People who sexually abuse minors are reprehensible people. But because of their misguided tastes, do the appreciators of the lower female form have to suffer?

PHILOLOGY

Now, let me just say that pedophilia is a really, really bad thing.

That being said, I'll also add that I think it a shame that such a potentially good word got taken by such a nasty concept.

If you think about it, "pedophilia" is an unusual word. Most "phile" and "phobe" words tend to fall along the lines of positive and negative, respectively. Positive – audiophile, bibliophile, technophile, Francophile. On the negative and the conceptual end of things, you have homophobia, arachnophobia, claustrophobia, agoraphobia, negrophobia.

Were you learning English, you might be right to be surprised that the foot-related root "ped" – the one used in pedestrian, pedal, pedestal, and pedicure. "Ped" comes from Latin the pedalis, which passes down the meaning of "foot."

And yes, there's the "pedo" found in pediatrics, which comes from the Greek pais, paid, which means "child" or "boy."

But between the legacy of Latin (foot) and Greek (child) influence, there are simply many more words that have to do with "foot" using the "ped" prefix. And yes, even though "phile" (from philos) is of Greek origins, most of our associations with that word are neutral to positive, as I just mentioned.

There isn't much point to fighting convention here, but I'd just like to say that the negative connotations associated with having a so-called "foot fetish" are not much better (although it's not illegal!) than being a "pedophile," at least in terms of either of these concepts being considered "sexual deviant" behavior. Look in a psychology textbook. I did.

"FETISH"

So, I'll say that I'm neither a "sexual deviant" nor a person who likes to lick feet or choke the chicken all over women's shoes. I'm simply a person who acknowledges the perfectly, glaringly obvious – that the feet and legs of women are major fetish objects in Chinese, Japanese, and yes, Korean culture.

Isn't this obvious? For a lot of reasons? We don't even have to get into discussions of Chinese foot binding, the endless numbers of Japanese leg and stocking websites, or how old-school Korean men would supposedly go all crazy over the "upturned heel" peeking out from underneath Korean hanboks? And if you look at how Korean women pamper and pedicure their feet nowadays, the high-rise skirts, and the similarly feet/legocentric nature of naughty Korean sites, you must know that the combination of feet and legs are secondary in importance to only the face in Korean definitions of beauty.

Add to that the conventional wisdom that black guys "like big butts" or that "gentlemen prefer blondes" or certain dudes are "breast men" and suddenly liking how a shapely pair of legs tapers down to a cute pair of feet in heels doesn't seem so weird does it?

What straight dude doesn't want to see a pair of long legs perched atop a pair of sexy heels? Is that a weird "fetish," or actually pretty normal? And if we can acknowledge the fact that some girls have cute feet and some don't, then that's pretty much the ball game, right?

We just appreciate the whole lower package 'round here.

I'm the kinda guy who looks down and then looks up, unlike some men who do the opposite.

I'm the kinda guy who thinks that shoes say more about a person than any other single piece of clothing.

If you agree, then I guess I'll be seeing you around!