High Heels WTF is it about

[FattyArbuckel]

Why in this day and age do we STILL worship high heels

I think they are one step away from chinese foot binding and can't look around the pavements without cringing...

Really, why do women wear them? I think they look awful.

Rant over - just could not keep it in any longer today....

thanks, really interesting!

You're right, ballet is a feminist nightmare.
Such a gorgeous art

I loathe high heels. I find them uncomfortable and pointless. I read a theory why they're supposed to be attractive - something about making the legs stretch in a similar way to how a female mammal's leg looks in a mating position Put me off heels even more.

This is very interesting, and I am reassured to read that the view seems to be that high heels themselves are not the problem, only if women feel obliged to wear them.

I work in a very formal environment - suits and ties for men and similar for women. but I have noticed there is a real trend away from very high heels, without losing the smartness or formality. A women on my team is a master at buying very smart, attractive low heeled (almost flat) shoes and there are a number of others in the office who are the same.

I tend to be in the "mid heel" category, but that's a choice. I do wear both higher and lower heels at work and play regularly.

I will admit however, that I don't understand why for some women flat shoes has to mean casual or sloppy, even in a formal work environment. You don't see men in the office wearing loafers or flip flops, so I can't work out why some women think that their right not to wear high heels means they can wear very informal shoes at the office.

Hate hate hate high heels, and always have done. I am short, and it's the expectation that I should wear them that annoys me the most - I actually had a shop assistant tell me once that the pair of trousers I was trying on was actually cut longer to accommodate heels. They dragged on the floor. My way of justifying my not wearing heels on fancy occasions is to joke that I am exactly a foot shorter than DH, and I don't want to upset the ratio. It annoys people.

I try to be tolerant, but I hate the noise that stilettos make on floors, hate the affected way they make women walk, hate the way we're supposed to obsess over them.

Interesting that someone brought ballet up - it really is a mass of feminist contradictions, isn't it? In its favour, it is one arts discipline where women's contribution is truly valued, and where female perfomers increase in reputation as they age (up to a point). It is also wonderful and strangely inspiring to watch.

I am a 6 footer, so have always naturally got away with not wearing them (people don't expect me to, I guess).

I love the look of heels for special occasions - they make the foot and ankle look so elegant - but I cannot wear them on a day to day basis and am aghast at women who do. They hurt. You can't run in them or bolt up and down stairs in them. They are so limiting. They reduce the wearer to a tottering lay-dee only fit for life's niceties. Grim.

I do occasionally wear a pair of high heeled, knee high boots to work, though. They are fantastic for days when I need to be intimidating super assertive with senior fuckwit males

That's kind of the crux of it, as I see it - you've inadvertently nailed it, BoomBap.
Men's feet are allowed to be simple walking devices. Women's feet and ankles are supposed to be elegant.
We are talking about feet here. Feet are just about the ugliest, but usefullest part of the body. Why should feet be prettified out of their purpose?
We don't talk about women having elegant elbows, or slim, attractive thumbs, do we? Can't we just have our feet for the purpose they were intended?
(I realise this is from a position of able privilege, and do not wish to marginalise anyone with foot/mobility disabilities).

Men don't usually feel the need for special footwear for being assertive either.

It's really interesting actually, the more I think about it, women's feet and footwear seem to be tangled up with all kinds of cultural significance completely unrelated to their function as feet. Whereas men's feet are just, well, feet.

I wonder where this comes from, and why it's feet in particular that have taken on this significance?

lots of reasons: fetish, making women look unstable and weak i.e feminine, making sure they don't emasculate men by appearing stronger than them. In China it was not only to make men feel masculine, but also to prove he was rich enough to keep a wife who was hobbled i.e to display the fact that she didn't have to work in the fields. There's also the pain factor, the sado-masochism behind seeing women's feet crippled, which takes us back to ballet, where women often left trails of blood on the stage after a performance

I think the high heeled boots make me (persoanlly) feel 'assertive' (not that I need much help in that area ), because they take me to way over 6 foot, and so much taller than most men. That says much more about men than it does about women, in my opinion. The alpha male isn't such an aplpha when a 6"3 women is towering over him, I find.

but what if you both have to peg it to the bus?

True.

But what if we both need a file from a top shelf . Or want to watch the football on a screen in a crowded pub. Or I feel like affectionately stroking his bald spot?

I agree, in general - heels are part of the wider cultural phenomenon of women being expected to wear uncomfortable, impractical clothes. Skirts. Lingerie. Shapewear. The list goes on...

I still like my dominator boots, though

Don't we like heels because if I'm 5 inches taller I'm proportionally slimmer and, as we all know, you can't be too thin?

I am incredibly short and only wear high heels for formal/ going out/ tarting up wear. People always ask why I'm not wearing thema nd my reply is always that even with 3 inch heels I'll still be a short-arse, you won't be fooled, so what's the point.

The thjing is, if you wear high heels, your feet can't be pretty - they become deformed and revolting with bunyans etc. I quarrel with the suggestions that feet are ugly - mine are gorgous.