Are high heels hetting higher? What do super-heels do to the bodies that wear them? What does the design of super heels say about expectations of feminity, and what role does height play in those expectations?
I am 5’0″, or 5’1″, depending on the time of day. Sick of being teased for my height, I started wearing high heels at the age of 13, packing them in bookbags until my mother was out of sight. The only time I felt comfortable not wearing heels as a teenager was when wearing soccer cleats, which did add an inch, but the soccer field was was of the only places where, as an offensive forward, my size allowed me to weave through and past other players, giving me an advantage. Seventeen years later, having spent my entire formative years running around in cleats and my entire twenties dancing in three inch heels until the wee hours, I have a pinched nerve between two metatarsals. The treatment involves cortisone shots followed by three days of limping. Not fun. This came as no surprise. I came to accept a life in flats, and that I would never “be taller when I grew up” by my late twenties. What has shocked me, in my relentless and foot-tiring search for comfortable shoes, is the marked increase in the height of high heels lately. While looking for sensible and “flattering” or “feminine” flats, all I have found is orthopaedic, hippie/nurse/grandma styles (yes this is honestly how I see comfort shoes), babydollish flats seemingly designed for twelve year olds with no cushioning anywhere, and HIGH heels – heels frequently over four inches high.
If shoes meant for formal, fun, or even some proffesional occasions, mean adapting to styles usually directed at erotic dancers, what does this say about the sexualization of women’s bodies? Is the added height considered sexy? Or is it the discomfort and vulnerability? I certainly would not want to walk down ANY street alone in four or five inch heels, or literally stumble out of bed the morning after wearing them. In my search for shoes, both in person and online, I have found some of the following styles:
Jeffrey Campbell “Wedges”, for a mere $275 at Nordstrom. What a nice, colorful sculpture! I’m sure they’d be great for walking on cobblestones.
Christian Louboutin “Pointe” ballet stilettos, designed by a man, high fashion of course, but are they meant for a body?
Born “Comfort” wedges, $145 on zappos.com. These claim excellent arch support but still have an overall height of four inches.
So ,what, exactly is wrong with being short? Would strangers ask my height or tell me how tiny I am (like I have no idea) if I was 5’4″ and in considerable pain? Would men, as women have for centuries, submit to any accessory or piece of clothing that tortured them? Tortured them but let them be fashionable, stylish, and “with it”?
I frequently see girls on campus wearing stiletto heels, in the daytime, trucking around from class to class, and this is what I see:
Morton’s Neuroma
The Classic Bunion
Sadly, in the year 2012, in the country where women supposedly have the most “freedom” in the world, some still choose a Foucauldian self-discipline (or torture) not far from that of Chinese footbinding. Heels are higher than they’ve ever been. I would love to know why.
Unruly Bodies 
I thought that this was an extremely well thought out look at high heels – especially because the size increase could be seemingly gradual (and thus not alarming) unless you look at the examples posted.
I think that the life of the heel as a means of femininity is only perpetuated through the sedimentation of its effects on the body. I’ve heard plenty of stories of girls being taught how to walk in heels – if you are supposed to be taught how to wear something, it obviously is not a natural thing for the body to be doing. It does do thing to the body that are generally pleasing to men – which you pointed out as an issue because men are the ones who are designing these shoes. They have being sensationalized for their extremes – remember Lady Gaga’s heelless heels? http://snitchcentralonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/lady-gaga-no-heels.jpg – that do nothing for the ability to walk, and aren’t even relevant in the advantage of height? I don’t believe that there is a real purpose to heels other than a perpetuation of gender identity in aesthetic. Selling these shoes sells the idea that sometimes fashion is supposed to be painful.
This comes, of course, from a man. I’ve worn heels (I actually was asked to teach a few of my girl friends how to do so), but I found they overall and in long period of times they were just painful. My roommate, a drag queen, says of them that they’re “oppressive, but empowering. They’re really not good for you, but they’re just aesthetically pleasing. People just give you this look – a super model who is strutting with proper. But at the same time you’re walking on stilts, you can’t do much.” These are, of course, views from people who haven’t had to wear heels for ever or told that they were necessary.
In my research of exotic dance, I found out that the women loved and hated wearing high heels. They felt that they gained a great amount of empowerment from being physically taller than most of their customers, but the heels also caused pain and falls. I believe that America does see being taller as being more attractive. High heels also provide the body with a slimmer appearance. Breasts stick out more and legs look longer and thinner. After a day of wearing heels though, a thinner appearance is normally the last thing on one’s mind. Wearing high heels always makes me remember the “pain is beauty” cliche. It is often the things that hurt our bodies the most that makes them appear more beautiful, unfortunately.
I’ve loved shoes since i was a kid and the moment I was able to start wearing high heels I never looked back. High heels made me feel powerful, sexy, and glamorous. Recently I’ve discovered I don’t really need high heels to feel any of those things and I too have been trying to find comfortable shoes that don’t make me feel frumpy and as if I’ve just walked out of my grandmother’s closet.
I agree that high heels appear to be getting higher. Not only are the heels themselves getting higher but there is now added platform to the shoe itself creating an uncomfortable height that most women cannot even walk in.
I was recently shopping for a basic pair of pumps online and all of the heels I looked at looked remarkably similar to the stripper heels that I’ve seen.
Why have high heels gone to such great heights in recent times that they now resemble shoes that would appear normal on stage at a strip join in downtown Baltimore?
High heels are usually a method to ooze sex appeal (i.e. models, pin-up girls, a night on the town) but todays shoes seem to have reached an extreme.
Do we forgo comfort to look “sexy”, or society’s interpretation of sexy, or can women seek to create their own sex appeal without the physical discomfort and long term ill side effects of high heels?
As for finding cute flats :http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/category/flats/shoes-flats.jsp
These shoes are super cute, reviews say they’re comfy (albeit kinda pricey) and best of all, no crazy heel or grandma’s closet look!
I love shoes. especially hight heels, i bought a lot of high heels but i normally dont wear them. I only wear them to a party or special dinner. Even thought i love high heels, but i have to say that wearing a high heel is very painful. i tried one time on sunday when i went out with friends, i felt like my feet were killing me. i was thinking wearing the high heels it does make my body look good but do i very need it that way and end up suffering pain from my feet. Even since then, i never wear high heels like that, but only for special events.
I believe as American women we are socialized to think that high heels will provide us with an instant sexy appeal. From childhood, observing older women constantly wear high heels reaffirms the idea that high heels are needed in order to achieve a feminine look. I remember as a little girl, I would love to play dress up in plastic high heels or even worse try to wear my mothers. While I played in my fake or real high heels, I felt a sense of confidence and beauty that I did not poses when I took them off. I just realized now that I believed this notion because I was continually bombarded with this image from the media and in real life situations.