Eric Desmarais, a graduate student at WSU who has taught Abnormal Psychology, defines a fetish as a deviation in target of sex drive or motivation. They can be diagnosed when an individual experiences an impairment or dysfunction in what they are attracted to, Desmarais said.

Mark Griffiths of Psychology Today cites a 2007 study lead by Claudia Scorolli of the University of Bologna, Italy, to say fetishes associated with specific body parts of a person are predominant. Next are those associated with an object connected to the body, followed by preferences for another person’s behavior, Scorolli found in her study.

This is likely an interesting revelation for the general public, who would not typically categorize an individual’s behavior as a possible fetish.

Among the more bizarre fetishes found by The Huffington Post, climacophilia is arousal from falling down stairs, nebulophilia is arousal from fog and xylophilia is arousal from wood.

Some other common fetishes found by The Richest include BDSM (domination and submission), latex and leather outfits, and a reverence for feet.

While fetishes may range from the inexplicable to “I tried that once,” they are all established within the individual in a similar manner, Desmarais said.

The science behind how these disorders are developed is still largely murky and undiscovered, comparable to the vast, unexplored ocean floor.

While they have no known biological basis, Desmarais said, fetishes are likely established through a process called conditioning. Conditioning is popularly exemplified through Pavlov’s dogs, in which two stimuli are paired in an environment, in Pavlov’s case, a bell sound being matched with dogs being fed.

Desmarais calls the scenario in which this stimuli pairing occurs in an individual’s adolescence to create a fetish “learning gone haywire,” which is a colorful way to Picasso this portrait. Luckily for people in the vicinity, these disorders are rarely harmful to others, although they may involve the secretive removal of hair of another, Griffiths stated, which torments the brain.

The more bizarre these conditions get, the harder they are to believe for the general population, which makes it difficult for these individuals to assimilate with them.

An important factor to note is that these conditions are extremely culture-bound, Desmarais said. In this hectic day and age, it is easy to forget that we are not the only country in the world and most other communities do not have the same values that we profess.

While a sexual practice or social norm may seem inappropriate or insane if it happened in Pullman, it could be the only thing that a different group of people has ever known.

The effect that society has on individual beliefs is the most significant part of this discussion, in that it infiltrates other parts of our lives.

Where do we draw the line in the sand between what is right and wrong based on our personal morals conflated with the standards our society has set?

It’s not fetishes that are strange — the real enigma is the standards our society has constructed to define them as such.