Fashion Has Deformed Women's Feet

These also have a much thicker pad on the sole as protection.

Our feet can be like that. I could run barefoot on gravel when I was 18. Too many years of working in an office means it's long since that was an option.

I love clothes and I enjoy fashion. I think there's a discussion to be had around heels although I'm doubtful whether we'll ever manage to have it on here as there are always posters who cannot seem to separate a dislike of fashion from disdain for women who do enjoy it. And then they wonder why other posters get defensive - which of course they do.

Anyway this thread has probably gone better than most but the issues are surely are around comfort and ease of movement not perceived un/attractiveness? I decided when I was 19 that I would never again wear shoes I couldn't run away in. It's not a lesson I would want other young women to have to learn but this is what it boils down to for me.

Here's an example of a shoe designed to fit a natural, healthy foot shape. Sadly, you won't find shoes designed like this in high street shops; you have to buy them online from businesses catering to this special niche market of customers who want comfortable shoes. This is not just a women's issue, but it does seem that a lot of fashionable "feminine" clothes and shoes might have been deliberately designed to to harm women and to restrict our ability to move.

Who has prettier feet, really. This is the attitude that mskes women feel pressurised into looking a certain way. You are not helping OP.

Yes, but they're also really long, so the tapering starts after the part that accommodates the widest section of the foot. Very different from the design of the average woman's dress shoe.
Even discounting weird jester styles, some mens' styles are too narrow at the toes for me. Almost all women's ones are. I may have unusually wide toes, compounded by years of effort to find wide toes shoes letting my toes spread further.

My osteopath told me that it’s now thought to be a myth that high heels cause bunions, the cause is now thought to be genetic.

My poor daughter has very wide rectangular feet & cant fit her feet into most girls shoes. The rounded toes end at really small sizes so school shoe fitting is a nightmare. I don’t understand why shoes need to be so pointed for women.

Some men's shoes are also pointy

Yes, but they're also really long, so the tapering starts after the part that accommodates the widest section of the foot. Very different from the design of the average woman's dress shoe.

IMO those pointy men's shoes look bloody ridiculous, unless the man in question is trying to pass as a medieval jester.

Sorry the point I’m trying to make is that women are inherently more prone to reforming their feet due to hormones - men don’t have periods in their lives when their bodies are more ‘plastic ‘ and malleable to change as women do - even if they wore high heels their feet wouldn’t react the same. (Draws massive conclusion) now I want to find out if that’s actually the case!

God knows what you'd think of my feet, OP. They are fucking horrible thanks to having long, graceful big toes and then the rest of the toes are really short. Like two arrows on the ends of my legs! Due to unfortunate genetics. Good job the rest of me is perfect

It’s definitely a Feminist issue! And not ‘just’ because we wear shoes that deform our feet. Those shoes deform your whole body!

The other important issue is pregnancy - and the hormones involved I loosening up your whole body to give birth. They have changed my foot shape in all directions (nearly two sizes bigger due to twins and double the hormones). They are inherently something men never have to deal with.

OP I agree although it is not just about high heeled shoes. It is about women's styles that squash toes and feet into unnatural shapes. My feet still look like a child's, just bigger.

It's really hard to find shoes that don't squash my toes in the women's section, even flats, even trainers have that pointy toe box shape. Some men's shoes are also pointy, particularly dressier ones - but at least not wanting your toes squashed is seen as a normal fashion option.

I have really narrow feet. Pointy shoes actually fit me better than wide ones which tend to rub up and down or I walk out of them. My feet are fine.

Of course someone will notice whatever imperfection you have and now they'll post it on bloody MN!

And in the Feminist section too - albeit couched in concerned tones (which aren't terribly convincing)

I genuinely would not particularly notice and definitely would not comment on imperfections. I don't say that because I think I'm such a good person that I'm above all that but because, to be honest, my starting point is the vast majority of people, men and women, myself included, look better fully clothed so it's not even worth noticing or commenting on- it's just life.

AutumnRose1

I agree! I never paid too much attention to feet.

My mum is insecure about her feet because someone told her they look deformed. I think they’re absolutely a normal variation of what feet are supposed to look like.

My feet are normal to me and after this post I went to examine them and then I decided I don’t care I will be happy with my feet and stay ignorant. As long as it doesn’t bother me or DH who I rub them against at night then I’m perfectly happy to not model for a pedicure.

Who cares honestly ? It’s attitudes like this that make woman feel pressured to do things that deform them... because they’re scrutinised even in a yoga class. MM

Outingpost

Oh gosh I never realised pregnancy ruins your feeet! How and why??

Does it? My (rather pretty and dainty feet despite being in the sort of shoes the OP dislikes) went from a 3 and 1/2 to a 4 and 1/2 in the last couple of months. They eventually went back to a 4 - but other than that , they didn't change.

feminism aside

it's funny, because if you're ever self conscious about going to the gym or a class, people always try to reassure you with "no one will notice".

I've known that was bollocks since I was a child, luckily. Of course someone will notice whatever imperfection you have and now they'll post it on bloody MN!

In the summer I get a lot of "why don't you show your legs". because they're covered in eczema scars. No doubt if I showed them, some idiot would comment on that.

It is interesting how many poster say their mother and their grandmother had bunions.

Men have mothers and grandmothers too.
I wonder if it is a female gene.

Well I have a bald father and grandfather and yet I, a woman, am not bald.

Of course this is a feminist issue! If I compare the school shoes my ds is supposed to wear to those for dd one is much more supportive, and much more suitable for an active life than the other.. even if fitted at Clark’s...

It is interesting how many poster say their mother and their grandmother had bunions.

Men have mothers and grandmothers too.
I wonder if it is a female gene.

Also regarding towering heels you are more likely to break an ankle than get a bunion I suspect. The orthopaedic foot surgeon I mentioned earlier said as much.

I got a pair of chunky DM type boots once and they played havoc with my knees. For rid of them and knee problems vanished.

I wonder if hormones have a lot to answer for too. I got my first bunion as I hit puberty. Other seem to suffer after pregnancy. I got very dry heels after pregnancy and they still plague me.

Many trainers are worse for the big toe joint than anyone generally thinks. Look at the way some trainers curve up at the toe. It puts pressure on the joint at the base of the toe, the one which forms the bunions. Hardly any women's shoes truly have a big enough toe box for toes to splay naturally. They would look very triangular and broad, beyond any current conception of a comfortable broad shoe.

Oh gosh I never realised pregnancy ruins your feeet! How and why??