# Toe Cleavage: the new reason to feel inferior...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toe-cleavage-the-new-reason-to-feel-inferior/183707
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [June 23, 2003, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toe-cleavage-the-new-reason-to-feel-inferior/183707 "2003-06-23T05:21:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2003, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toe-cleavage-the-new-reason-to-feel-inferior/183707/1 "2003-06-23T05:21:20Z")
Yep, the fashionistas have gome up with another one. Now there’s [toe cleavage](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030620.wfoot0620/BNStory/Front/), the new reason to feel shame about your appearance.
> [@](#):
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> “High heels thrust you into that sexy stance, elongate the leg and point the toe. All good things,” she says. "That’s all sort of foreplay and then the bare foot is the real thing.
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> “You’re exposed. You’re bound. You’ve got toe cleavage. You’ve got everything going for you. You add a little toe polish and the eyes just go there.”
> [@](#):
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> New York podiatrist… Suzanne Levine… attributes the boom in her business directly to exquisite sandals.
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> “The shoes out there right now x are like looking at jewellery. I just saw these sandals, with stones and gems … they’re gorgeous. You want to be able to wear them. **If your foot is unsightly, it detracts from the shoe.** ”
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> She’s performing laser therapy, bunionectomies and toe shortening, some to address pain, others for purely aesthetic reasons.
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> “If their second or third toe is too long, women find it difficult to wear Manolo Blahniks or Jimmy Choos,” Levine says.
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> …Levine, who wears three-inch Guccis while performing surgery, knows she is enabling her patients to return to their shoe fetishes. She even makes orthotics to fit designer heels.
_bolding mine_
This is one of the times that I’m glad I’m an ugly guy. I can wander around all day in sandals with toes that look like urban renewal areas and nobody cares. If I were a woman, I’d probably be pissed at this.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2003, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toe-cleavage-the-new-reason-to-feel-inferior/183707/2 "2003-06-23T05:50:14Z")
It’s gonna take a pretty insecure woman to feel inferior because of her toes…
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### Author:  [@butter\_pie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butter_pie)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2003, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toe-cleavage-the-new-reason-to-feel-inferior/183707/3 "2003-06-23T05:53:31Z")
If you think my feet are bad, you should see my hands. Both have very short damaged nails, calluses, cuts, and all kinds of unsightly problems?
You know what? I work with my hands and I’ve walked and been a lot of places. They got character.
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### Author:  [@lorinada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorinada)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2003, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toe-cleavage-the-new-reason-to-feel-inferior/183707/4 "2003-06-23T06:22:10Z")
> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by jinwicked \*
> \*\*I’ve walked \*\*
On your hands? 😃
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### Author:  [@Burnt\_Sugar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burnt_Sugar)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2003, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toe-cleavage-the-new-reason-to-feel-inferior/183707/5 "2003-06-23T08:23:13Z")
> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by lorinada \*
> \*\*On your hands? 😃 \*\*
I do\*. Got a problem with that? 😉
- not all the time!
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2003, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toe-cleavage-the-new-reason-to-feel-inferior/183707/6 "2003-06-23T09:58:04Z")
> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by Sunspace \*
> This is one of the times that I’m glad I’m an ugly guy. I can wander around all day in sandals with toes that look like urban renewal areas and nobody cares. If I were a woman, I’d probably be pissed at this.
A little, I guess.
I’ve been wearing sandals for years. When doing so, I keep my feet clean and the nails trimmed. Anything further is BS.
Nail polish? Sure - but only if you’ve got it on your finger as well as toenails.
Toe shortening for _aesthetic_ reasons? That’s just just plain nuts.
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### Author:  [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2003, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toe-cleavage-the-new-reason-to-feel-inferior/183707/7 "2003-06-23T10:41:43Z")
> [@](#):
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> The shoes out there right now x are like looking at jewellery. I just saw these sandals, with stones and gems … they’re gorgeous.
_She’s a rich girl, she don’t try to hide it,
diamonds on the soles of her shoes…_
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### Author:  [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2003, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toe-cleavage-the-new-reason-to-feel-inferior/183707/8 "2003-06-23T10:47:29Z")
> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by Broomstick \*
> Toe shortening for _aesthetic_ reasons? That’s just just plain nuts.
It’s even nuts to shorten them to fit into pointy shoes (unless you count that under “aesthetic”). Earth to fashion designers - that’s a hint that your shoes aren’t designed properly.
I seem to recall that the earliest version of Cinderella had the big-footed wicked stepsister getting her toes cut off to fit into the glass slipper, and the ruse was exposed when the prince saw blood oozing out of the shoe. Does this make the designers the evil stepmother?
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### Author:  [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2003, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toe-cleavage-the-new-reason-to-feel-inferior/183707/9 "2003-06-23T11:00:42Z")
Now, hey there, **Broomstick.** I frequently have polish on my toenails but I very rarely wear fingernail polish. Polish on your toes lasts a lot longer than it does on your fingers… and anyway I consider my hands very functional, but my toes are allowed to be silly and purely aesthetic.
Plus I have cute feet, and I like to show 'em off. 😉
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### Author:  [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2003, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toe-cleavage-the-new-reason-to-feel-inferior/183707/10 "2003-06-23T12:39:14Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Broomstick \*
> \*\*A little, I guess.
