Why high heels

But look. I still want to wear dresses and high heels. I do not want to have to imitate a man, in behavior or in appearance, in order to have power and freedom. I like to wear makeup. I enjoy adornment. Maybe you do, too, regardless of your gender. Can we claim power as women without also denigrating girliness?

We are in a decades-long process of finding out what a free woman can look and act like, which will probably take centuries more to determine. One must be careful not to hold up the metaphor for the thing above the thing itself. Constrictive clothing and high heels might have prevented many Victorian women from climbing mountains, literal or figurative although some did it anyway , but their problem was not one of fashion.

What confines, impoverishes, exploits, enslaves, oppresses, sickens, bloodies, rapes and kills women are not generally clothes or shoes, but rather laws and societal norms.

White supremacy. Predatory corporations and unfair labor laws. Discriminatory work and hiring policies. Lack of legal protection from violence in the workplace, home and street.

Non-enforcement of existing protections. Weaponized bureaucracy. Overpriced women-specific services. Medical sexism. Religious sexism. Barred access to property ownership, financial management, a credit card or a checkbook. Threat of violence in public spaces, both physical and virtual, and on public transportation systems. The mobility of women is and has been restricted physically through fashion, but most of all it has been restricted legally, financially, professionally, medically, intellectually, sexually, politically.

Initially, chopines were also a protective overshoe, but they eventually became a symbol of social status. There are chopines still in existence that are over 20 inches in height. For centuries, spiky high heels were worn by Persian warriors on horseback. The heel enabled a soldier to stand up in the stirrups and shoot a bow and arrow more efficiently.

In , the first Persian diplomat was sent to Europe, and the Europeans fell in love with all things Persian. Aristrocratic men began to wear heels to appear more masculine. As the new shoe style filtered down to the lower classes, aristocrats increased their heel height to again show privilege and status.

Louis XIV of France loved his heels so much he created a signature shoe with red soles and heels, and he granted the men at court permission to wear the same shoe style. In , he passed an edict that stated that only nobility could wear heels. The red heel was symbolic: it showed that its wearer was rich enough not to dirty his shoes and that he was powerful enough to crush his enemies underfoot.

The Sun King only allowed those in his favor to wear red heels. Consequently, men stopped wearing heels around as a reaction against their perceived feminization. Heels Continue to Ride High The French Revolution in put a definitive end to the aristocratic usage of male heels. However, some lifestyles still accepted the wearing of male heels. The cowboy is a perfect example. A modern update on the 10th c. Legend has it that, in October , John Lennon and Paul McCartney saw a pair that they liked in a Chelsea boutique and commissioned four pairs with a Cuban heel to suit their new public image.

Breaking Ankles, Breaking Boundaries David Bowie famously pushed the boundaries of gendered fashion throughout his career. He was known for wearing all manner of heels, from sky-high stilettos to platform shoes, as seen here in a photo from Life Magazine in