# Sexual fetishes and treatment as a infant - related?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-fetishes-and-treatment-as-a-infant-related/675673>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [December 6, 2013, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-fetishes-and-treatment-as-a-infant-related/675673 "2013-12-06T14:35:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-fetishes-and-treatment-as-a-infant-related/675673/21 "2013-12-09T16:45:49Z")

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> [@Miller](#):
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> On the other hand, I wonder if people who are into bondage are more likely to wear their seatbelt?

Wouldn’t that make a great Click It or Ticket commercial.

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**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-fetishes-and-treatment-as-a-infant-related/675673/22 "2013-12-09T21:45:02Z")

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> [@Marley23](#):
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> We’re all shaped by our experiences, but I think if you look for a simple, direct line between experiences and things like turn-ons, you’re going to make a lot of attribution errors. For example: child safety seats have been common for quite a while, but not everybody is into bondage.

It used to be common in the US for boys to wear dresses and skirts and more or less look like a girl up to a certain age, e.g. 5 or 7. C.f. the [famous image of FDR as a little kid](http://www.ashleyperez.com/blog/item/122-why-nobody-cared-when-fdr-wore-a-dress). If you accepted the childhood inspirational argument, you would expect the occurrence of sexually-inspired transvestites to take a nosedive after WW1, but I don’t think this is the actual case.

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**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-fetishes-and-treatment-as-a-infant-related/675673/23 "2013-12-09T23:13:00Z")

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I have two major and a few minor fetishes. Always curious as to how I came to be this way, I tend to read a lot on the topic. One thing I read years ago rang true for me. _Fetishes are the eroticization of a deep fear._ Applying this to the OP, maybe if the infant had a terrifying experience while strapped in a car seat and it developed into a lasting fear they might eroticize that later on and have a bondage fetish.

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