Even if that were true, shoes couldn’t possibly be as bad for me as frostbite, broken glass, acid/base burns, broken bones, and poisonings of various sorts.

I still get amazed when I see women walking in high heels. I’ve never owned them — I’m a very fat woman who couldn’t possibly balance all my weight on my feet that way — and so it’s kind of a mystery how it’s actually possible to do it. I guess the mechanics involved are pretty different for women who have very low body weights. I admit that I am guilty of making superficial judgments about the intelligence of women who wear them, though, which of course I ought not to — but it’s difficult when a woman appears to be complicit in her own objectification. I can’t really put myself into that mindset to understand it.

I’m 4′11″ and 59 years old, and too many shoes are uncomfortable, but I tend to get treated like a child, still, by the taller, so heels compensate somewhat.

I’ve tried the 4 and 5 inch heels and they’re impossible to walk in, and uncomfortable to boot.

However, when younger women get to be my age, they’ll all be looking for those comfortable shoes that are also cute.

i understand all the reasons why wearing painful shoes is stupid, and if it is forced upon a woman, misogynist and wrong. i understand a lot about the reactionary, anti-feminist nature of the fashion industry and culture of consumer/beauty. i consider myself a pretty aware feminist.

let me ask if anyone can find, as i do, the subversive element in being a woman-centered woman, who at the same times enjoys an occasional public act of self-construction that plays upon and even reflects elements of various stereotypes, in an ironically conscious manner? shorter me: i used to love going to the clubs in super-ho stiletto femme mode, and throwing down with the (mtf)trannies who spent the big bucks on Shoe of the Week contests, esp on the podium and dance floors. there’s a whole, rich, gay sub-dialogue that goes on in such a public process.

costuming is an ancient art. people of many different social statuses have spent time perfecting it, and it’s not always, or even mostly, about physical comfort. in a very sporty dyke way, i came to first obsess about shoes when i was a bigtime HS athlete. i had shoes for every mode of training and competition. specialty jumping shoes in three kinds, heh. later, i came to understand with the desperation of poverty what the ‘right’ shoe could help me earn. it was demeaning and i didn’t like it, but at the time it was the best choice, economically. today, i’m mostly barefoot. i wear punishing shoes by choice, part of me even gets off a little bit on knowing i’m still athletic enough to prance about in demanding shoes and look Fabulous, all night even. vanity, sue me. i will also confess to using shoes to achieve certain sexual goals. i’m not convinced that was wrong.

if we’re going to talk about enforced modes of physical and material expression, let’s have at it. we’ll have to include things like hairstyles, make up, skirts and pants. like everything else in our society, shoes and clothes have been consumerized and politicized. but there isn’t uniformity of expression. nor should there be.

Way to miss the point of just about everything, there, tizzielish!

Hey, to be fair, I’m sure she thinks blond women and “pretty” women are stupid too!

The few times I wear heels it is to look taller. Taller people get paid more, and get hired more. I do it for the monies (or in the most recent case, for the grad school interviews.) So bite me, tiz.

For women, the cheapest, easiest-to-find, work-appropriate shoes are often horrendous for your feet. It just sucks.

Way to miss the point of just about everything, there, tizzielish!