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From: mason@pneuma.DEC (ANDREA...DTN 223-4864)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Body Image, High Heels and All...
Message-ID: <1764@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 22-Apr-85 16:18:52 EST
Article-I.D.: decwrl.1764
Posted: Mon Apr 22 16:18:52 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 25-Apr-85 07:43:15 EST
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>Can anyone tell me how to walk quietly in heels?
>Patty

I'm really glad that this subject has come up; high heels are a pet
peeve of mine.  

I want to make it real clear that I am **not** flaming at Patty; I am
flaming at a society which still seeks to cripple women, both
physically and mentally, by dictating fashions in clothes as well as
body shape and what we think and how we choose to live. 

>>Is there any rule that says you have to wear HEELS?
>>I try to wear the flattest shoes I can find,[....] 

I don't have the name of the person who wrote this, but I completely 
agree with her.  "The rule" that says we *have* to wear heels is the 
fashion magazine, and the fashion designer.  We can tell them no, we 
won't wear them.  The "rule" that says we *shouldn't* wear high heels is 
our body:  heels are physically dangerous and damaging to legs, feet 
and our backs.  There are not a huge amount of low heeled shoes
around; but they can be found.  Each time we shop in a shoe store we
can make our dissatifaction over the number of high heels to the 
number of low heeled shoes available known to the owner/manager by
saying: "these shoes may be fashionable, but they are not comfortable;
why don't you stock more shoes with lower/low heels?" 

I think that high heels are part of the male fantasy about how women 
should look.  Heels certainly make women more vulnerable:  ever try to 
run in them?  Ever try to just *walk* in them?  I have been watching 
women in my company lately as they teeter down the halls and through 
the parking lots on their heels.  I just don't understand how/why they 
do it.  What is at all attractive about wobbling around on "stilts"?

High heeled fashions come from the desire to have women appear to 
be what they are not.  These shoes appear to  make us taller; but a 
tall woman is often "too tall" and is told to wear flats to 
de-emphasize her height.  Similarly, make-up is meant to "hide our 
flaws;" no one's face is just right:  either we have "too much" cheek
bone, or not enough; our eyes are "too small", or our mouths are "too
big" (woe to the woman who opens her too big mouth). 

This discussion also fits into the recent discussion on net.women
about our body images and how comfortable/uncomfortable we are with 
ourselves.  Our "what is right" image has been shaped by designers and
advertisers who use the ultra thin models and the woman who is unusual
in her looks rather than using everyday women who will eventually go
to the store to look for and buy clothes to wear in everyday settings.
These images make us believe that there is "something wrong" with us 
because we do not look like that. I could go into body hair and self 
image, but I won't...at this time.

I think it is very telling that one response to Patty's original 
question was:

>>Some women have told me that they envy my "guts" to wear them [running
>>shoes] with dresses. 

This indicates that as women we are still afraid to say what it is we 
want or prefer.  We go along with what is expected so that we won't be 
preceived as being "different".  It is hard to be different; but we 
must try.  It seems like the first woman who said to herself "I'm 
going to wear my running shoes to work and then change into shoes 
which go with my outfit" was pretty daring.  When people began to see 
what good sense this made, it became an accepted thing to do...all 
good "yuppie women" started to do it; it became "the fashion."  Now we
need to go one step further and say, "if I can wear comfortable shoes
on my way to work, why can't I keep them on once I get there?" 

****andrea mason****

UUCP:  decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-pneuma!mason
ARPA:  mason%pneuma.DEC@decwrl.ARPA

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Disclaimer: The above thoughts are mine; my company makes computers, not
high heels. 
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