Why do women wear these?

[triangle]

High heels. They're NOT comfortable. WHo first thought of them, and why do women wear them?

[eggo]

easy, because guys like them (well most guys). they make the legs look longer and more sexy.

[vandal]

Because tennis shoes don't really go with a skirt.

[pepperlandgirl]

They make legs look longer, and for some reason, that's a desired look. I never claimed to understand it, I just do it ;)

[SisterCoyote]

I don't know if he's the first person to think of them, but one of the French Louis' (I think Louis XIV but I'm not 100% certain and I can't find my notes) popularized them. And tights, for that matter.

You see, Louis was kinda short...

<hijack>
Although I personally loathe high heels and won't wear them in any circumstance where it can be avoided, they still beat the practice of footbinding hands down.
</hijack>

[Boris B]

Count me as a guy who doesn't like high heels. I mean, even if I did think they were attactive for some purely aesthetic reason, each time I see them I am reminded of all the times when some woman has blamed me for how much her feet hurt because of the shoes that my kind had cajoled her into wearing. Somehow misplaced guilt just doesn't fit next to exposed collar bones, bare midriffs, and long soft skirts on my list of attractive characteristics.

Also, there's my dear departed aunt's feet. Actually, a great aunt's. She was raised in Silesia. Her feet looked like they were raised in Silesia. I wanted to burn all her shoes and replace them with Dr. Scholls (I was 15 when she went to that great podiatrist waiting room in the sky).

Other reasons for high-heeled shoes:
They make your short and medium-height male dates look funny
You cannot dance in them without years of training (and what could be less romantic than dancing?)
Self-defense

[HorseloverFat]

Shoes have long been a fetish item, especially ones that are hard to walk in. Items that are confining contribute to the 'helpless female' stereotype, which is a major turn on for many men. Its a small expression of bondage. S&M gear is a stronger expression of this and foot binding is the extreme.

[TheThill]

I've read that high heels are supposed to enunciate the woman's breasts and buttocks.

Personally they are a major turnoff for me, but then again so is (obviously visible) make-up.

[tcburnett]

They cause the leg muscles to flex. Standing with the heels off the goound is sexually stimulating to males, but I don't have the energy to explain it. Ask a behavioral anthropologist. But all women, including the pug-uglies in the feminist movement, understand this clearly and refer to very high (specifically spike) heels as "fuck-me heels".

And, truth be told, a beautiful woman walking into the room in a teddy, garter belt and spike heels really IS a turn on to most men.

But not me, of course. I am politically correct and respect the fact that women are not sex objects. They try to be but the men are not supposed to notice.

[Una Persson]

I think they do enhance the attractiveness of a woman's legs. Although I prefer heels over flats, the most heel I'll ever wear is about 2 inches.

[Hamadryad]

High heels tighten the calves (which make the legs look sleeker) and the buttocks (which causes them to tense and rise a bit). They also cause a woman to arch her back slightly while walking to compensate, which does thrust the breasts forward slightly more than usual.

Me, I prefer hiking boots. I can't even wear most heels because of the pointy toes; my feet haven't been forced for years into that weird unnatural shape - I spend most of my time barefoot - so it's uncomfortable to squish 'em like that.

[BigGiantHead]

Yes, actually the lengthening of the legs is a shortcut to a very instinctual urge in the more primitive portions of the brain. Fashion magazines know this and, with today's technology, use computer imaging to artificially stretch the lower portions of the models you see in many layouts.

[Eve]

High heels go back hundreds of years, and I won't pretend to know why.

But I love 'em, and don't find them at all uncomfortable or difficult to walk in—as long as I've shopped around and found a good pair (no more than a two-and-a-half or three-inch heel). And no, I don't wear them to walk to work; I have nice comfortable flats for that (will NOT be caught dead in sneakers, though, outside of the gym!).

I'm not trying to attract a man or impress other women; I just like the way they look and the way they make me look. I don't care what footwear you wear, so for goodness sake don't get all het-up over mine!

[AHunter3]

Top ten reasons for high heeled shoes on women:

10. Guys look down to see what the hell is wrong with your feet, and that gets them looking at your legs.

9. It's a fetish thing: it appeals to the lust that every red-blooded man has for guns and the holsters they come in. Hey, watch where you point those toes, baby.

8. It's part of a plot to bankrupt the shoelace industry.

7. We were jealous in junior high because girls weren't as awkward as we were. This is our revenge. Now we can laugh at YOU when YOU try to walk.

6. The modern shoe industry requires it. Men own one or two pairs of comfortable shoes. Women own nine dozen pairs of uncomfortable ones. Women keep buying shoes in the vain hope that somehow, somewhere, a comfortable shoe that is considered acceptable for general wear can be found.

5. It helps emphasize the "difference between the sexes". There are folks whose brains dissolve into dripping horror at the notion that women and men have a lot in common, so every difference found and reinforced is a good thing.

4. It helps reinforce the pantyhose mandate in the office environment. If your feet are miserable, you are less likely to focus on the fact that your legs aren't comfortable either.

