Are bare feet rude and if so under what circumstances?
I never wear shoes unless I have to (work, church, cold weather, etc.) I have flip flops under my front seat for emergencies and heavier shoes in the trunk.
I got to thinking about this over the weekend while staying in a hotel in Chicago this weekend and going thru the common areas bare footed.
I can see one problem … when visiting a friend I can’t very well take off my dirty skin and leave it by the door.
I hate shoes and kick them off when I can. I view them as protection againt bad things outside and as you mentioned, against dirt. Inside, they should be taken off and the dirt left at the doorway.
WARNING: More and bloodier battles have been fought over the issue of whether shoes should be worn inside the house on this board than nearly any other issue. Proceed with caution.
My answer–in the pool, no. At the opera, yes. In between, maybe.
Bare feet are informal. So they may or may not be rude depending on the formality of the situation.
Depends on the hotel I think. You wear shoes to work and church because those are formal settings. Some hotel spaces would qualify.
And I suppose resturants…it might put people off their food, even is you’re feet are in fact cleaner and less smelly that their shoes. That’s just the way it is.
If “rude” is making people uncomfortable, I’ve been guilty of that in another circumstance (since I never wear shoes when I don’t have to either). When I’ve walked around my friend’s unheated stone floor in the middle of winter. Or strolled out to get the mail though the snow. It really seems to upset people. However I’m afraid have to consider that Their Problem 
.
I’ll agree that it’s not particularly rude of you to walk around in public barefoot if it’s also not rude for me to giggle like a madman as I watch you hop along a hot sidewalk… also, no availing yourself of emergency services if you step on a piece of broken glass.
Dirty feet are gross. If you’re walking in front of me, I can see how dirty the bottoms of your feet are. I don’t want to see that while I’m shopping, or eating out.
If they invented a way to go bare footed and keep them clean, I’d be all for it. I can’t stand to have my feet covered.
Depends where you are. At the pool - no problem.
Meeting with your boss - problem.
Some girls in my speech class a few summers ago gave speeches barefoot. I thought that was a little disrespectful to the professor, since we were supposed to dress up (not totally formal, but a little dressy) on days we were to give our speeches. I guess some of them felt during the summer it was OK to be less formal.
I am the ultimate tenderfoot (I’m serious - I get like the princess and the pea on the soles of my feet just stepping on a sand grain) and I prefer at least to wear flip flops or similar when it is warm enough out.Also, it grosses me out not knowing who might have spit, or peed, or vomited on the sidewalk/grass/carpet in public places I’m walking on with my bare feet (Can you tell I hate it when my feet get dirty?).
I don’t think that there’s something inherently, humanistically WRONG about it.
But, it’s enough of a social norm that it can be considered rude.
Is it rude to walk through a hotel in just my underwear? Is it rude to meet someone with dirt on your face? Is it rude to chew with your mouth wide open? Is it rude to stick your hand down your pants and scratch your nuts?
None of those things actually infringe upon someone else’s existence, and they’re all things that no one would criticize if you just did them on your couch at home, but you know, as well as I do, that some people just don’t like to see it. And when you do it willingly, that can be considered rude.
I’d place “going barefoot” somewhere in between chewing with your mouth wide open, and not combing your hair. But closer to the chewing thing.
The ex-wife hated, hated, hated bare feet, or indeed, anything vaguely resembling bare feet up to and including automobiles that, in her estimation, looked like feet. The sighting of a Corvette or Mitsubishi 3000 GT would drive her into paroxysms of horror. One of my greatest reliefs about the termination of that particular misbegotten relationship was being able to walk around with uncovered feet without being subjected to squeals of disgust and revulsion.
There is a time and a place for bare feet, I guess; like under my desk at work, but not at a meeting with mid-level Air Force muckety-mucks. But what do I know? I prefer cold toilet seats.
Stranger
I went to a summer evening minor league baseball game with friends and had “lawn seats” in the outfield. We all sat around in lawn chairs, on blankets, etc. just gabbing, watching the game, and having beer.
One person in the group was wearing sandals and asked permission of everyone in the group whether they would mind if she removed them.
I thought it was very odd to ask permission in that situation or to believe it would be rude or offend anyone to remove your sandals. It was a very causal and informal baseball game in the park. Just take off your damn sandals and enjoy the game, your friends, hot dogs, and beer. Hell, in sandals, your feet are already half way exposed anyway.
The bar I work at has an eccentric regular who can generally be found barefoot the moment he begins a game of pool.
This is not, by far, the most potentially odd/offensive quirk he has (another one is assuming that the women in the bar are really madly attracted to the beard he’s grown down to his chest) but it’s the one I find the most jarring.
The bar floor is carpeted, and it’s vacuumed every day, but it’s a BAR FLOOR. I don’t have any clue what’s down there and I wouldn’t be caught dead walking around barefoot on it.
Barefoot in public is, IMHO, odd at best, and gross at worst.
Barefoot in private is AWESOME.
Why is seeing dirt on the bottoms of someone’s feet gross, but not seeing dirt on the bottoms of their shoes?
I’ve never liked bare feet. I don’t know about rude, exactly, but they always seem dirty.
An myself, I hate to have my feet feel dirty, or sticky, or damp, or poked by stones.
Preach it. A warm toilet seat in a public restroom means that someone else’s bare ass has been there very, very recently. Not a pleasant thought.
I love to go barefoot. In my home, in warm weather, or on the beach. In the common areas of a hotel, umm, not so much. There could be anything on those floors, including someone else’s athlete’s foot fungus. Basically, if it’s a place where most people wear shoes, then virtually anything could have been tracked in from the outside. No thanks.
One thing you might want to consider-no you don’t have to wear shoes IN the pool, but in the locker rooms, get a cheap pair of flip-flops. I caught a really nasty case of plantars warts going barefoot in the locker room and showers of the local pool.
You aren’t kidding - didn’t people get banned from the shoes in the house thread? Good answer, too - although I do personally like to wear water shoes depending on the pool.
Being a relatively traditionally raised Asian chica, shoes in the house induce paroxysms of horror on my part. I’ll industriously remove my shoes in the face of American company who give me the hairy eyeball.
However, I wear shoes indoors when at work. In the park, depends on what’s underfoot. Public locker rooms, hell yes I wear flipflops. Fierce cases of athlete’s foot are not fun in the least.
(God gave us feet, why shouldn’t we use 'em? 
)