# Are foot massages only for SO's? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 11, 2017, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-foot-massages-only-for-sos/798585 "2017-10-11T18:27:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-foot-massages-only-for-sos/798585/21 "2017-10-12T02:55:22Z")
I say what harm is there, I wish my dentist would do that…but then, are the same hands massaging and doing cleanings?? Hmmm! ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-foot-massages-only-for-sos/798585/22 "2017-10-12T03:02:51Z")
I get them with pedicures every single time. I’ve had the same person doing my pedicures for about ten years, so if she’s coming onto me by massaging my feet, she’s being very slow about it. ---
**Author:** ![Krouget](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b38774/32.png) [@Krouget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krouget)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-foot-massages-only-for-sos/798585/23 "2017-10-12T13:47:37Z")
Like most things, it depends on the setting or where the foot massage is taking place. A pedicure, like the person above has been getting for 10 years? Not so much. That’s a professional exchange. At her or his place, shoes off _to get more comfortable_, as you sit on the couch with a movie? That’s a 80/20 situation. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-foot-massages-only-for-sos/798585/24 "2017-10-12T14:16:43Z")
> [@Driver8](#): > > My dentist’s office keeps offering them, so I hope this thesis is wrong. I haven’t taken them up on it, because I’d feel a little weird about it. WTF?! Seriously? So, like, you can get a polishing with a happy ending? Is it covered by your insurance? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-foot-massages-only-for-sos/798585/25 "2017-10-12T14:23:12Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > If a relative or close friend has tired feet, and you **don’t** offer to give the person in question a foot rub, I think that you’re inconsiderate. This is so bizarre to me, but I don’t think I’ve ever in my life been offered a foot massage. I’d find it downright _weird_ if I mentioned having tired feet and my best friend or mother offered me a foot massage. Is this really a common enough thing that if somebody doesn’t offer you’d consider them inconsiderate? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-foot-massages-only-for-sos/798585/26 "2017-10-12T14:25:42Z")
> [@Driver8](#): > > My dentist’s office keeps offering them, so I hope this thesis is wrong. I haven’t taken them up on it, because I’d feel a little weird about it. > [@kayaker](#): > > WTF?! Seriously? So, like, you can get a polishing with a happy ending? Is it covered by your insurance? [New York Times](http://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/11/nyregion/open-wide-and-how-about-a-massage.html)(1999) > [@](#): > > KERRY KEHOE looks forward to visits to her dentist. That is when she gets to sit back and relax because while the dentist, Linda Golden, works on her mouth, Ms. Kehoe gets a foot massage. Later she gets her neck, shoulders and back rubbed, too. > > Practices like these, called distraction treatments, that aim to ease the anxiety and worry of dental patients, are turning up increasingly in dental offices on Long Island. [Boston Globe](http://archive.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/09/18/for_stress_at_the_dentist_try_a_foot_rub/) (2005) > [@](#): > > Going to the dentist got a little easier this summer for Elissa Doroff. > > During the scraping, the pricking, the washing, and the cleaning, a massage therapist started to rub her feet. > > At least one Back Bay dental practice is combining oral hygiene with the pampering of an urban day spa. > > ''Going to the dentist is historically dreaded," said Doroff, 30, of Back Bay. ''The spa service makes it really relaxing." > > With the help of massage therapists from Newbury Street’s Exhale Spa, clients of dentists David Fiorillo and Thomas Connelly on Commonwealth Avenue can enjoy a more tranquil visit to the dentist – if they’re willing to pay. ---
**Author:** ![Aufgeblassen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aufgeblassen/32/7321_2.png) [@Aufgeblassen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aufgeblassen)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-foot-massages-only-for-sos/798585/27 "2017-10-12T16:08:03Z")
Only if your superior officer ORDERS it 😉 ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-foot-massages-only-for-sos/798585/28 "2017-10-12T17:07:20Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > I believe this debate has already been had: Here is the scene in question: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/KCO-SBPTF5E/hqdefault.jpg "Pulp Fiction - "Foot Massage"") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCO-SBPTF5E) ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-foot-massages-only-for-sos/798585/29 "2017-10-12T17:51:10Z")
When I was a kid and had no idea that my mom’s toes were so raunchy, I used to rub her feet for her when she was tired. So, no - I don’t really think that a foot massage is a sensual experience. I’m also insanely ticklish and, if I have to go to get a pedicure for a social reason, I hold on to the chair, white knuckled, until they’re done scraping all the calluses off the bottom. Thank goodness they don’t actually massage them or I’d probably have kicked someone in the face by now. Regardless, I’ve never been able to view foot massages as anything other than pretty darned icky or something to be dreaded (I don’t like being tickled). ---
**Author:** ![laurieb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/51bf81/32.png) [@laurieb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/laurieb)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-foot-massages-only-for-sos/798585/30 "2017-10-13T14:31:10Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > You know what? My ex asked me to rub her feet occasionally, and I hated it. > > It felt demeaning to me. > > Feet are kinda rough, and ugly, and smelly. > > Maybe that’s why she’s my ex. What a horrible thing to be asked to do. Feet suck. > > The end. Hey, not all feet are rough, smelly, and ugly! How prejudiced. Mine are soft, pretty, and smell like roses (at least when they haven’t been stuffed in high heels all day). 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-foot-massages-only-for-sos/798585/31 "2017-10-13T16:48:44Z")
I recently realized I have become that old woman with the insatiable and indiscriminate craving for foot massages. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-foot-massages-only-for-sos/798585/32 "2017-10-13T16:59:27Z")
I’ve never received a foot massage (the thought grosses me out) and I’ve never _given_ a foot massage that wasn’t a prelude to sex. So, posts like this skeeve me out: > [@overlyverbose](#): > > When I was a kid and had no idea that my mom’s toes were so raunchy, I used to rub her feet for her when she was tired. ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2017, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-foot-massages-only-for-sos/798585/33 "2017-10-14T00:33:55Z")
A foot massage has always been sexual foreplay for me. I know girls usually take a little longer to get “warmed up” and a massage is a great way to do so. And what a great way to get things started for someone who might not yet be completely in the mood. And it sounds so innocent, “How about a foot massage?” Things don’t always work out I as I hoped they would, but nothing is really lost because I enjoy giving them to girls. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-foot-massages-only-for-sos/798585.md?page=1)