High Heels WTF is it about

nobody has suggested that not wearing make-up is superior! Where have you seen that?

I never wear high heels. I dislike the teetering look, the bottom wiggling and so on, and I see no reason why I should do it to myself. However, I do agree with Elephants that it can be difficult finding nice-looking footwear that doesn't have high heels.

This is why the last time I found a good, comfortable pair of flat-heeled boots, I went back the next day and bought another two pairs. I also have three identical pairs of sandals waiting for the summer, I bought them at the end of September last year and they were so comfortable I got plenty. I should be fine for quite a few years now!

I wish I could convince my SIL that she doesn't need to wear heels. I feel so sorry for her. Her feet are always in pain, she can't walk very far and there just doesn't seem to be any reason for her to torture herself. However, she's very unlikely to listen to me on these matters - she already thinks I'm a slob for never wearing make-up and not shaving my legs!

wm, I don't think anyone has implied that on this thread

I wear high heels and the right ones are comfortable and I can wear all day. Although days I on contruction sites obviously don't.

I also wear make up every day as I look 200 years old without.

I believe myself equal to all men, but as always there are those females who feel they are superior to me because they don't either wear heels or make up.

I think women should be able to wear what they like

But they should be quite sure why they wear certain things/dress in a certain way

I don't wear heels, never have

But then I'm 5ft 10, same height as DH, so that may influence why, I dunno

I think you can get pretty, interesting flat shoes and boots

You can wear whatever you like, no one is trying to take your pretty shoes away! But I do think there's a problem when people who happen to be female are expected to put on really quite bizarre footwear like this just in order to be considered 'professional'. Whereas by remarkable coincidence if you're male you can be perfectly smart and professional in flat comfortable shoes. For me that's a feminist issue, especially exploring why it should be that way and where these 'rules' come from.

Obviously everyone has a preference about how they like to dress, and that's a personal choice and not what this is about really. But still might be interesting to think about why this specific style of footwear makes you feel so 'feminine and lovely', and indeed why that's considered a desirable way to feel!

I love heels. I do not see the link to feminism at all. I never used to wear heels. I used to wear doc martens with my goth short black skirt and fitted black top.
But I learnt how feminine and lovely they make you feel. I wear 2-3 inches. Normally to my part time work and when I go to parties/dinner. The other days I go a 25 minutes walking/pushing ds2 buggy school run, so have ugg types, or slip on trainers etc.
And being 'vertically challenged', i.e practically minute, I should have worn them years ago.
Plus I wear a bit more make up now. I mean one swipe of brown eyeshadow and a one swipe of brown eyeliner. Takes seconds and just makes me feel nice.
In your 30's I think you need to make a bit more effort than maybe you did before.
If they are uncomfortable, then sure, don't wear them. But mine are not uncomfortable. I never take mine off at the end of the office day and go, ''ahh, thta feels better'.
I can't see the problem with heels.

Hmmm... I don't think you should have to wear heels or make-up at work if you don't want to.

I do think, though, that there is room in the world for what we individually find beautiful or attractive rather than going for practicality all the time. Isn't that what art is about? Totally unnecessary in practical terms but adds something very special for those of who appreciate it. And, of course, we all appreciate different arts. Perhaps it's the same with shoes/clothes/make-up? Just because someone chooses to wear high heels does not mean that they buy into the patriarchy.

Ephiny I think you might be right - my sister used to be a recruitment consultant, and would tell her candidates to wear heels to interviews, saying that flats were 'unprofessional'. I made my point to her, as well as one can to ones sibling without breaking into all-out war! I think her attitude was probably a product of the organisation she worked for.

Personally, I'm sticking to my "dyke" shoes (as my wonderful friends call them) since they're functional and comfy!

I wouldn't be surprised if make up (and high heels) is correlated with greater success in the workplace sometimes, because these things are very strongly associated with the idea of 'looking professional' in most people's minds. Naomi Wolf talks about this in The Beauty Myth.

But nothing is going to change if we keep going along with it, and personally I don't want that definition of success on those terms.

And funnily enough no one thinks a man looks more professional if he's teetering on stilts or has decorated his face with coloured paints...so clearly these things are not intrinsically necessary in order for someone to be taken seriously.

Perhaps make up does help women when dealing with customers but since we sit in an office with no face to face involvement with customers doing data interfaces I dont see why my colleague was so bothered by lack of make up. I have bouts of bad skin but still don't wear make up very often. I can't stand it and makes me feel insecure as im sure I end up with a tangerine face.

Well, I think I'm a fairly wide awake feminist and have been for many years but I love high heels. I get that they make us look more sexually alluring - lengthen the leg; makes the bottom wiggle; puts us at a disadvantage if need to "get away" etc. Basically, they throw you off balance and they're really bad for you.

I am comfortable in my heels (although I do wear flats too). I wear what I think looks best with whatever else I'm wearing. I do not find them uncomfortable - if I did, I wouldn't wear them again.

I could never, ever defend them but I will not be parted from them without a struggle.

I don't worship high heels but I do appreciate the reduction in height difference between DH and I when I wear them!

That said I don't have uncomfy high heels and I don't wear them because they 'look good' or because I'm expected to.

There's a difference between skyscrapers and a modest heel though. The latter can actually be more comfy than a flat. I don't think my spine appreciates flat-flats so even my ballet pumps have a 1cm raise on the heel.

