# Why are fetishes even a thing?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-fetishes-even-a-thing/749617>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 20, 2016, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-fetishes-even-a-thing/749617 "2016-03-20T04:18:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-fetishes-even-a-thing/749617/21 "2016-03-21T00:29:02Z")

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> [@usedtobe](#):
>
> Speaking of music:
> 
> Try explaining this one:
> 
> Use any stringed instrument with more than 3 strings.  
> You can now play several notes simultaneously.
> 
> Play a nice sounding combination.  
> Play it anywhere in the world. All will find the sound pleasing.
> 
> Now play a discordant combination - it will sound equally off to anyone (at least over age 8) anywhere.  
> How is THAT possible?

It wouldn’t have worked on that [Schoenberg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Schoenberg) guy.

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**Author:** ![spamforbrains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@spamforbrains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spamforbrains)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-fetishes-even-a-thing/749617/22 "2016-03-21T01:14:24Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Understand this difference between animal & human motivations and you’ll have opened the door towards understanding fetishes.

do you consider one of our closest relatives, the bonobos, to be animals? according to this (not a very reliable site, so take it with a huge grain of salt plus a tequila chaser) they also develop fetishes:  
[http://www.theknoxstudent.com/news/2009/01/14/sexiled-doin-it-bonobo-style/#.Vu9JG1UrLC0](http://www.theknoxstudent.com/news/2009/01/14/sexiled-doin-it-bonobo-style/#.Vu9JG1UrLC0)  
the sexual behavior of bonobos seems quite a bit more similar to our own behavior than the sexual behavior of other species, including the chimpanzee, which revolves purely around reproduction. Humans clearly have sex for entirely different reasons and reproduction is only a minor side effect. I suspect fetishes are a kind of malfunction of these processes, not entirely dysfunctional but not their intended purpose.

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**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-fetishes-even-a-thing/749617/23 "2016-03-21T03:55:20Z")

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I once had a parakeet that was very attracted to my brother’s head. Yes, in that way. He was not as amused as me.

And I do remember a neighborhood Pekinese dog that had a major lust for pillows…just pillows, not other medium sized soft stuffed things.

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**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-fetishes-even-a-thing/749617/24 "2016-03-21T05:46:08Z")

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> [@usedtobe](#):
>
> Speaking of music:
> 
> Try explaining this one:
> 
> Use any stringed instrument with more than 3 strings.  
> You can now play several notes simultaneously.
> 
> Play a nice sounding combination.  
> Play it anywhere in the world. All will find the sound pleasing.
> 
> Now play a discordant combination - it will sound equally off to anyone (at least over age 8) anywhere.  
> How is THAT possible?

This is actually not true.

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