High heels. Are they a conspiracy?

[CrockedPot]

So today I have spent eight hours in toe pinching, arch stretching, high heeled shoes. At work. By the end of the day I was glaring in envy at the men in their round toed, laced up, low heeled 'ergonomically designed' soled shoes, while I minced around like someone who had their feet bound in some medieval torture chamber. AIBU in thinking we put style over fucking comfort every single day and don't think a thing about it?? What are we doing?? (or is just me, wearing the wrong style of pretty, painful shoe?)

Leaving aside the conspiracy theory, can somebody please link to some stylish flat shoes that are not ballet shoes, sandals or boots? And that go with a 'work' skirt?

I wore heels during my working life in fairly high-powered posts. Now I have retired early and I wear flats, and can honestly say I now feel MORE powerful because I am literally more "grounded". Walking is like flying now. It was a struggle when I wore heels, although I didn't realise that it was. Now I walk twice as fast, don't have sore soles, don't have callouses (my feet look better than they have for thirty years), and I just feel that I don't take any shit from anyone any more.
High heels are an instrument of oppression.

I reckon the whole high-heel thing gets overthought. As far as I can tell, women buy them for themselves because they think they look nice. I reckon blaming the patriarchy is counterproductive, because by referencing an oppressive outside force, it actually disempowers a person who might otherwise choose not to wear them.

MsVestibule, Mary Janes? Any use?
I don't work for Clarks, honest

Those GOP Doggy

m.asos.com/mt/www.asos.com/ASOS/ASOS-MAN-EATER-Flat-Shoes/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=3157513&cid=6459&sh=0&pge=0&pgesize=50&sort=-1&clr=Black

Oops that didn't work did it. Google Asos flat shoes..

LordPalmerston's comment just highlights the antipathy there can be towards comfortable shoes on women. Women who choose supportive footwear over heels or non-suppportive, impractical ballet flats open themselves and their fashion choices to ridicule.

Even flat shoes quite often don't stay on properly, or cover enough of the foot. I really don't give a shit about toe cleavage, I just want shoes that don't fall off.

I would wear those Mary Janes if I was at some stuck-up formal event that required proper shoes.

I don't wear them because I find them uncomfortable, but some of them are so beautiful I wish I could.
I bought some for a wedding this year but I had to change them for kitten heels as I couldn't wear the high ones for more than 5 minutes and walk at the same time.

Agree, smallclanger.

As a young women I often heard older men in the family/family friends, making hostile sounding jokes about the "comfortable shoe" brigade. I think the idea was that lesbians and manhaters wore comfortable shoes. Wearing comfortable shoes - which did not hurt you, and which you could walk and run in all day - was an odious thing to do, and probably meant that you were a lesbian.

That sounds bonkers, doesn't it. But I grew up hearing it. I spent a good few years tottering about in high heels in my late teens and early twenties, but then, as with a lot of teenage habits that I thought made me look grown up (smoking, sarcasm, and sleeping in my make-up), I figured that they weren't such a great idea.

I wear "comfortable shoes" all the time now. Fuck you, old losers!

I consider myself a feminist, but I love heels and have far too many several pairs of them.

When I was 18 (1980's) I used to live in them and would wear them all day at work/run for buses/go delivering mail all over town (part of my first job) and they didn't hurt at all. I moved down to London and on my first day in work snapped the heel of some lovely shoes in those old-fashioned wooden escalators. Discovered DMs and didn't much look back, although I kept the heels in the back of the wardrobe and they come out for parties/occasions/times when I want to wear a dress and only heels will do.

Some clothes just look hugely better with a pair of heels. Most skirts and dresses look fine with flats but wearing heels 'lifts' them a level, if that makes sense? Makes you look more put together.

I wore the shoes my mother got married in on my own wedding day - Italian 1960's stilettos with pointy toes - the most comfortable shoes I've worn, they were so well made and flexible.

Most people haven't got a clue how to place their foot properly when walking in heels and consequently can't run/walk/stand about in them without discomfort/wobbling.