Elephants&Miasmas - do you know the Camper range of shoes? They do bright & pretty flat shoes & some well quirky ones too. V exxie tho.

For the record, not a heel wearer here either. Surely it is impossible to wear them without feeling any discomfort so why would anyone wear them? I feel the same about that shaping underwear too. It must be restricting & hot & sweaty. I'd rather be comfy than smoothed out!

that was "Same with high heels"

before my feminist reawakening (thanks MN ) I wore high all types of high heels, dresses make up.

But now, like FattyArbuckel I've totally reshaped how I see women so the more make up they're wearing the more insecure they seem. Whether it's true or not is irrelevant, they look like they really want to please.. and it really stands out. Same with make up.
NOw, I still wear make up (although far less frequently than before since reading beauty and misogyny) but I really see it as a mask. It doesn't actually make women look better, it often makes them look worse...and insecure

Ha! Brilliant thread!

I've long-protested to my husband that high heels are only a micro-step away from foot-binding, and serve only to stop women escaping men.

Fortunately, I'm the same height as him so he doesn't push it, lest I tower over him and society's expectation of 'Big Man' & 'Little Woman'!

And no, DH, I won't be wearing "keep-ons" in bed for you. If you want a hooker, you shouldn't have married me!

Now, I'm off to look for more non-floral/mumsy maternity clothes that go with my skate shoes!

They look kind of ridiculously Louis XIV to me. But then I watch Marilyn Monroe trotting down the station platform in Some Like It Hot and forget why they look so silly...

Typed out a post but thanks to the server backup it's lost.

Oh well, Barbara Ellen says it much better than me:
Even Minnie Mouse wouldn't wear heels that high, Victoria
Who was Victoria Beckham trying to kid, squiring her sons around a US theme park in five-inch heels? Most women would be aware of the throbbing "Bunion-Dunkirk" raging beneath the shoe leather (five inches, but no surrender). Such atrocities should be worn only to restaurants and even then one would have to be piggybacked in, and allowed to sob softly through the meal.

Men curious about the endurance test of super-high heels can reproduce the effect by balancing on upended tent-spikes, ignoring the sensation that their feet are being crucified. Which seems to be the point - Christ on the cross has nothing on Louboutin martyrs such as Mrs Beckham.

Posh has form for ridiculous attire. But high heels at a theme park? I've been to Disneyland and you have to whiz around very fast, hence flats are the only option. Bizarre then to watch Posh teetering in the manner of a Zoolander-themed stilt-walker. Perhaps other children thought she was one of the rides.

What a painful metaphor for the self-imposed prison of exhibitionism-cum-insecurity she seems to exist in. Female foot-binding has long been outlawed in China, but in the west one of our most high-profile women is happy to wear shoes that render her unable to hobble more than a few agonising steps at a time. If you're listening, Victoria, so not a good look.

I have also often wondered about this.

I asked DH what he thought about high heels and his reply was that if a woman liked them and could walk in them then fair enough. But for him he couldn't care less what shoes I'm wearing....

...Lucky for DH because I very rarely wear a heel higher than 3 inches as I just feel ungainly, off-balance and too tall.

I remember reading somewhere, but I can't remember where, that high heels are something to do with slowing a woman down so she can't run away as easily; so she is always in a small but persistant amount of pain and concerned with her appearance more than her comfort.

High heels can look very elegant if they fit properly and if the wearer can walk in them but this is so often not the case I do wonder why so many women torture themselves this way.

I wear heels, but only if I want to look really smart (meetings, weddings, nights out). The rest of the time I'm in boots, converse, flip flops, ballet pumps...

On the make up point, a female colleague of mine often quoted a piece of research that showed a direct correlation between the amount of make up worn by a female pitching for a client's business and the outcome of the meeting, i.e. the more makeup the higher the success rate. Sounds like utter bollocks to me, but if I can dig it out I'll link.

On the issue of make up I had a female colleague confide in me that she thought another colleague didn't make enough effort at work appearance wise!! Moaning that she doesnt wear much make up, sometimes hasn't done her hair and dresses a bit off. I don't know why she confided this in me as I dont wear any make up, doing my hair consists of brushing it and my work clothes are black trousers and a series of white based blouses. I have to wonder why it bothers her? Job performance isn't affected by how we look and whilst it important to portray proffesionalism how do sky high heels, tight pencil skirts and a face heavy with make up do this.

I notice their bottoms wiggling too and think it just looks really, really silly - ridiculous.

And I find women who wear much make up (and I don't mean really heavy stuff, just what the majority wear) look like clowns, and I just feel really sorry for them that it's such a big deal to them that they can't show the world what they really look like .

And when you read about women who say that they ahve to put make up on before they go into hospital to have their babies

What is wrong with our culture that has made us think that that is a good way to live!? That our faces are so shit we have to cover them up

I put my heeled boots on the other day (school run, hole in tights, easier to don boots than change tights), and realised I hadn't worn them since before I was pg with 16mo, ie since before my feminist reawakening.

and it reminded me:
I wore them at work because I felt attractive in them and they made me taller, which brought me nearer to the eye level of my male bosses and students and therefore helped give me more confidence. But now that I am SAHMing the ability to walk is at more of a premium and I feel silly and less confident in them.

there is a great chapter in Beauty and Misogyny about shoes and the phrase she uses is that they are aimed at making women look 'different and deferent'. Now when I see a woman tripping along in heels I tend to think of that rather than that she looks empowered. I definitely feel more powerful now without them, but I didn't used to.