What are you playing at ASOS?

[kateluvscats]

www.asos.com/asos-design/asos-design-heeled-boots-in-black-stretchy-leather/prd/202004069

I wear a size 8. My friend's daughter was a size 11 by the age of 15. It's annoying spending half your life looking for shoes that fit and are nice. I wasn't aware that shoes sizes came in men's and women's - more than manufacturers wanted to try to make us conform to stereotypes of what we should or shouldn't be sized like.

I'm a UK size 9 so I appreciate such shoes being in larger sizes. Even more so if they aren't also wide fitting as I have narrow feet.

I often buy men’s running shoes as they fit my wide feet better and don’t come with the ‘pink premium’ price tag. It’s more like half a size difference.

As a big footed woman I have bought many pairs of mens shoes, sometimes need to size down by 1 size as mens tend to be a little wider depending on style but I've never been able to fit my size 9s into a mens size 6.5.

Also, having a daughter who's size 4 at 8yrs old I emphatically approve of any brand that brings out bigger sizes in feminine styles.

I've learned to embrace Skechers and mens trainers but she's showing signs of being more Imelda Marcos in her style choices so I have a feeling shoes will be very expensive when she is allowed to wear heels.

I think being perfectly honest, OP is getting a bit of a tough time here...
There's something (to me) very odd/off putting about this being on a retailer website that is presented as largely normal.
Cross dressing ranges which this is clearly geared towards , even if it's within the men's section is not what you'd expect to find in generic high street stores generally I don't think? The same applies here.

My preference would be to not give finance to companies encouraging this, if this is your bag there's other places to go. And honestly chopping the poor fellas head off in all pictures shows just how far ASOS extend in their bandwagon-jumpingbravery.

Male or female. Wear what ever you like but honestly that is not an attractive look IMO

I don't have a problem with it if men want to wear them, I'm not sure why that would offend anyone else.

ASOS is hardly a generic high street store. It loads hundreds of new products on every day. Some of those products are 'normal' (ugh), some of them are not.

Besides, men in heels are not necessarily cross dressing. Believe it or not, some men just really like fashion and putting together different looks and styles. Why should they have to go to some overly expensive specialist website to do so?

Also it would have taken you about five seconds to look at other shoes on the site and see that they rarely, if ever, include the model's head in these shots.

Seems fine to me, if men want to wear heels then crack on

I think those thinnest of stiletto heels look absolutely ridiculous, they'll be broken in 5 minutes by a bloke IMO. I think heels are really dated now but if men are desperate to be incredibly uncomfortable and ruin their feet let them crack on I say.

I welcome this, I’d like ALL men wearing boots like these ALL the time.

Right....and?

If you don't like them don't buy them.

I don't see a problem with it. Think back to glam rock or the new romantics, Kurt Cobain frequently wearing dresses. Men in the late 60s/early 70s wearing very tight low trousers and tops in the same print as women.

I think clothes being worn by both sexes can be different to issues around trans rights (I know I've worded that poorly)

The difference only exists in US sizes.

I have 2 pairs of trainers, same style, just in different colours. Both Nike size 40. One bought in the men's section. The fit is identical.

ASOS is playing at blokes being able to have uncomfortable, impractical, expensive footwear previously mostly sized and aimed at women.

If the blokes are happy with that, there's no problem. Nowt to do with feminism really.

Why no face shown on the model? Is it embarrassment, as I never see a faceless female model.

I don't care what anyone wears, but I'd snigger at an obviously male person wearing these. Or trying to wear them.

ASOS rarely show faces on shoe models. You obviously care and judge what people wear or you wouldn’t be sniggering at people. I hope I never pass you on the street sniggering at what myself and others choose to wear, you don’t sound very pleasant.

It's the Metallica shirt isn't it?
You're right. They've been shit since ride the lightning. I'm more of a Slayer woman myself.
I wouldn't wear those heels in a moshpit mind you.

www.asos.com/asos-design/asos-design-wide-fit-dizzy-lace-up-trainers-in-warm-beige/prd/202583616?clr=warm-beige&colourWayId=202583619&cid=27869 oh look, a female model wearing a perfectly unremarkable pair of trainers and not showing her face. She must be embarrassed too!

If you want to see fellas rocking high heeled boots just Google Poison 80s Motley Crue 80s (although some of the Tommy Lee pics aren’t that’s SFW) or Prince 80s.

Now if he can run for a bus in them I’d be really impressed.

I really don’t care who is wearing the shoes as long as nobody tries to tell me stereotyped clothing changes your sex.

I completely agree.

Can't get worked up about this.. if men want to wear heels (which some do) then fine

I think the idea of "cross dressing" reinforces gender stereotypes. Clothes are just clothes, and the expectation that some clothes are only for men or only for women is only a mere step or two from the idea that there are certain clothes that women and men should wear by dint of being their sex.

I feel like we took two steps away from this idea around the 60s-80s, when every other male popstar was wearing makeup and women were rocking dungarees, and have since taken a step back toward the idea that there's something "wrong" with people who have a preference for more masculine or feminine ways of dressing.

High heels for men were fairly common in the early 17th century, as were brightly colored clothes, wigs, tight-fitting breeches (leggings), makeup and other adornments. For a multitude of reasons, including enlightenment ideals and the need in France for people to disassociate themselves from the royals for fear of being attacked by Jacobins during the revolution, men's clothing became far more muted and boring in the 18th century. Included in the transformation of male fashion was the strong undertone that men were practical and utilitarian while women, who kept their colours, adornments, wigs and makeup, were frivolous and emotional. Look up "The Great Male Renunciation" (GMR).

There was even a movement - the Men's Dress Reform Party formed after WWI. One of its founders, John Flugel, a psychologist, opined that the GMR was when men "abandoned their claim to be considered beautiful" and "henceforth aimed at being only useful".

I think men who are interested in fashion, who want to wear heels and makeup and sparkly spangly adornments and bright coloured skirts should be absolutely free to do so without any negative assumptions being made about them. Just like I'm free to wear a navy pants suit to be a bridesmaid (true story) and forego all those things because they just don't interest me.

Maybe if they were, there'd be less children and teenagers thinking they must be the opposite gender because they like (or don't like) the pink sparkles.