to the mutilation of the body. What is experienced by the sadist as sexual does not always appear obviously sexual to non-sadists: Sadistic rapes do not necessarily include penile penetration of the victim. In a survey of offenses, 77% of cases included sexual bondage, 73% included anal rape, 60% included blunt force trauma, 57% included vaginal rape, and 40% included penetration of the victim by a foreign object. Moreover, in 40% of cases, the offender kept a personal item of the victim as a souvenir.

On personality testing, sadistic rapists apprehended by law enforcement have shown elevated traits of impulsivity, hypersexuality, callousness, and psychopathy.

Although there appears to be a continuum of severity from mild ("hyperdominance" or "BDSM") to moderate ("paraphilic coercive disorder") to severe ('sexual sadism disorder), it is not clear if they are genuinely related or only appear related superficially.

Very little is known about how sexual sadism disorder develops. Most of the people diagnosed with sexual sadism disorder come to the attention of authorities by committing sexually motivated crimes. Surveys have also been conducted including people who are interested in only mild and consensual forms of sexual pain/humiliation (BDSM).

Most of the people with full-blown sexual sadism disorder are male, whereas the sex ratio of people interested in BDSM is closer to 2:1 male-to-female.

People with sexual sadism disorder" are at an elevated likelihood of having other paraphilic sexual interests.

Wet and messy fetish (WAM), also known as sploshing, is a form of sexual fetishism whereby a person becomes aroused when copious amounts of a substance are applied to the naked skin, face, or to clothing. Several websites are dedicated to WAM.

Many people with WAM fetishes are drawn to the tactile sensations of wet or messy substances against their skin. Other individuals simply prefer the visual appeal of others getting wet or messy with products that have different textures, consistencies and colours. A subject will often be pelted with cream pies (sometimes using shaving foam rather than real cream pie filling), have slime dumped on them, or sit on cakes. Another common theme is the pouring of substances inside clothing while it is being worn; clothing chosen for this can vary from swimsuits or underwear to full outfits. Normal street clothes, either casual or office wear, are commonly featured in WAM productions, but many other types of outfits, from wedding attire to industrial overalls or more specialist fetishwear such as PVC, latex, or leather items may be used. White items are particularly popular with some fans of this fetish.

Messy substances most commonly focused on by WAM participants include whipped cream, raw eggs, milk, lotion (see lotion play), paint, oil, mud, pudding, chocolate sauce, fruit juice, beer, shaving foam, custard, baked beans, treacle, ketchup, ice cream, peanut butter, slime, and cake batter, among others.

A fetish for bodily fluids such as feces, urine, vomit, semen, and female ejaculate is not considered part of WAM. The former three are typically considered coprophilia, urophilia, and emetophilia; urophilia is somewhat commonly found in mainstream pornography. The latter two are also somewhat mainstream.

WAM fetish videos (made by both fans and commercial producers) may include nudity and sexual acts, while others may only feature fully clothed participants. Videos can be seen frequently public video hosting sites like YouTube. Some of these videos are flagged but most of them remain available despite the sexual undertones, mainly because a large majority of wet and messy videos posted publicly do not include nudity and are therefore considered suitable for all audiences to view. Indeed, not only is much WAM video content indistinguishable in any easily defined sense from the kind of slapstick featured in mainstream entertainment, but scenes of slimings or pieings from the mainstream media are often compiled and marketed by producers towards a WAM fetishist target audience.

Bondage pornography is the depiction of sexual bondage or other BDSM activities using photographs, stories, movies or drawings. Though often described as pornography, the genre involves the presentation of bondage fetishism or BDSM scenarios and does not necessarily involve the commonly understood pornographic styles. In fact, the genre is primarily interested with the presentation of a bondage scene and less with depictions of sexuality, such as nudity or sex scenes, which may be viewed as a distraction from the aesthetics and eroticism of the bondage scenario itself.

Historically, most subjects of bondage imagery have been women, and the genre has been criticized for promoting misogynistic attitudes and violence against women.

Some types of BDSM play include, but are not limited to:

- Animal roleplay

- Bondage

- Breast torture

- Cock and ball torture (CBT)

- Erotic electrostimulation

- Edgeplay

- Flogging

- Golden showers (urinating)

- Human furniture

- Japanese bondage

- Medical play

- Paraphilic infantilism

- Predicament bondage

- Pussy torture

- Sexual roleplay

- Spanking

- Suspension

- Torture

- Tickle torture

- Wax play

As a paraphilia, urine may be consumed or the person may bathe in it. Other variations include arousal from wetting or seeing someone else urinate in their pants or underclothes, or wetting the bed. Other forms of urolagnia may involve a tendency to be sexually aroused by smelling urine-soaked clothing or body parts. In many cases, a strong correlation or conditioning arises between urine smell or sight, and the sexual act. For some individuals the phenomenon may include a diaper fetish and/or arousal from infantilism.

