Having spent the past few weeks searching for a suitable pair of heels for my graduation ceremony, I have accepted that my ability to look ‘professional’ might be somewhat compromised by my deep-seated hatred of high-heeled shoes. This is somewhat at odds with the stereotype that women are supposed to adore heels, more than their own bodies or thoughts. One feature in Elle even concludes that a woman in heels possesses the “greatest weapons in the style wars”. A woman in five-inch platforms can easily dominate in the boardroom and achieve her aims. In fact, womens’ magazines generally have an unequivocal stance about heels: they form an exclusive and specialised part of a woman, along with the potential to lactate.
My first pair of heels were hideous specimens. They were purple, and made from that cheap, plastic-y leather that makes your feet sweat as you walk. I had to wear them as part of a summer ball outfit, and the moment I put them on, I was only too painfully aware of the notion that each step I took, I was demonstrating what it would be like to have dying mice as my insoles. I also remember them being quite painful in that sort of itchy pinching-toes kind of way - but no matter! I was in heels, I was a woman! What a privilege. Instead I spent most of the evening sitting or leaning against various objects and people in order to relieve the unrelenting pain in the balls of my feet. For the days that followed this discomfort, I refused to wear anything but slippers.
If we lay aside the fact that heels are the source of much discomfort, we should consider the potential they have in ruining an evening completely. I have had too many heel-induced accidents to count. One was when I was mistakenly assumed to be drunk, because I overbalanced on my heels (platform black boots) in front of the bouncer. The result was that I was denied entry to the club, because in the bouncer’s eyes, I was so intoxicated I could not stand up properly. In fact, I had been trying to transfer my weight away from the balls of my feet, and was understandably unsteady. My explanation that my shoes were inflicting eye-watering amounts of pain on me were waved aside, as were my claims that “No one messes with a woman in heels. I am a woman”. I had no option but to go home, heels in hand.
However, I am not one to give up easily, and three years on from that night in front of the bouncer, my wardrobe is testament to the amount of faith I placed in the ideal that women belong in heels. And of course, along with many more pairs, I also have many more anecdotes about various outings at which I have humiliated and/or exposed myself, unable to compete with my female peers, by falling over. The fact that I am already developing a bunion on my right foot says it all: we do not belong in heels that could be used as a murder weapon. I can only conclude that the ability to walk effortlessly and without periodic wincing in six-inch heels lies with a select group of around ten people in the world. Six of them are run-way models.
So why do women keep on buying - often spending considerable sums of money - and wearing these torturous items of footwear? Was Germaine Greer right when she claimed that women wear heels to catch the eyes of men? Did Freud have a point when he claimed that the shoe is an object of fetishism as it “crystallizes the moment of the undressing, the last moment in which the woman could still be regarded as phallic”.
I would not agree with either of these theories. I base my judgements about female footwear on the experiences of both my contemporaries and myself. We wear heels because they make your legs look thinner: end of. There is nothing more that can be said on the matter. This is why we endure countless hours of bone-crushing pain, risking premature arthritis of the feet and broken ankles. There is nothing more important to a woman than whether or not she feels good inside, and more often than not, heels come to the rescue in making us appear taller, thinner and as a result more confident. Brushing aside the fact that we are subscribing to society’s prescribed expectations of feminine beauty, I for one keep buying the heels because I like their ability to stop my ankles looking like pig trotters. However, reflecting on this further, I’ve decided that even this idea that heels are flattering is a lie that every woman invest in. I too, have done the same. I think of a new pair of heels as the most flattering, slimming things in the world...at least this happens for the time it takes for me to try on the heels in the shop, take a few paces and exclaim: “They’re actually really comfortable!”. Lies. Such self-deluded lies.
Anyone only has to open the page of any celebrity magazine and find photographs of Victoria Beckham’s bunioned feet to see evidence of what thirty years of high heels can do to a woman. I, personally, do not wish to have toes that look like thalidomide pasties.
Of course, despite me declaring that women’s shoes are ridiculous, dangerous, pain-inflicting torture contraptions, I will continue to buy new pairs of heels to accompany various outfits and ‘slim-line’ my figure. However, I now go out shoe-shopping with one specification in mind: if I am going to part with a substantial amount of my student budget on a pair of designer shoes, then I demand the following. I want them a) to be a pair that i can dance to the Black Eyed Peas in and b) to be a pair that will allow me to run away from a murderer, should one suddenly decide to give chase. That is now the minimum that I ask for in a pair of shoes - I should be able to dance in them, and escape a murderer.
In the meantime, I realise that my views on heels are a minority interest; most girls my age have more bottle than me and are more than happy to dance through the pain. However, I have the mentality of a 60-year old. I watch Antiques Roadshow with interest, and enjoy Radio 4. I am a fan of comfortable, good quality clothes, but I don’t think style necessarily has to be compromised. As for shoes, who knows how long the after-effects of Sex and the City’s decade-long Blanik-wank will continue to rumble through society.
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