I have to say that it's almost impossible these days to buy a pair of heels that aren't ridiculously high, there doesn't seem to be anything in between skyscraping heels (with that ridiculous inbuilt platform sole that bumps you up yet another inch) or plain ballet flats. I was in Primark last week and some of the shoes wouldn't have looked out of place in a BDSM scenario. I saw a poor woman running across a car park out of the rain last week wearing a pair and she was moving like she was on badly-fitted stilts. Not at all elegant, which is what a good pair of heels, worn properly, should make you look like.

How to place your foot?
On the ground, surely?
Would you be able to explain, Lovecat?

Flat shoe wearers call themselves Mizz and have cats. Lots of them have short hair too. True fact.

(Actually in my case, totally true .)

I'd much rather spend the money on fabulous bras.

Yes ,I was wondering about 'how to place the foot'. I like to just be able to walk in a natural way, without having to think about it.

Okay, difficult to explain without showing, but I'll try.

When you walk barefoot, you tend to put your heel down first, followed quickly by the ball of the foot/toes, pressing down on the ball of the foot and lifting the heel as you move forward again.

When in heels, you have to tilt your pelvis slightly forward and put the foot down 'flat' (heel and ball of the foot at the same time). To move quickly and comfortably when walking like this you need to sway your hips slightly as you walk - nothing exaggerated, it's not a big swing, no more than a cm or two. People who sway their arse like Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot are putting it on.

If you try and walk in the barefoot manner, putting your heel down first, you will wobble horribly and probably crack your shoes across the top of the toes in time. You know you're doing it properly if your shoes don't 'gape' on either side of the ball of the foot when you place your foot down.

Hope that makes sense, it's not something I have to think about tbh, it's 'natural' for me in high heels to move that way because I'm used to it.

I'm not advocating heels per se, or saying it's somehow 'better' than wearing flats (I love my New Rock boots just as much as my heels), it's just that if you are going to wear heels, it's a lot more comfy to walk that way, looks less like you're a constipated duck on stilts and gives less wear and tear on your (expensive) shoes! :o

I used to have New Rock boots with heels, Lovecat! Be that as it may, I'm not sure I agree about the proper way to walk in heels. You just walk, heel foremost! If the shoe fits properly and is comfy it will work properly. Am currently at work wearing Kurt Geiger boots with a 3 or 4 inch wedge heel (at least 6 years old so can't link), and I just walk. I find it's the shoes where you can't stride properly that are uncomfy. For that reason I much prefer shoes to have some way of actually attaching to one's foot. Court shoes can be really crap for just staying put as you walk gaily on, leaving one behind.

Back in the day I used to be a perfect New Look size 4 - they had hundreds of shoes with the same 3 inch heel and basic shape, which luckily fitted my foot perfectly. They were so comfy and cheap, I had heaps of them. Then they must have changed their model slightly because the shoes stopped fitting, and then the current 6 inch craze came in and it was all ruined. So yes, I wear highish heels, but I try to pick comfy ones. Internet shopping sabotages this rule sometimes, mind.

Motherinferior, why must your tits be pert and rounded? Could it be because of...the patriarchy?

Fabulous bras make me comfortable as well as laying out my cleavage for the perusal of taller passers-by

Pacific , not important , just nice and my preference .

YANBU. I think they look dated, try-hard, conformist and ridiculous. No-one is going to tell me I "should" wear uncomfortable shoes. They should be consigned to history like the bustle, the corset and the powdered wig.

Thanks, Lovecat

I wear crop top bras AND comfortable shoes.

I MUST be a man-hater.

I agree with Lovecat that (aside from the fabulousity that are DM boots) DM shoes are smart and comfortable.

Lovecat, thanks for that - I will have to try that out one day

bluebayou, I was not having a dig at you; like I said I don't dislike shoes with heels, I think they look nice on a lot of people, I love my heels (although wear them rarely and often admire them more as a piece of sculpture rather than anything you might consider wearable foot wear ). But this does not stop me from acknowledging the societal/patriarchial forces at play...

Squeak, I see your crop tops and comfortable shoes and raise you hairy legs [luffs mens]

Now I have hear it all

heard even