I wish I could remember the source for this, but I read somewhere that the higher a woman’s level of education, the less likely she is to wear high heels.
Hmmmm…
Check this out (probably not work friendly):
http://www.gurpsmaster.de/highheels.htm
Go to the part that says “Pony Heels.”
WTF is THAT?
Also check this out:
http://www.gurpsmaster.de/highheels/talons1.jpg
How ANYONE could find the highest heel sexy is beyond me.
So, wolf_meister, how you doing? 
My mind is thoroughly be-boggled. As it happens, I like fancy shoes a bit and I don’t mind wearing them once in a while for an hour or so. No longer, because I like not having feet which feel crippled even better. I don’t get people who spend more money on one pair of shoes than I do on rent.
You need high heels to be taken seriously?! I’m short myself, but I’ve found being competent works quite nicely.
One other thing. I volunteer in an animal shelter where the issue of declawing comes up. How could you possibly explain to a someone who’s had part of the bones in her feet cut off so she could wear overpriced shoes why declawing is wrong and stupid?
CJ
You can’t wear sneakers for the rest of your life, eh? I’m curious as to how these people would react if they knew I routinely travel to places roughly a kilometre from where I live (a college) in slippers. I don’t think they could take it.
SnoopyFan: I don’t have any real problem with those pony heel things, although they are a bit random. They could look kind of cool, though, even if it is just because I’ve never seen anything like them. I agree with you on the highest heel, though - that is just bizarre. I’m trying to imagine how ridiculous a woman (or man? shudder) would look trying to walk in those.
Food for thought. The average height of an adult female from around these parts is roughly 5’6". Upon donning a pair of eight inch heals, that would make her 6’2". Now, that’s just the average. Once a woman is a (not unheard of by any means) 5’10", that brings her up to a completely terrifying 6’6". That’s… you know… frightening. Uh… hopefully there aren’t any six and a half foot girls on the board that I’ve offended. Think of it as confronting a guy who is around seven feet tall. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. Just terrifying.
~ Isaac
On the rare occasions when I attempted to wear shoes with heels over 2", I would always trip, stumble, or twist my foot. No thank you.
I wear sneakers almost all the time. I have a couple of pair or plain flats and some soft leather oxfords. I think the highest heels in my closet are on a pair of sandals - maybe 1.5" if that high.
Most orthopedic surgeons will emphatically tell you never to wear high heels. And that’s before they cripple you!
Here’s what we need to do: A whole bunch of us need to get together and visit one of these “ladies”. We would naturally all be dressed in sneakers, slippers, or even (shudder) sandals! It’ll be funny just to see Anita’s brain explode …
Wow. The whole idea of cutting off part of your toes to wear a pair of shoes is shocking to me. OTOH, I’ve had breast augmentation, which is at least just as invasive and weird as cutting off your toes, I suppose.
At 5’10", though I am sometimes sad that there’s a whole world of shoes out there that I’m too shy to wear. I’m trying to get braver and wear some 3" heels. There’s a lot of lovely shoes that I tell myself I’d look ridiculous in, but I’m trying to get over it. Like those lovely heels with the ribbons that wrap around the ankles. Sigh
SnoopyFan, that “highest heel” photo on that link may well be the most disgusting thing I’ve seen all week. That is just so wrong on so many levels.
I’ve been known to wear high heels on occasion, but we’re talking maybe 2-3", and chunky, so as not to stress my poor ankles too much. Day-to-day, I pretty much live in my Nike’s and Rockport’s (well, not at the same time. . .)
Surely there is a happy medium between 4" Sarah Jessica Hooker shoes and schlumping around in Volkswagen-sized sneakers? Nice leather flats or low heels are easily obtainable, comfortable, and look nice.
Re: the high heel photo.
Is it me or does it look like #4’s foot isn’t really in the shoe?
IT’s not my personal fetish, but it’s not beyond me how people find the 7.8" heel sexy. The ultra-high heel (6" and over, I’d say) fetish is a fairly specialised thing, and shoes like this that require the wearer’s foot to be en pointe (they usually come in the form of laced boots, called “ballet boots”) are an extreme form of this already specialised fetish. Some people like things more extreme than others.
The highest heels I’ve worn are 6 inch spike heels. They’re not really for walking around in. The general idea is to put them on, get one’s slave to lick them for a bit, kick him/her up the arse with them, and take them off again when one’s done. (note to Dinaroozie - the idea is to be “…you know… frightening”!)
I do find it thoroughly ludicrous that someone would have surgery to enable her to wear high heels all day every day. But I don’t object to someone wanting to wear a special item of apparel in order to feel a special way — weather that item of apparel be a high heeled sandal, a corset, a favourite hat, a pair of lucky underpants, a butt plug or whatever. It’s not up to me to decide what people should feel special in — and it’s not up to the silly lady who said “Nobody could get along wearing sneakers the rest of your life” either.
I guess what disturbe me most about this is the element of changing functionality.
I mean breasts are breasts. You get an augmentation and your boobs still bounce. Yes, it’s invasive, but as long as you don’t add on so much you get back problems, no big deal. I’m not sure about creating and secreting milk, but presumably those who get augmentations have figured all that out.
If you take parts of bones out of your feet, you HAVE to be changing the way the foot functions, and, as a result, how the whole body moves. What about when these women are 70 or 80? It’s hard enough for many elderly people to maintain balance in SAS big clomper shoes with normal length toes, but I think it’d be harder if part of all their toes was missing.
I wore high-ish (2 inches or so) heels in my college days on a fairly rare occaision. I stopped by about 25, because of the pain the day after and increasing problems with plantar fasciitis. Now, after two broken metatarsals, I’ll never wear more than very sturdy 1" heels again. Mourning this “loss” never entered my mind. I wear big, clunky shoes and have managed to survive thusfar.
What I mind most about all my foot problems is I can’t go barefoot anymore either. Now THAT is a loss!
I’ve got one word for these people:
Birkenstocks.
An actual conversation with one of the few women I have ever worked with:
“Dejahma, I noticed that you always wear sneakers. Do you have some kind of a foot problem?”
Me: “No, I don’t have any foot problems because I wear sneakers all the time.”
hehehehehe
An actual conversation with one of the few women I have ever worked with:
“Dejahma, I noticed that you always wear sneakers. Do you have some kind of a foot problem?”
Me: “No, I don’t have any foot problems because I wear sneakers all the time.”
hehehehehe
High heels. <shudder>
A woman in flat shoes, sandals, bare feet, even platforms, wins every time over one in stiletto heels.
Oh yeah. Birkenstocks Are Your Friends. I have foot problems, but that’s because I have HEREDITARY flat feet. I’ve been informed that there’s actually an extra bone in my foot where the arch is supposed to be. sigh
But the Birks are a Happy Thing.
This one got me:
Heh. Glass Ceiling, anyone? Day-um, maybe you should try ACTING like a mature professional, chickie-boo, then they won’t treat you like the “little girl in the room”.
Speaking from the perspective of working in a VERY male-dominated profession, and have often been the ONLY woman in my department. I may be treated like that ONCE by a co-worker…but he doesn’t do it again, I can tell you that much.
DogMom, I have the opposite problem - really high arches. Theoretically, I could wear heels, but when a quarter of my foot doesn’t touch the shoe, what’s the point?
Bloody hamsters, I’ll try this again:
When I was a teenager, I knew a girl who’d been wearing high heels - and ONLY high heels - since the age of nine. Her bare feet were the freakiest things I’d ever seen, they’d actually grown into the shape of high heeled shoes and by the time I knew her (age 19) she was unable to wear any other type of shoe.