A guy friend got irritated with my loud shoes today, and told me he hates when I wear them. I don’t have a heavy step at all, but my shoes have a little spiky heel and I was walking on tile floors in the mall.
I sort of like the sound they make. People look up when I’m passing by, and they notice me. He claims that they’re the most annoying thing ever and every man on Earth hates women’s shoes that go click-click-click down a hallway.
What do you think? Women, do you feel sexy or strong when your shoes are loud? Or do you feel self-conscious? Men, do you whip your head around to find who’s got the hot stilettos on, or are you seriously irritated and wish we’d all shuffle around in bunny slippers?
I love clicky shoes! You’re right, though, that people around the clicky-shoe-wearer often seem to feel something approaching violence toward her. Can’t imagine why.
Reminds me of the good old days wayyyy back in the sixth grade. I had a brand-new pair of Dr. Scholl’s wooden sandals (which, if you walk in them just right, sound like a horse clip-clopping along, and are nearly as loud), along with a teacher whom I didn’t like very much and who didn’t like me. Since I attended a typical school in litigiously-inclined America, the teacher didn’t dare to order me not to wear my shoes. Oh, I had lots of fun that year! It did turn out to be a bit cold wearing sandals in March, though…
If it’s normal clicking that comes while walking, okay I am usually fine. But if I hear people scuffling along with that scrape-click scrape-click or even just scrape-scrape-scrape I get ready to do murder.
I suppose it’s part of being ordered to pick up my feet when I was a kid.
Whenever I walk through the huge marble halls of the New York Public Library in my high heels, the rat-a-tat-tat echoes make me feel very Barbara Stanwyck-y.
(And my heels are comfortable, too—round-toed pumps from Aerosoles, very early 1950s-looking.)
I always thought that Loud Shoes were a Really Bad Idea from a safety standpoint. Why advertise to the mugger arounf the corner that you are approaching (and, if you are wearing high heels, possibly can’t run)?
I pick my shoes based on looks and don’t worry about the sound. But I do wear a lot of heels so I am loud on tile and wood floors. I’ve discovered that kitten heels (1" pointy heels, fairly low) are actually much noisier than stilettos because more of your weight come down on the heel. I walk differently in 4" heels and tend to place my feet differently. My noisiest shoes are actaully some pointy toed cowboy boot. For some reason, I tend to come down on the heel very hard in those shoes.
i have some non-high-heel shoes with a heel made of wood that make a wooden-clog sound when I walk. It’s kind of a pretty sound, but I don’t like to think that I’m distracting people when I walk by. But they’re my favorite dress shoes, so I wear 'em anyway.
Jeebus, do I hate noisy shoes. I can’t count the number of times I have wanted to tell someone to quit shuffling, dammit, and pick up your feet!!! Clicky ones are almost as bad.
As far as most guys seem to think, women should not wear loud shoes unless they look very, very attractive. And I mean–like–Cosmo cover-girl attractive. Because it’s basically an annoying sound that calls attention to the woman, and very-pretty girls have a much better chance of getting away with it without being reviled.
~
Our common area in our office complex is marble floors, and I clickity-clickity (or clompity-clompity, if I’m wearing boots with wooden heels) for a good half mile to my work area. I’ve gotten used to it, but my friends all hear me coming and can yell to me before I round the corner…“Hey, There’s Kalhoun!”
To state the obvious, high heels make your legs look good, and if they don’t hurt your feet, that’s a good thing. The signature sound of a spike heel on a hard floor also announces you to men who have a thing for women’s feet. If you are a gal who loves to have her feet massaged and her toes sucked, that could be a good thing, too. I’m not one of those guys, but I have met some gals who would melt for a toe-sucking man.
I have a pair of suede shoes I like to wear when I perform, because they have wooden heels, and to walk up to the stage, or across the stage, it gives me a bit more confidence, and I walk taller, and feel better about the performance.
On the other hand, I recently performed in a concert with 10 other guitarists, and we all took the stage several times for some longer pieces, and I was the only one with the clicky shoes – it bothered none of them and actually they were all so wrapped up in their performance, no one noticed.
But then my music teacher played the show back for me in my lesson, hearing THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK before each song as we took the stage made me turn bright red – I asked him to edit it out (he was editing the CD). Sure! he said.
But not before he played it back for the class…was just about under my seat from embarrassment, and then he had to crack, ‘Sounds like an Alfred Hitchcock film, doesn’t it?’
:smack:
But will wear them again!
He playd the unedited tape to the class to get back at me because he ordered us to wear black trousers with white shirts, and I wore my black leather trousers with bright neon pink socks…we played well, and everyone in the audience had a giggle…