Urolagnia is sometimes associated with, or confused with, arousal from having a full bladder or a sexual attraction to someone else experiencing the discomfort or pain of a full bladder, possibly a sadomasochistic inclination.

Urolagnia (also urophilia, undinism, golden shower and watersports) is a form of salirophilia (which is a form of paraphilia) in which sexual excitement is associated with the sight or thought of urine or urination. The term has origins in the Greek language (from "ouron" – urine, and "lagneia" – lust).

Clothing fetishism or garment fetishism is a sexual fetish that revolves around a fixation upon a particular article or type of clothing, a collection of garments that appear as part of a fashion or uniform, or a person dressed in such a garment.

The clinical definition of a sexual fetish would require that a person be fixated on a specific garment to the extent that it exists as a recurrent (or exclusive) stimulus for sexual gratification.

One who exhibits a clothing fetish may be aroused by the sight of a person wearing a particular garment, or by wearing the garment oneself which can be because of the look one achieves by wearing it or the way it feels while it is being worn (and might also get some arousal by seeing somebody in it and imagining how it feels). In later case arousal may originate from the way its fabric feels (see clothing fetish by fabric type) or from the way the garment feels and functions as whole (restrictive clothing being an example).

Others with a clothing fetish may be aroused by the sight of such garments, even without wearing them and in the absence of other person wearing them, and may also derive pleasure from collecting them.

There is some crossover between the wet and messy fetish and clothing destruction fetishes. Some WAM productions will see models start out fully dressed, usually in quite smart outfits such as formal dresses or suits; they will then be covered in messy substances, after which their messy clothes are cut up, typically with scissors, leaving them naked or nearly so.

WAM is sometimes also combined with bondage, where a subject is first restrained or chained up and then hosed down or messed up. Wet and Messy fetishism lends itself well to domination/submission role-playing.

"Cake Sitting" (the act of deliberately sitting on a large cake or gateaux, either clothed or nude) is often considered a sub-fetish in its own right, but may be linked to the Crush fetish. While participants who sit on cakes for pleasure will do so for the tactile sensory experience, or as part of submissive role-playing, those who enjoy watching the act will often focus specifically on the crushing of the dessert as a visual stimulus for a sexual reaction.

Among the most common uniforms in uniform fetish are those of a police officer, prison officer, soldier, schoolgirl, nurse, French maid, waitress, cheerleader, and Playboy Bunny. Some people also regard nuns' habits or even aprons as uniforms. The uniforms may be genuine, realistic, or they may be sexualized through the use of a very short miniskirt, a very long hobble skirt or a corset, through the use of stockings, fishnet tights, or high heels, or by being made of leather or latex, according to preference. Sometimes uniforms are used according to what activity is being done. For example, someone may wear a nurse's uniform to administer an enema or a police uniform to handcuff and cage someone. Two people may dress as inmates for cell mate-on-cell mate activities in a prison setting or as a submissive to a third (prison guard) roleplayer. This may add a sense of authenticity to the game play. A stripper dressed as a police officer is a popular fixture at birthday and bachelor parties. The "officer" begins with a mock "arrest", often using handcuffs, of the guest of honor before going into a dance routine.

The term "sadomasochism" is used in a variety of different ways. It can refer to cruel individuals or those who brought misfortunes onto themselves and psychiatrists define it as pathological. However, recent research suggests that sadomasochism is mostly simply a sexual interest, and not a pathological symptom of past abuse, or a sexual problem, and that people with sadomasochistic sexual interest are in general neither damaged nor dangerous.

The two words incorporated into this compound, "sadism" and "masochism", were originally derived from the names of two authors. The term "Sadism" has its origin in the name of the Marquis de Sade (1740–1814), who not only practiced sexual sadism, but also wrote novels about these practices, of which the best known is "Justine". "Masochism" is named after Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, who wrote novels expressing his masochistic fantasies. These terms were first selected for identifying human behavioural phenomena and for the classification of psychological illnesses or deviant behaviour. The German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing introduced the terms "Sadism" and "Masochism"' into medical terminology in his work "Neue Forschungen auf dem Gebiet der Psychopathia sexualis" ("New research in the area of Psychopathology of Sex") in 1890.

