One of the main reasons why I started working on “The Illusionists” is my disdain for double standards – the fact women are judged first and foremost on their physical appearance, whereas men have it really easy in that department. But more than that, what truly irks me is the physically painful, expensive, torturous things women put themselves through to adhere to alleged “standards of beauty” (corsets in the 1800s, Brazilian bikini waxing today, to cite a couple of examples).
High heels are also on my list of annoying things: I understand that they make women look taller, and that they give the illusion of looking thinner. I get that. But over the long run, they also create many physical problems to the feet and back. And in case of emergency, high heels may be quite dangerous:
Feministing reported, some while back:
Two California women were killed in a freak train accident. Police believe the high heel shoes they were wearing may have hindered their escape from a car stuck on the tracks, the Los Angeles Times reports.”
And the blog also carried this image, taken from The Washington Post:
Sarkozy and Berlusconi aside…
… if high heels were actually acceptable for men, do you think they would put themselves through the torture of wearing 4 inch stilettos in the name of fashion? Mmm… methinks not. I know what you’re thinking: “Men wearing heels? That would be ridiculous!” That is exactly my point. Why do we, as women, have to put up with such ludicrous things as Manolo high heels, that make us walk like ducks?
Jezebel had an interesting piece on heels – they dug up a 1930s article by a male journalist, who suggested women should “ignore the new trend toward high heels and find a ‘non-barbaric form of footwear.'”
If only they had listened…