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

[TwoCotbeds]

When buying shoes, I am remindeed of the old chinese culture on foot-binding. Why is it one gender ( men) can buy shoe which are smart for work AND can also walk all day, round town in comfort, or over grass, say.... but Women have the only Option of 'smart' shoes for work that go with a suit,and look professional or shoes that they can easily wear in comfort all day - but not both ?

I think this has got worse recently with the fashion for very, very high shoes which actually damage the foot.

I always think to myself, a womans and a mans foot is structurally the same. They are not different shapes, like torsos are. Of course I like to look feminine not male, but I also like to walk as much as I like.

I was also told by a chiropodist that the only reason court shoes ( ones with no strap) ever actually stay on, not fall off is because they are actually too small !

I just tried standing with my feet apart (in flats) and imagined I was doing a presentation. Felt very wrong!

Maybe we all looked really stupid then, and he was just taking the piss.

I mean not really far apart. Not like status quo or anything. It won't necessarily work for you. You need to find your own pose - it's like having your colours done

Haha I haven't done colours.

Men are good at doing that feet apart pose and filling the space. Felt too male for me.

I'm usually just hoping I don't get sweat patches. Well when I used to work in an office and do pitches. Overheated patches of hotness that they were.

I was referring to the office then, not my er underarms

Sounds like that trainer had seriously simplified looking confident. I do stacks of presentations, and do appreciate the need to look confident, but the stance isn't the sum total of it. Folks for strokes. The men I work with tend to shout to be heard, I stay silent (as in to get people to be quiet, not to let them mindread). Shouting wouldn't work for me, whereas silence does a treat. So equally just standing like a man (that's how I see the wider stance thing) doesn't do it.

Marsha - glad you said that totally read as your underarms

Ha I know god knows why I said 'patches'

Places, places....

Someone told me once that I was convincing / had authority and 'people listened to what I said'.

Probably a combination of culter & gross glasses, blonde hair, height and heels. People were stunned by the mixed messages into agreeing with me

I've read the entire thread hoping someone would link to the perfect work shoes, with a small heel but comfy. Am now depressed. If even MN can't find 'em, do they not exist?

I lost the ability to wear heels after abandoning them during pregnancy and maternity leave. I have high arches and refuse to squish my toes into a pointy shoe. I have ONE pair of office shoes but they are a millimetre too short (didn't notice when I tried them on, only became apparent when I wore them for longer).

the feminist section may not be the best place to come for a shoe recommendation

you need some kind of nutty obsessive shoe fanatic, not a bunch of women who are clearly quite proud of the fact that They Are In Charge Of Their Footwear, Their Footwear Is Not In Charge Of Them.

(does that capture the tone of the thread accurately?)

Quite Seth

If you want a thread full of links Edam you want S&B...

To the In Charge bit of course..

...not the nutty bit (half my mn friends are on S&B, shifts uneasily from foot to foot)

seth...you got it in one

Yeah but S&B will laugh at my boring desire for work shoes with a low-ish heel. Won't they?

Am so frustated with the high street being full of fuck-me shoes that strangle your feet. What is wrong with making shoes that women can actually walk in?

yes they will Edam. You can't win - 'tis the female condition.

I can help you Edam. I an ex Jeffreys student with LFW experience..... I am the link

what are you after?

[http://www.lovethoseshoes.com/caprice-buckle-black-shoe/ edam?]]
hard to pitch this as I don;t really know what you are looking for

Edam, have you looked at the Camper website? They have lots of women's shoes with low heels.

again

god I love these

I cant wear high heels
I think I look like a man in drag when I wear them, I cant walk in them and As I am fairly tall, feel like a giant.

I find it sad that i cant find many pretty shoes in a low to medium heel.
I stick to pumps, Mary janes and boots.

I think the reall high shoes around at the moment are so ugly and just makes girls look cheap, IMO.

'I think I look like a man in drag when I wear them'
that sums it up EXACTLY

ooh, that lovemyshoes site is interesting.

That buckle back shoe in the link looks nice BUT I don't wear shoes with high uppers unless I'm in trousers. Otherwise they make your legs look shorter and my legs need all the help they can get! (I'm not actually short, just fat.) My ankles are one of the very few parts of my body that are delicate...

I just want something that fits my apparently awkward feet and looks vaguely attractive with skirts or dresses. I like that 1930s style with straps and low but pretty heels, if that helps.

I have ankle boots that I wear with trousers (apparently black with denim is an MN style sin but hey, I don't care) but want some pretty shoes, too. But ones I can walk in. Which is apparently not what the high street offers.

Irony is one of my Granddads was a shoemaker so my mother was always VERY fussy about properly fitting shoes. Then I hit my teens and wore high heels for best part of two decades. Now I've lost the nack and am buggered!

Sorry, I do realise this is feminism not S&B and was nodding along with all the irritation with shoe manufacturers and retailers who think we should all torture ourselves with ludicrous high heels and styles that are just completely impractical. But I do miss heels as I enjoyed the extra height. I'm 5'7" so a heel used to put me on the same eye level as the average bloke which I found useful.

Why shoes with no heel hurt whereas barefeet are fine - when you walk in shoes you put your heel down first, when you walk barefoot it is most comfortable to put the ball of the foot down first, the arch of the foot thereby acting as a shock absorber.

I won't wear shoes that cause me pain.

Yes to 'man in drag' thing. In fact I am so 'big' I feel like a man in drag whenever I try to do the overtly feminine thing. It feels odd.