You keep saying that society doesn’t expect women to wear heels, and that is demonstrably untrue. Hell, women are required to wear heels just to earn money. (http://globalnews.ca/news/2047882/are-moxies-staff-required-to-wear-high-heels-servers-say-yes/)
I get not wanting to hear people whine about their personal choices, fine, granted.
But women are expected to wear heels that it is noticeable and something that is commented upon when a woman does not wear heels.
…are they talking about commercials? O_o
As a young guy I was always weird for finding women most attractive when wearing jeans, a t-shirt and runners. Heels make you walk funny, which isn’t sexy (to me) and tended to be an indication that she and me would never be a we. But I have no issue with people choosing to wear them, and none of them were ever under any obligation to actually want there to be a ‘we’ or give the slightest crap what I thought.
As a male I can only have empathy for the constant onslaught of image shaming that happens to women from childhood upwards. Even the stuff that happens for us men is hard to deal with, and it is maybe 1/50th the scale and intensity of what women are bombarded with.
I’m never going to look like (current Hollywood beefcake guy) and my wife seems quite OK with that (Thank Space Ghost). The least we can do as men is not expect women to conform to absurdity either (that is really the least, we can do much more).
“the shoes they feel expected to wear”
Came to post the same thing. People wear what they prefer when it comes to shoes. The pain is self-inflicted by the desire for a fashion item. The fashion item in turn, is often designed by a man however, so that’s a different route in to the argument I guess.
OK - good point, perhaps society - or rather the image that marketers present to people, does pressure you to wear heels. But no one is a slave to that image. You don’t have to buy what ever because marketers say it will make you feel better and people will like you.
But as individual people, I don’t know anyone who cares what another person wears. Though I suppose there are shallow people out there who spend time ripping what others wear. I concede there may be more to it among women talking about it amongst themselves that I don’t know about. No one includes me in any conversation relating to fashion. Probably because I have none.
But my original point is there are still stylish shoes that give lift that are more comfortable.
Yes, they must have been watching satellite. With no TV, adblock for youtube, downloaded media or DVDs played on a Linux computer which can be aimed to only play the movie VOBs and not the ads we manage to avoid the nerve grating interruptions. I figure they can make their own decisions what they want, mostly science stuff though also regular toys begged from grandparents or bought with dog walk money. At least they develop the desire by seeing the thing and not from some ad-man telling them what to want.
As a recovering-goth, I agree, there are a great many shoes that are stylish and give lift and are far more comfortable but I can’t get away with wearing them at work. 
Mainstream media is insidious and nigh impossible to escape, I try not to judge people that fall prey to its constant and chronic messaging, hell I fall prey to it far more often than I want to, and I’m aware of what its doing, and I’m actively trying not to listen to the messages!
This might help some.
First, the disclaimer: middle class white male here, so the usual disclaimers apply. anyway.
Just wanted to point out that there are decently large pockets of the general population where it is quite possible to avoid ‘needing’ to wear heals. I don’t think my wife has ever owned a pair her entire life, certainly not since I’ve met her. Mind you were are alt/indie listening graphic designers that don’t deal with huge corporate clients, so I completely get it’s not for everybody. There are plenty of awesome places to go that don’t require heels to get it, they just might not be in the lifestyle you chose. We’re going child-less and not a single friend has had a chat with us about it, and many are on their 2nd or 3rd kid now.
I think your comparison to feeling the pressure to have kids is a really good comparison. And, I’m in no way suggesting that ‘just not wearing them’ is plausible for a lot of women. I’m just putting it out there, and I think most of the guys commenting here are saying the same thing, that there are a number of us that really don’t care what shoes you wear. I know we’re just a few drops in the ocean of societal and industrial (fashion) pressure, but we’re speaking out because it’s the only way these things can eventually change.
random anecdote. We’ve been talked to for dressing too nicely for some shows, so all groups have their dress code.
I’m so glad the straight men of the BoingBoing comments are here to reassure me that, regardless of what I wear on my feet, I will still have validity as a sexual object.
Whatever would I have done, otherwise?
Don’t worry! No matter what hideous thing you have on your feet you’re still bangable to someone! /sigh
Props to the skater for his comment “Free the Bitch, Man”!
Here’s a question for you that might help you see what’s actually at work here: why don’t men wear dresses? They’re comfortable, especially in summer, and easy because you don’t have to match anything to anything else. Pants bind at the waist and can bind at the crotch or slip off of your butt and you still have that pesky shirt to match to them. So why don’t men wear dresses?
Obviously, they’re just choosing not to. They like pants, even though denim pinches at the waist and the crotch, or slips off their butts. Here I sit in a soft, cool dress while my male coworkers bake in their slacks and jackets. Silly men. They should wise up like we women did.
See where I’m going with this?
"No one expects anything of you first of all. "
lol
The biggest irony is high heeled shoes used to be for men. First for use in riding horses, and later as status symbols in the aristocracy.
Why do you assume that they don’t wear dresses?
The risk here is of generalizing too much about people. I have no tolerance for sexism, so dress codes which apply separately to men and women do not fly with me, and I say so. It’s sometimes very inconvenient to buck the trend and call businesses out on their sexism, but I think it’s worth doing.
I think it’s important to remember that most “mainstream media” and the fashion industry are, by far, small minorities of people, compared to the public at large. So there simply isn’t any justification for allowing them to push norms onto people. It only ceases to be a choice if/when we decide that individualism is not worth the effort. And with custom, small-batch manufacture becoming more prevalent, we will be seeing only more idiosyncratic clothing in the future.
Personally, I like heels, and don’t find sneakers appealing on anybody. I am completely broke right now, and all I have for shoes is one pair of high heeled boots. More variety would be nice.
i have a pair of 5" heels (thicker heel, though) that i wear at burning man for special occasions. i sympathize… they are indeed torturous, and seriously dangerous on uneven surfaces. i was wondering if his feet were bleeding by the end of the day. mine usually are. what price, fashion, indeed.
So did makeup and hosiery and wigs.
On the flip side, Fedoras used to be a women’s hat.
It would be pretentious to assume that they are “for” anybody, specifically. Like anything else, they are for whoever buy and use them.
I suspect that the industrial revolution has had something to do with limiting choices for different body types, because it is cheaper to make items in fewer sizes and shapes. I saw this happen in the bicycle business - manufacturers heavily pushed mountain bikes rather than road bikes because they are sized differently, greatly streamlining their production. None of this directly benefits the consumer. Whereas before, with regards to clothing, one could easily go to their tailor or cordwainer and tell them what they like, to have it made to their size.
Clothes are not gendered, people are.
