{"id":735,"date":"2015-02-21T17:51:36","date_gmt":"2015-02-21T23:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stephaniegolden.net\/writing_blog\/?p=735"},"modified":"2015-02-21T18:05:53","modified_gmt":"2015-02-21T23:35:53","slug":"these-shoes-will-kill-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stephaniegolden.net\/writing_blog\/these-shoes-will-kill-you\/","title":{"rendered":"These shoes will kill you"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some years ago I was walking down a city street with a male friend. We passed a shoe store, and my head swiveled involuntarily to check out the contents of the window.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is it with women and shoes?\u201d he exclaimed. \u201cWhy are you so fascinated by them?\u201d<\/p>\n

Good question. It came up again when I saw an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum aptly titled \u201cKiller Heels,\u201d which made it evident that the answer is: power and sex.<\/p>\n

\"Chopine<\/a>

Chopine from Renaissance Italy. They could go as high as 20 inches.<\/p><\/div>\n

It turns out that people have been making and wearing tall shoes for thousands of years, and centuries\u2019 worth were on display\u2014from ancient Chinese and early Renaissance platforms to the so-called Fetish Ballerine of 2007 by Christian Louboutin, whose 8-inch heel put the wearer\u2019s feet in toe-shoe position (\u201conly made for lying on your back,\u201d says the designer<\/a>, although a photo showed a woman apparently walking in them). And the themes hadn\u2019t changed at all.<\/p>\n

In the past, high-platform shoes denoted wealth and high status. And in a contemporary video at the exhibit, the camera looked up at the stern, contemptuous faces of women stomping their pastel-hued stiletto soles down toward it, as female voices insisted that heels made them feel more powerful and commanding\u2014not to say potent.<\/p>\n

\"Fetish<\/a>

Fetish ballerines<\/p><\/div>\n

\"no<\/a>

no comment<\/p><\/div>\n

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But much of the significance of tall shoes isn\u2019t generated by women\u2014it\u2019s projected onto them. Another video showed scenes of sadomasochism: two long fishnet-sheathed legs using their pointy-toed black stilettos to demolish\u2014in the most deliberate, pitiless way\u2014a bright red toy car. Once it was in pieces the scene switched to another pair of legs wearing two different black dominatrix heels\u2014one bristling with spikes\u2014walking across the naked chest of a gorgeous blindfolded young man lying supine. (Although the body they belonged to was presumably suspended by some sort of harness, since the heels didn\u2019t sink into his flesh.) Fetish indeed\u2014complete woman not needed.<\/p>\n

Certainly the entire exhibit was drenched in sex, from the curves of heels, calves, and arches, punctuated by strategically located straps, to the suggestive vulnerability of women teetering on heels so high they could barely move. In an old film, fifties pinup star Bettie Page slowly pulls on her stockings, rolls up her garters, then holds each 5-inch heel up to the camera like a priest elevating the host, before ceremoniously sliding it onto a foot. The climax: she stands and totters a few steps.<\/p>\n

\"Portrait<\/a>

Portrait shoe, 1990, by Vivienne Westwood: \u201cShoes must have very high heels and platforms to put women\u2019s beauty on a pedestal.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

While the exhibit was heavily dedicated to celebrating current designers (it was sponsored by Nordstrom and W<\/em> magazine), the museum conscientiously covered the downside as well. Another video (so excruciating I couldn\u2019t watch it all) consisted of closeups of bruised flesh being squeezed into pumps that cut into it painfully, accompanied by loud gasps and moans on the soundtrack. I stopped wearing heels years ago\u2014I couldn\u2019t handle the pain. But 43% of women surveyed recently by ABC News<\/a> kept wearing heels even though their feet hurt all the time<\/em>\u2014because, as one put it, \u201cThey make me feel great!\u201d (That is, sexy.) Another: \u201cThey lift everything up! Well, not everything<\/em>.\u201d Very true. Last year I got a pair of ankle boots with soft flexible soles and a tiny one-inch heel, and I love them\u2014they make me feel great.<\/p>\n

I’ve learned that not all males are immune to shoe obsession, like my friend. Winkie Ma, my teenage writing mentee, reports that young guys are obsessed by sneakers. They covet the latest style, the brands that sports stars wear, and they take care to prevent any speck of dirt from landing on them. She pointed me to YouTube videos of “sneakerhead<\/a>\u201d culture, where a \u201climited edition\u201d pair can go for $1000 or more.<\/p>\n

Still, I have a feeling the motivation isn\u2019t quite the same. And besides, you can even run in sneakers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some years ago I was walking down a city street with a male friend. We passed a shoe store, and my head swiveled involuntarily to check out the contents of the window. \u201cWhat is it with women and shoes?\u201d he exclaimed. \u201cWhy are you so fascinated by them?\u201d Good question. It came up again when I saw an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum aptly titled \u201cKiller Heels,\u201d which made it evident that the answer is: power and sex. It turns out that people have been making and wearing tall shoes for thousands of years, and centuries\u2019 worth were on display\u2014from[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[116,115,117,118,121,120,119],"class_list":["post-735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social-issues","tag-high-heels","tag-killer-heels","tag-louboutin","tag-platform-shoes","tag-sneakerheads","tag-sneakers","tag-vivienne-westwood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephaniegolden.net\/writing_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephaniegolden.net\/writing_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephaniegolden.net\/writing_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephaniegolden.net\/writing_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephaniegolden.net\/writing_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"http:\/\/stephaniegolden.net\/writing_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":757,"href":"http:\/\/stephaniegolden.net\/writing_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735\/revisions\/757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephaniegolden.net\/writing_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephaniegolden.net\/writing_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephaniegolden.net\/writing_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}