By Danielle Jenkins

Fetishisation is rapidly being normalised, to the point where most people can’t even notice it, unless it’s their community that it is happening to. 

So, what is fetishisation? It is the decrease of an individual to parts of their body personality or relationship structure. It reduces the person to merely being appealing due to specific qualities. 

Fetishisation is a major issue today, especially due to social media. One of its biggest targets is members of the LGBTQ+ community. Some of the worst affected in the community are men who love men (MLM) and women who love women (WLW). 

Since social media became such a prominent part of society and more people came out, fetishisation has grown significantly, particularly for the aforementioned relationship dynamics. 

MLM have become the poster image for media fetishisation, especially in books. 

Social media, specifically TikTok, is filled with different categories of content and one of those are known as ‘Booktok’. In theory it’s harmless but when you investigate the books they promote and how they act towards real people because of these books, it begins to look harmful. 

Booktok often promotes MLM romances and of course there is nothing wrong with that. Until you realise that most of the books are explicit and written by cisgender straight women. These authors don’t really develop the characters and their relationships and simply fetishise the relationship dynamic. 

An example of this comes from the book, ‘Pole Position’ by Rebecca J. Caffery, in which she depicts Formula One racing in exaggerated ways to facilitate introducing explicit scenes. 

This is not to say that all explicit books are fetishising and harmful but many of them are. You have to have a healthy medium, especially if you are writing about something you have never experienced. But of course, what one person might deem fetishising, another may say is realistic of the experience, especially when it comes to a fantasy world. 

So, while fetishising may be up for debate in books, it's as blatant as ever when you look online and most definitely cannot be debated. 

An example of this comes from the Marvel fandom, where there is a growing community of people who ‘ship’ (meaning to want two or more people to be together in a romantic way and/or be a supporter of their relationship). For example, Steve Rogers (Captain America) and James ‘Bucky’ Barnes (The Winter Solider); this ship is known as ‘Stucky’ and are a pivotal example of fetishisation of MLM couples online. 

Online research for ‘Stucky’ promptly threw up fetishised artwork of the two characters. Meanwhile popular straight ship, research ‘Winterwidow’ (a ship containing Black Widow and the Winter Solider), was hard to find even remotely sexualised or fetishised of those two. 

Unfortunately, it doesn’t end with Marvel. There is a plethora of characters and fandoms that are filled with unnecessary fetishisation and sexualisation of queer characters. 

It has even begun to reach into real people, from celebrities to Formula One drivers and hockey players to people’s classmates! 

WLW are particular targets of in person fetishising that is spurred on by online media. 

An example of this is a scene that has been done one too many times, both in media and in person: Two girls surrounded by a group of usually men, chanting for them to “Kiss”, and celebrating when they do. TV shows such as American Pie and How I Met Your Mother are prime examples. 

At this rate the media is damaging queer relationships, especially with the divide it causes within the LGBTQ+ community, as they ‘battle’ over who is more of a victim. 

Continuous fetishisation of queer relationships contributes to sexualities being degraded, which can result in LGBTQ+ relationships being viewed as ‘inappropriate’, simply because of the harmful actions of others. 

Fetishisation in books and media is causing real world harm and needs to be a subject open for discussion and reprimanded.  

How Society has Normalised Fetishisation