AIBU to not understand why people dislike seeing feet?

[NewNameW]

Why do people hate looking at feet so much and against people wearing flipflops, sandles with shorts/dresses.

Yes I get not everyone has 'beautiful' feet (i surely do not - and I only show them off when its absolutely needed, spa, remove your shoes in the house kinda deal) but it's more about the constant 'you can't wear that in the office' 'I don't wanna see your bare feet' comments that fly all around mumsnet. I have never seen anyone ever say anything negative irl at people showing their feet.

I'm so curious as to what the 'gross' part is. We all have fingers and finger nails and palms which surely touch worse parts of everything in the world than our feet ever do - am I the weird one for not caring?

If you don't like something, don't look surely?

IABU - You should know why feet are gross (pls explain)
AINBU - Feet are feet and no different to any other part of the body

@NewNameW my mum had bunions and had surgery in her 20s (60 years ago) that sounded absolutely barbaric and left her with misshapen and painful feet. She had been told growing up that her feet were revolting and I grew up with her warning me that 'you'll end up with awful feet like mine' anytime I wanted shoes that were slightlyfashionable. Despite years of hideous footwear growing up I have still inherited her wonky looking feet as well as an aversion to looking at / talking about feet!

You drop a cup of hot tea and it burns your toes - suddenly that becomes a H&S issue for the employer as you werent wearing appropriate clothing for the environment. Yes ridiculous but this is the sort of shit show employers are having to deal with. Every day accidents becoming an opportunity to sue an employer and an employer having to pay a few quid to the employee for their stupidity in not looking out for themselves

Your office colleagues on chairs with castors if they roll back without seeing your unprotected feet there ...ouch

Wouldn't it be better practice to ban hot drinks then? I mean a hot cup of tea could burn anywhere, not just toes

So everyone has to wear safety boots at work now? News to me.

No-one is suing their employer because another employee spilled tea on their feet, regardless of their footwear. You're just as likely to spill a hot drink on someone's leg or arm and we don't insist they are covered up.

I honestly cannot believe the pearl clutching that is going on here!.

The shape of your toes and feet is a given, it's not like we make people with deformed fingers wear gloves all the time. It's all ridiculous body shaming. Feet are just very useful appendages that we seem to have forgotten have an important job to do. It's not like anyone is making you a fishfinger butty with their feet is it?
Get a grip people!!

For me is disgusting feet. Corns, manky toenails.
One woman I saw regularly wore sandals that her toes hung over and touched the ground. How could she walk?

I live somewhere hot and to be honest I live in sandals from May/June to September as do pretty much all women here of all ages. It is far too hot to be wearing closed shoes and socks. Even men here often wear sandals or flip flops. I have casual sandals for weekends and smart sandals for work. But we definitely wear sandals everywhere.

I don't like feet and hate when people are barefoot around my house. However to be honest at work I do not look at people's feet and honest could not tell you if they wearing open toe sandals, shoes, or a bare foot to be honest.

I agree entirely. And I accept the flaming I’ll receive for it.

I was on a very early train once and a man in the seat across the aisle took his shoes and socks off and started to clip his toenails.

I do wonder if this is as common in warmer climates where it’s far more common for people to expose their feet on a regular basis. I think part of it in this country is the fact the weather only allows it for maybe 2-3 months max a year so when people do have them out, it’s kind of shocking to us in some way.

I know that may sound crazy but it’s a thought I had a few weeks ago. I am unusually curious about feet when I see them because it isn’t common to and people have such different toes!

I used to have very pretty feet. Best part of me. Now I have bunions on both feet so bad that toes are crossing, but I'm afraid that I'm still going to wear sandals because there are only so many types of shoe that I can get my poor tortured feet into and I refuse to be hot and sweaty just because someone might object to seeing my bunions out and about.

It's not like they are self inflicted. I take good care of my feet, but I can't do anything about genetics!

Here a foot curiosity. At a museum in wales where you could obtain a printout of the history of your surname, the person issuing this knew from my surname what the shape of my feet would be (second toe longer than big toe). I didn’t even have my feet exposed, and she was right!

Leonardo da Vinci described human feet as a great feat of engineering, given that they support one’s whole bodyweight.

Alas yes they are because apparently we now live in a world where no one takes responsibility for their own actions. It's the death of common sense

Any believable references for that? Because as someone who's worked in offices since the early 90s, it sounds like bullshit.

my first 2 jobs were manual labour so open toed shoes were absolutely banned, and it’s in my head now that work = closed shoes. Despite the fact that I work in an office. But toes out at work just makes me queasy.
I suffer from cracked heels that need constant attention (or they can get painful) and know how much of a faff it is to keep feet in nice condition. But because I spend so much time and effort on my own feet it irrationally annoys me that others don’t. But that’s on me.
I wish I could just stop looking at others horrible feet but my eyes can’t stay away.

I understand looking, but looking to the point you are offended is what confuses me.

I'm not a fan of meat, blood, spit, holes, if I see it - I look away instantly.

I do not mind poop, skin, hair, scars - lots of things so many people find themselves queasy at.

But feet seem to be the 'absolutely not, disgusting' but this is such an unavoidable thing. I've never met someone disgusted by hands and they do and touch so much worse, why are fingers so much different to toes? idk

Sounds like you spend all your time wondering around looking down at people's feet? Do you find you bump into things all the time?

wondering around?

horrible malformed toes, crusty skin, manky toenails, corns, podgy pink trotters.

Not all feet are like that. In sandals weather my feet always look nicely pedicured. I look after my feet and don't have malformed toes, crusty skin, manky toenails or cracked dry heels. And my feet aren't fat.

I get that some people don't look after their feet, but I am not phobic about it.

Yeah like I don’t get it. DP teases me because I actually like feet! Nice, strong looking ones mind 😂😂 but I read on here “I’d never have my feet out AT WORK” shock horror. Why not? It’s been 35° and you wouldn’t wear sandals?

Oh it’s not offence, it’s just shy of the disgust you just described. And I’m old enough to have worked in offices with strict dress codes where anything other than normal shoes would get you sent home so seeing toes out in work still seems so weird to me.

Re the difference between seeing hands and feet, maybe it’s because we’re so used to seeing hands and therefore we don’t have that reaction? It’s an interesting question all right.

I used to dislike my own feet so much I’d never wear shoes but now I happily live in my Birkenstocks all summer long. But I need to treat my cracked heels daily or I’ll be in terrible pain with them.

Going about my day I can’t say I ever notice peoples feet to be honest. I wear flip flops all summer as I like my feet to be cool. I haven’t worn socks for months. I do have a pair of those Skechers slip in trainer things for when it’s wet, still no socks though.

Socks with sandals look ridiculous!