Shoes for Women - why is their pressure to wear uncomfortble footwear to 'fit in'?

harpsichord, those shoes are very bad for your spine, actually, because they don't have a heel. So all the impact when you walk rockets into your heel and up your legs, spine and neck, creating long-term health problems. But you could always get a shoemender to add a heel for you.

I had this hammered home to me the other week when I needed to look smart for work (normally I wear v comfy flat suede ankle boots) and the only pair of shoes that I had which went with my suit had a medium-to-high heel and a fairly pointed toe. "What the hell" thought I, "I don't have to do too much walking today".

Well, it turned out I had to do more walking that I thought - not much, but a fair bit - and I ended up with a 5cm circumference blister on the ball of each of my feet.

WTF was I doing owning a pair of shoes that I can't walk a normal distance in without damaging my feet? What madness is this??

I guess if you wear them all the time then your feet toughen up. But god, it's some crazy torture.

i was hugely shocked when i went shopping for shoes to wear to a wedding this summer. what i consider to be a high heel, two and a half to three inches, is now designated as a mid-heel. i'm only a size five and average height, so that makes me topple forward...so it is simply not a mid-heel.

anyway i mention this to the sales assistant in office, and she said that so many of the young girls nowadays pull out utterly mangled feet and are not put off by the fact that they simply cannot walk in them.

i worry for my dds, tbh, my mother's rule for shoes when i was going out clubbing etc was 'don't wear anything that will stop you from running away FAST if you need to' but these shoes are just barely available any more...

I love brogues too, but you can't always get them.
court shoes are bloody agony

arf at seth!

I've seen some women look very stylish in brogues around here. But you have to have a certain 'look' to carry them off, IMO. A 'look' which I most definitely don't have.

I love brogues

I have a tan pair, they are fab (and have got me many complimets)

I wear them with socks, not remotely "feminine" at all, but who cares ?

I have my eye on a pair of dungarees to go with them (not serious about that...)

You may have to carry the pole around with you, just in case you need to do any high kicks...

and again

[http://www.bayareabags.com/footwear/chinese-mary-jane-shoes-a-perfect-fit-for-the-ladies-on-the-go.html I used to wear these as a student, anyone know where I could get them now?]]

But in order to kick with one you would have to balance on the other. Are there women who can really do that? Without a pole to hold onto?

Um...useful for shinning up trees? Resting pints on while you pee? Umm...makeshift coat hanger? Instrument of torture?

Definitely for nutcracking dodgy geezers; good call, AF!

I have never worn a high heel, I have no tolerance at all for discomfort.
and, tbh, I HATE the way that they make women wiggle. I hate it that this is viewed as normal.
I also hate to see the mangled mess of many female feet after the age of 40.
I wear boots all winter, sometimes a ballet flat, Birkenstocks all summer, plimsolls for casual.
I used to wear lace ups but find it hard to find them these days.

I shall leave it to your imagination, SG

personally, I would like to see them used to kick dodgy blokes in the nuts boy that's gotta hurt...

I can walk all day, and even run, in some very high heels. But flat office shoes and ballet slippers are painful for me - I have to have a heel, and I notice that hiking boots etc do have a decent heel. So it is not necessarily about that.

I have flat feet and am tall. So high heels have me towering over other women and men. But I often want to wear the painful flats. The women I see hobbling about in heels are often small, and must feel the opposite height pressure - and have smaller feet, shorter legs etc, which makes it much more difficut for them to walk!

For stripper shoes read 'instruments of torture'. How in God's name can stuff like that ever be thought of as empowering. Killer heels are killing noone but the poor crippled wearer who still has to smile alluringly.

AnyFucker...I am struggling to work out what use the stripper shoes could have later! Please enlighten me!

I almost started this thread myself! Except that I have never, ever felt any 'pressure' myself to wear high heels. I look at other women wearing them and think: 'ooh, they look nice but OMG you're gonna pay the price some day!'. That's it.

Apart from stripper shoes. Which I just laugh at, frankly.

So far my fave shoes are either Birkies or Ecco, or (when I used to be able to fit into them) from Clarks. I do buy ballet flats, but ALWAYS with a small heel, and I then ditch them once they become too loose to walk in easily. About 10 years ago you couldn't find a flat shoe on the market unless you were prepared to go Old Lady (which, in my mid-twenties, I definitely wasn't). Now there are loads more designs, thank goodness.

I think having mahoosive flippers instead of dainty size 6's makes me extra-conscious of the comfort factor in footwear, so I refuse to kowtow to the fashions. Doc Marten's do good funky, comfortable shoes - they usually have a mid-heel style too. Not too pricey, either, IIRC.

I'm going to make a bold assertion and wonder if stripper shoes (which I did not know existed until today) are not really where the feminist population of Mumsnet will/should draw inspiration? Bloody horrified to know they exist, though.

different world

now I see the point of the pole - it's to hold onto to stop them falling over in those shoes!

I work with youngsters (early-mid 20's)

they wear shoes like those in my link for nights out all the time

it seems the thing to do, these days

they can't dance in them after the first half hour so just end up carying them around

I suppose they come in handy, later

< is in a different word emoticon >

stripper shoes