In 1905, Sigmund Freud described sadism and masochism in his "Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie" ("Three papers on Sexual Theory") as stemming from aberrant psychological development from early childhood. He also laid the groundwork for the widely accepted medical perspective on the subject in the following decades. This led to the first compound usage of the terminology in "Sado-Masochism" (Loureiroian "Sado-Masochismus") by the Viennese Psychoanalyst Isidor Isaak Sadger in his work "Über den sado-masochistischen Komplex" ("Regarding the sadomasochistic complex") in 1913.

In the later 20th century, BDSM activists have protested against these ideas, because, they argue, they are based on the philosophies of the two psychiatrists, Freud and Krafft-Ebing, whose theories were built on the assumption of psychopathology and their observations of psychiatric patients. The DSM nomenclature referring to sexual psychopathology has been criticized as lacking scientific veracity, and advocates of sadomasochism have sought to separate themselves from psychiatric theory by the adoption of the term "BDSM" instead of the common psychological abbreviation, "S&M". However, the term BDSM also includes, B&D (bondage and discipline), D/s (dominance and submission), and S&M ( and masochism). The terms "bondage" and "discipline" usually refer to the use of either physical or psychological restraint or punishment, and sometimes involves sexual role playing, including the use of costumes.

In contrast to frameworks seeking to explain sadomasochism through psychological, psychoanalytic, medical or forensic approaches, which seek to categorize behavior and desires, and find a root cause, Romana Byrne suggests that such practices can be seen as examples of "aesthetic sexuality", in which a founding physiological or psychological impulse is irrelevant. Rather, according to Byrne, sadism and masochism may be practiced through choice and deliberation, driven by certain aesthetic goals tied to style, pleasure, and identity, which in certain circumstances, she claims can be compared with the creation of art.

Financial domination (also known as money slavery) is a fetish lifestyle, in particular a practice of D/s, where usually a male submissive or "money slave", "pay pig", "human ATM", or "cash piggie" will give gifts and money to a financial female (or male) dominant (also known as "money mistress", "findomme", "money domme", "cash master", "findom").

The relation may often be accompanied by other practices of BDSM and female domination or male domination, like erotic humiliation, but there may be virtually no further intimacy between the individuals. The relationship between the 'slave' and the "mistress" (or "master") may take place solely via online communication, but it is not uncommon that the 'slave' may accompany his mistress while she (or he) is shopping and paying with his (or her) money.

Such a relationship between individuals may be similar to, yet clearly distinguishable from, relationships based on Total Power Exchange. In the latter one, the submissive may grant all his or her money saved and earned to the dominant, in addition with much more aspects of his or her autonomy, but it is not uncommon that both partners have an intimate relationship as well. The fetish of financial domination fetish should also be distinguished by Sugar daddy/Sugar babe-like relations between individuals, where the male may spend gifts and money to 'his' girl, without explicit elements of female domination.

Financial domination is a paraphilia stemming from a devotion of financial slavery or to be dominated in a financial way. Many pro-dommes and femdommes found this to be a natural extension for any professional dominatrix who is already being paid for fetish services, and began to exploit it with clients who shared her fetish. Some domme clients were aroused as much by giving money to a dominant woman, as they were by any fetishes they may have been coming to see her for. The dominatrix may also be aroused from being financially worshipped.

Early online financial domination started with websites such as "The Eurasian Goddess' Altar" and "Princess Sierra". These original sites spawned an explosion of imitators. Today, financial domination has spawned an entire online cult fetish, and type of domination.

Sneaker fetishism is another specific form of shoe fetishism and like boot fetishism it can be accompanied by a fetish for the material from which it is made for example the rubber which the outsole and sidewall are made of can be a source of rubber fetishism.

One of the earliest descriptions of boots as a fetishistic object can be found in Émile Zola's 1868 novel "Thérèse Raquin". Actual boot fetishism is described in the diaries of 19th-century British woman Hannah Cullwick, of which parts have been published.

Hermine Hug-Hellmuth described boot fetishism scientifically in 1915. This article has also been published in English with comments by Arlene K. Richards in 1990, as "Female fetishes and female perversions: Hermine Hug-Hellmuth's "A case of female foot or more properly boot fetishism" reconsidered".

Boots were used by S. Rachman as a subject for research on conditioning as a cause for fetishism in the 1960s, making men sexually aroused by seeing pictures of boots, but the results have been put into question later, as boots already were very much en vogue for sexually attractive women at the time.