3. If it weren't for high heeled shoes, women would have to cram their toes into funnels for several hours per day to achieve the same interesting toe bones. This would be grossly inefficient.

2. On a dimly lit sidewalk or in the expanse of a nearly deserted parking garage, there's nothing like the 'clack clack' of high heels on concrete to announce that a female is attempting to walk through the area.

1. It's harder for your victims to run away in high heeled shoes.

[Nen]

High heels also present the illusion of making women appear more thin. If you're 1.6 m tall and have a mass of approximately 45 kg, you have a particular appearance. If wear a pair of 3" spikes, you appear to be about 1.7 m tall and 45 kg. If someone else has the same weight to height ratio, a woman naturally 1.7 m tall would have a mass of approximately 48 kg. Although everyone is aware that the individual is wear high heels, if a woman passes by another who is not wearing such attire, she appears to have a smaller weight to height ratio (she appears to be the same height and a mass 3 kg less). Thus, high heels present the illusion of making the wearer appear more thin. Naturally, the aforementioned effects on musculature lend additional appeal.

[handy]

Guys wear them too, although Im not one of them.

[epeepunk]

Allow me to share with you a haiku:

The wife of the man
Who invented high-heeled shoes
Invented the tie

[kiffa]

Good shoes [like chocolate, wine, men and underwear] do not come cheap. You get what you pay for: you want style? you want comfort? you want a good shoe? Try Birkenstock for comfort, but comfort, style and eye-popping bizzazz come only from Manolo Blahnik. He uses top grade leather along with creative materials which one would not necessarily find on a shoe. But, it is his aaahhhh comfort that is his trademark - along with his aaauuukk prices. There are women who would fly around the world, swim to England, wear out their Birkenstock walking to West 55th Street NYC for a Blahnik.

So, wear the appropriate shoe for you: my Birkenstock for running errands/store, my standard grey low heel pumps when I need to be seen/accepted as a professional, my Ryka for weightraining and power walking, my Chinese black clothe shoes for movies/dining out. I would love to have a Blahnik for each of my African boubous robes and my dropdead outfits that I wear only on special occasions.

Ah, to sip champagne and blueberries, savor See's or Lindt double chocolate with hazelnut truffles dressed only in my Blahniks...... near heaven.

[Eve]

Ooooh . . . Manolo Blahnik . . .

Ever get into Charles Jourdan, Kiffa? Mmmmm.

[stuyguy]

Your question should be, Why DON'T women wear them?

Pound for pound, they are the sexiest weapon a woman has in her man-attracting arsenal -- if she's got the legs for them. (In my book, that is.)

(And, to beat Eve to the punch, no my book is not available at B&N or any other chain bookstore.)

[kiffa]

Blahnik wins hands down, but Charles Jourdan is a close second.

Short women should NOT wear high heels EXCEPT when they are languishing on the red satin settee. Their Blahnik-clad, or Charles Jourdan-clad, foot is offering a come hither tease as it's keeping time with Roberta Flack's "I Feel Like Making Love..."..... Please note this all you tall women who find high heels uncomfortable, but also sexually alluring. You don't need to stand up in high heels to be a tart.

[egkelly]

wear thong bikinis?

[fierra]

I heard (no source again!) that women point their toes when they have an orgasm & that is why high heels which automatically put the foot into that sort of shape are appealing.

[triangle]

Why Do Women..
wear thong bikinis?

To keep their undies from riding up!

[AHunter3]

I heard (no source again!) that women point their toes when they have an orgasm & that is why high heels which automatically put the foot into that sort of shape are appealing.


Doesn't everyone's? Arousal even. We used to say of someone that she "makes my toes point".

[Retief]

sigh, it seems the ladies are wearing them less and less.

In my opinion the ONLY thing a woman needs to seduce someone is an expensive pair of red spikes. Everything else is superfluous.

My darling witch at 59 is at ease on spikes as Tina Turner on stage. (in fact her students often call her that) I met her at 19 and have never seen her make a misstep in heels. She just loves them. It seems to come from wearing them from an early age.

One of the worst turn-off's I can imagine is seeing a woman in a skirt and army boots.

High heels change not only the shape of a woman's leg but her whole posture, and puts the wiggle in the walk if not the giggle in the talk, although in my experience it tends to do that too. Somehow those few ounces of fine leather make many women feel more feminine and men more masculine.

Hats off to the person who invented them.

And no, I have never tried to walk in my wife's shoes;
a) I'd never fit into them
b) It ain't my thing

On the other hand I ENJOY wearing a suit and tie, something that many men these days would like to get out of.

[mellonhead]

wear thong bikinis?


The thong (AKA: Butt Floss) is just one of 2 solutions to that plague of women - VPL - or Visible Panty Line. When wearing a thong you can't see a panty line...however you are constantly reminded that nobody can see your panty line (not to mention when a thong rides up your rear, it REALLY rides up your rear) :(

[Boris B]

[QUOTE}the pug-uglies in the feminist movement[/QUOTE]

[sailor]

>> High heels go back hundreds of years

Is that so? Can anyone find support for this?

