Married a Soloist Ballerina and working many years as a Stagehand at the SF Ballet, I can testify this shot is on a good day.
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Thanks for the link. As with most pop-science articles, it gets me preferring to read the original paper instead.
As with pretty much everything, it leaves me with many more questions than answers and curious about both their initial premise as well as experimental methodologies. A “theory about why women favor high heels” is already posed as a leading question, implying its own foregone conclusion. No mention of in which cultures women might favor high heels, when clothing is culturally specific. No explanation of how much of the differences they measured in male versus female gait was a result of anatomical versus cultural factors. Sex framed as polar opposite, with no continuum or intersex. All it basically states is that “people could tell the difference”.
How do they claim real metrics of an elusive quality such as “attractiveness”? What kind of statistical sampling was used? Did they perform the same experiment with male subjects wearing the same kinds of shoes and compare the results? If their advantage is inspiring sexual arousal in males, then why are they worn by women who are not seeking, or even preventing sexual arousal in males? Why are “status and power” associated here specifically with hierarchical societal structures, such as business corporations and political office?
(Sorry, yes, I ask lots of annoying questions as I read pretty much anything.)
I would like to read the original paper too, but the psychology today article is free and the paper is not. I picked that one because its free and a quick read, to give you an idea of why heels are considered sexy. This article has some more detail taken from the study if you are still interested: http://scicurious.scientopia.org/2013/01/11/friday-weird-science-hot-hot-high-heels/
It also discusses the cultural vs. bio-mechanical reasons heels are considered sexy, in other words, is it something people learned culturally or is it really just biology?
As for framing sex as a dichotomy, and totally omitting any mention or consideration of anything besides male/female, I’m not surprised. They should have considered it, but it will take a good deal longer for scientists to automatically include more than male/female in their studies, sad as it is.
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Not only that, but it turns out that dogs have specialised modes of communication and ways of relating to each other, and costumes can seriously fuck that up. That cute little raincoat may be broadcasting and message of permanent aggression, and then the owners wonder why Fifi is getting into all these fights.
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I found this article to be a more informative description of that same study. Their talk about 120 people studying a point-light display of anatomical data in order to measure sexiness brought to mind a Robert Williams painting, IIRC entitled The Video Eye of Doctor Cyclops:
Yikes!
That article also links to an OK one of a more historical/cultural perspective, but IMO still a bit on the superficial side:
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“Enable” is definitely the word: That’s the only time you can sing the this-little-piggy song and not have people look at you funny.
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What did she do to handle the discomfort, especially when leaping about?
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Here’s a recent, free, open access article on the subject.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40691-016-0058-9
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Humble suggestion: When your daughter gets old enough to start giving you back-sass and sends out messages that she thinks you don’t love her, show her these destroyed-feet pictures and tell her about the little slippers. Heck. Nail it down by showing her the actual slippers.
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I feel sorry for those three kids.
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A lot of tears.
She loved the Ballet the ability to dance enough to endure the pain. Many Doctor visits many hours of soaking her feet. A lot of creative use of Coban tape.
Some of her contemporaries are now lame!
They shoot horses, don’t they?
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Thanks for another article. Are all of these studies about high heeled shoes going to be framed as woman-specific? That seems like an obvious consideration to make before making such a study.
I don’t know what to say. Jeez!!
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This post creeps me the fuck out. Everyone: if we stop replying to this for a day it’ll fall off the front page of the board and we can return to our more innocent lives.
Cute animal chaser:
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FWIW I have never understood the concept of general-purpose “innocence”. It’s meaningless to me without knowing “innocent of what, exactly?” It seems almost like some kind of original-sin malarkey dreamed up by westerners. Or a creepy euphemism for ignorance.
Then again, I was born a shameless iconoclastic deviant bonobo child!
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Could have been worse… (conjuring up memories of Little Miss Sunshine)
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That kitten is totally giving the bunny the side eye.
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you should have heard the anti-feline nonsense that bunny just said
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Thanks!
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