Unlike shoes, boot styles have often appeared as street wear before they inspire fashion designers. Boots are usually seen as a sign of empowerment for the wearer, especially when worn by women. This may be a reason for the connection to BDSM, where boots usually are seen as a statement of dominance. So called boot worship became a common subcultural practice among sadomasochists and related fetishists in the early 20th century.

High-heeled boots help to elongate the calf, creating a longer-legged appearance which is generally considered to be more sexually attractive. The length of the boot shafts also adds to this impression. Boots have been displayed in magazines such as Leg Show and there are also magazines and websites aimed directly at this fetish. Boot fetishism may be accompanied by a fetish for the material from which it is made, such as leather, rubber, or latex. Boot fetishism is often targeted at fashion boots and riding boots but there are also boots expressly made for fetish purposes, such as ballet boots and some forms of thigh-high boots.

There is also a very prominent subsection of mostly gay men who fetishize men's boots, with "boot worship" being a common practice in this group, to the point where there is a yearly contest to see who is the best bootblack. The types of boots favored by men differ from those worn by women, with men typically preferring more sturdy, rugged boots, such as combat boots, jump boots, motorcycle boots, or riding boots. These boots feature prominently in outfits worn by leather enthusiasts in competitions such as International Mr. Leather.

In the early 20th century, bondage imagery was available through "detective magazines", and comic books often featured characters being tied up or tying others up, particularly in "damsel in distress" plots.

There were also a number of dedicated fetish magazines which featured images of fetishism and bondage. The first of such magazines in the United States was "Bizarre", first published in 1946 by fetish photographer John Willie (the phallic pseudonym of John Coutts), who developed the concept in the 1920s. Willie was able to avoid controversy in censorship through careful attention to guidelines and the use of humor. Publication of "Bizarre" was suspended completely from 1947 to 1951 because of post-War paper shortages. By 1956 Willie was ready to give up the magazine, and in that year he sold it to someone described only as R.E.B., who published six more issues before "Bizarre" finally folded in 1959.

Willie is better remembered for his "Sweet Gwendoline" comic strips, in which Gwendoline is drawn as a rather naïve blonde "damsel in distress", with ample curves, who is unfortunate enough to find herself tied up in scene after scene by the raven-haired dominatrix and the mustachioed villain "Sir Dystic D'Arcy". She is rescued and also repeatedly tied up (though for benevolent reasons) by secret agent U-69 (censored to U89 in some editions). The comic strips were published largely in the 1950s and 60s. The story was published as a piecemeal serial, appearing usually two pages at a time in several different magazines over the years.

Though "Bizarre" was a small format magazine, it had a huge impact on later kink publications, such as ENEG's fetish magazine, "Exotique", published 1956-1959. "Exotique" was entirely devoted to fetish fashions and female-dominant bondage fantasies. The 36 issues featured photos and illustrations of dominatrix-inspired vamps (including Burtman's wife Tana Louise and iconic model Bettie Page) wearing exotic leather and rubber ensembles, corsets, stockings/garters, boots, and high heels. Gene Bilbrew contributed illustrations to the magazine. The articles, many written by Leonard Burtman, using an alias, covered various aspects of sadomasochism and transvestism, with men depicted as slaves to imperious, all-powerful women. "Exotique" had no nudity, pornographic content, or even sexually suggestive situations. Nevertheless, much like fellow publisher Irving Klaw, in 1957, Burtman would be targeted as a pornographer. He was relentlessly pursued by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (acting as a censorship agency under the Comstock laws) and local law enforcement (which functioned in coordination with Postal Inspectors and the Catholic Church). Eventually, he was arrested, his magazines and materials confiscated, and brought to trial. This led to the demise of the magazine in 1959. However, starting in 1960, Burtman (under a different imprint) would go on to publish many more fetish magazines that were nearly identical to "Exotique" such as "New Exotique", "Masque", "Connoisseur", "Bizarre Life", "High Heels", "Unique World", "Corporal" (a pioneering spanking-fetish magazine) and others well into the 1970s.

New York photographer Irving Klaw also published illustrated adventure/bondage serials by fetish artists Eric Stanton, Gene Bilbrew, Adolfo Ruiz and others. Klaw is best known for operating an international mail-order business selling photographs and film of attractive women (sometimes in bondage) from the 1940s to the 1960s. His most famous bondage model was Bettie Page, who became the first celebrity of bondage film and photography.

These publications disappeared for a time with a crackdown on pornography in the late 1950s.