[Ike Witt]

>> High heels go back hundreds of years

Is that so? Can anyone find support for this?


On Biography last night they profiled Czar Peter the Great. After his travels through europe he had Russians dress in a more western style. The show mentioned that the women hated the high heeled shoes.

[AHunter3]

that
plague of women - VPL - or Visible Panty Line.


QuickPoll: Post an "aye" if you have no objections to a visible panty line. :)

Cutest of female underapparel: the original cut bikini panty that looks like its upper edge is 6" below the belly button.

Makes one think of wedgies: French cut with the leg holes practically up to your armpits and the waistband is way high in the air.

Looks like medieval torture: Full brief control top girdle contraptions

Looks worse than medieval torture: Buttfloss really-is-a-wedgie silly-ass thongs. Geez, why not just go naked?

[Chronos]

Everyone else is focusing on the woman's appearance, by herself, but you've got to look at the whole picture. Which is a more beautiful scene: A beautiful woman in front of an upscale Manhattan restaurant, or that same woman, in front of a beautiful mountain vista, with a babbling brook and waterfall in the background? Guess which one is wearing heels, and which is wearing combat boots. Call me crazy, but I just don't see something as impractical as heels as being alluring.

[even sven]

Ugh! Heels are evil. I can't walk on them without falling down. Even if I manage to stay upright, my mind is constantly focused on my throbbing feet. We are expect to own at least sixty-five pairs of them. You can't run in them, step off the sidewalk. climb fences or do anything worthwhile in them. Plus they warp you feet and screw up your leg muscles. As for why we wear them, here is a rundown of the theories...

1. The simulate some sort of thing related to sex (e.g. pointing one's toes during orgasm- This also includes making the legs appear long and arching the back. The strongest support of this is that versions of heels show up in different cultures. Why would more than one society ever think up and accept these torture devices if it didn't push some kind of sex button?

2. They render the woman fairly helpless- In heels you are stuck on the sidewalk or inside with little ability to run and a decreased ability to avoid obstacles by changeing direction quickly, jumping or climbing. You can look at heels as a little control device that keeps you where your supposed to be. Also, to be with a woman that doesn't have to do manual labor and can therefor wear impracticle footwear is proof of affluence. Why else is it that the "nicest" clothing is also the least comfortable? It is all showing off that you dont have to go work in the fields.

3. Tradition- You'd think that we'ed stop wearing stuff that makes us appear as sex objects and renders us inequipt to deal with most of life. Why don't we cast them off? Because our mothers taught us that heels make you a woman. Little girl dress up shoes are miniature heels. Getting you first pair of heels is a bit of a milestone and means that you are growing into a "real woman". We idnetify that familler "click-click" of heels with our mothers. Granted, we are socialized to wear dresses as well, and most women don't wear dresses as an everyday thing. We still, however, wear them when we dress up, want to feel "feminine", and even when go to job interviews. Dresses (and heels) are still seen as the required dress for a woman.

I still don't see those as any kind of excuse and the only heels I own are leftovers from high school proms. Even then I took them off as soon as I got inside and dances in my stockings. Oh well.

[Eve]

Sailor—High heels go back at least as far as Renaissance-era Venice, and probably further. I'll have to check my costume-history books.

Chronos—"Which is a more beautiful scene: A beautiful woman in front of an upscale Manhattan restaurant, or that same woman, in front of a beautiful mountain vista, with a babbling brook and waterfall in the background?"

—Oooh, what restaurant? Can you get me reservations?

Sven—I have no trouble walking, runnimg, steppinmg off the sidewalk in high heels; and there are so few fences one must climb in Manhattan. I hardly think anyone who knows me would describe as remotely "helpless."

If you can't walk in heels or don't like them, then don't wear them! Why should it bother you so much that I like them and wear them? I have two pairs, by the way, not sixty-five. Why would you own sixty-five pairs of ANY kind of shoes?

[Chronos]

Yeah, well you don't count, Eve... After all, you're the one that showed up for a riot in heels, and worried that you were dressed too casually. Besides, I'll bet even you can't climb a mountain in 'em.

[SisterCoyote]

Eve, glad to hear you like heels.

I too can run, swim, jump, dance and so forth in my heels - when I choose to wear them - but they make my back, calves and feet ache so fiercely that I've given them up. Because, frankly, after two hours in heels the last thing I feel is any kind of sexy.

And I have not been able to find the reference on the web, but seem to recall a medical study not that long ago indicating that heels were a contributing factor in back problems since they force the hips out of "normal" alignment...

[Lance Turbo]

pepperlandgirl and others said:

They make legs look longer, and for some reason, that's a desired look. I never claimed to understand it, I just do it ;)


I saw a show on TLC a few years back that had this to say:

When women go through puberty, their bodies grow. Their legs grow disproportionately to their torsos. Long legs compared to body size indicate fertility. High heels make women's legs appear even long in relation to their torso. The caveman inside every man is tricked into thinking that this means superfertility. Hubbala-hubbala!

Or at least that is what they said on TLC.