>
> I’ve been wearing sandals for years. When doing so, I keep my feet clean and the nails trimmed. Anything further is BS.
>
> Nail polish? Sure - but only if you’ve got it on your finger as well as toenails.
>
> Toe shortening for _aesthetic_ reasons? That’s just just plain nuts. \*\*
No, labial reshaping is **nuts**.
This is just another example of advertisings effectiveness is selling products through making average women feel ugly and attractive women feel average.
Fight the power! Don’t shave you legs!
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### Author:  [@MonkeyMule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMule)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2003, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toe-cleavage-the-new-reason-to-feel-inferior/183707/11 "2003-06-23T12:47:07Z")
> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by Jonathan Chance \*
> \*\*Fight the power! Don’t shave you legs! \*\*
woah woah, I’m all for women lib and everything, but you are taking this to far. Nobody wants to run their hand over sandpaper and fur, it’s just not sexy 😉
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### Author:  [@little\_bit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/little_bit)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2003, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toe-cleavage-the-new-reason-to-feel-inferior/183707/12 "2003-06-23T13:19:24Z")
> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by MonkeyMule \*
> \*\*Nobody wants to run their hand over sandpaper and fur, it’s just not sexy 😉 \*\*
If that’s the case…
Just how often should the average man shave his entire body?
😉
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### Author:  [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2003, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toe-cleavage-the-new-reason-to-feel-inferior/183707/13 "2003-06-23T13:35:41Z")
“It’s gonna take a pretty insecure woman to feel inferior because of her toes…”
(Kalhoun raises her hand and skulks out of the room in shame.)
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### Author:  [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2003, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toe-cleavage-the-new-reason-to-feel-inferior/183707/14 "2003-06-23T13:37:19Z")
I think guys should shave their armpits; it’s much more hygienic.
That being said, “toe cleavage” isn’t a new concept. In fact, I thought I read a debate here about whether shoes displaying it are appropriate for office wear.
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### Author:  [@Mama\_Tiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Tiger)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2003, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toe-cleavage-the-new-reason-to-feel-inferior/183707/15 "2003-06-23T13:53:20Z")
Shortening toes for cosmetic reasons? Good grief. I went through a toe lengthening for anything BUT cosmetic reasons – my big toe inexplicably shortened 1 cm after bunion surgery, and I was getting stress fractures and constant pain, so we had to go in and lengthen the bone again. We are talking pain, pain, and more pain, for a long, long time! I cannot IMAGINE going through foot surgery for such a pointless and stupid reason! Any woman who is that hypersensitive about being perfect is probably a total mess between her ears in any case…
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### Author:  [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2003, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toe-cleavage-the-new-reason-to-feel-inferior/183707/16 "2003-06-23T18:10:29Z")
I have big feet. They’re long, narrow, and bony. You can see tendons and veins. Not only is my second toe longer than the big toe, the third one is too.
They look great, just like the article suggests they should. I don’t have bunions or corns, the heels don’t crack, the nails are currently a shade called Plum Delish, and while they get tired, they rarely hurt because I pamper them with lotion and pumice and by not cramming them into shoes out of a %@&^\*! Chinese foot-binding torture fantasy!
It’s a conspiracy, I tell ya, between the fashionistas, the shoe designers and the podiatrists: get all the women who don’t yet have corns or bunions to wear shoes that cause them, so they’ll have to go to the podiatrist to get them removed so their feet will look great in shoes that cause corns and bunions…I ain’t falling for it… 😛
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### Author:  [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2003, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toe-cleavage-the-new-reason-to-feel-inferior/183707/17 "2003-06-23T19:07:03Z")
> [@](#):
>
> It’s gonna take a pretty insecure woman to feel inferior because of her toes…
Yep. Insecurity is my middle name.
But it isn’t new… I only wore sandals for the first time about 3 years ago, and the ones I wear, you can’t actually see any part of my foot in. I consider it an act of sparing the public from the sight of my feet.
(that said, I’m not about to get surgery… just non-revealing shoes.)
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### Author:  [@80sHairMetalMaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/80sHairMetalMaven)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2003, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toe-cleavage-the-new-reason-to-feel-inferior/183707/18 "2003-06-23T22:20:32Z")
[Dr Dre]I like big FEET and I cannot lie…you otha brotha’s can’t deny…when a girl walks in with iddy biddy shoes and a big toe in yer face you get SPRUNG[/Dr Dre]😃
I also am a posessor of big, ugly feet. I have funny shaped toes. I have a callous (bunion???) on my right foot next to my big toe on the outside of my foot. I have no arches (thanks to my mother, also an archless, orthodics wearing wonder). And what’s even worse…I have hideous soles and heels because I refuse to wear shoes unless I absolutely have to (like if I’m going out or going to work or whatever).
But do I care? No way. It doesn’t bother me one bit, even though some part of me knows I should give a damn about the smoothness of my flaky, rough heels.
IDBB
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### Author:  [@SlowMindThinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlowMindThinking)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2003, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toe-cleavage-the-new-reason-to-feel-inferior/183707/19 "2003-06-23T22:27:02Z")
Well, if you want a guy’s opinion, and with all due respect to foot fetishists everywhere,
women have feet? 😕
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2003, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toe-cleavage-the-new-reason-to-feel-inferior/183707/20 "2003-06-23T22:31:16Z")
I’m quite disappointed this wasn’t about CAMEL toe cleavage.
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