For the Love of High Heels Essay -- Shoes Fashion Essays

For the Love of High Heels As I watch a fellow student seesaw down the stairs in the campus center, her normally flamboyant bounce is no where to be seen as she tensely grips the guardrail. She lowers herself delicately down, each step c arefully calculated. in good order foot, left foot, right foot, left foot- and she makes it to the bottom without mishap. The culprits encumbering her normally wild grace are easily discerned her blank space. Her feet are wrapped up in four inch- summing up a one inch platform to make for a total of five inches- fire engine red heels. Theyre strappy sandals that lace half way up her calves with a silk ribbon and have effectively made walking an ordeal. Why do we do this? Well darling, because Shoes are hot (Benstock & Ferriss p1) Thats right, shoes are hot, and the hottest ones of all are high heels. Theyre collected, worn, and loved by women across the globe. Theyre everywhere. They run rampant in books, calendars, photographs, album and movie covers, dangling in miniature infrequent metal versions from earlobes and chains, and lets not forget the most important place- womens closets. Shoes are no longer something one simply wears on their feet, but a passion, a hobby, ones personal statement, a source of authority, sexual independence and joy. Theyre a constant obsession in pop culture, endlessly talked about and fetishized in television, movies, song lyrics, and search to be worn without fail by glamorous celebrities no matter the occasion. The most notorious of the shoe loving pop culture media is of the smash HBO serial publication Sex in the City, in which shoes are one its main themes. Physically high heel shoes, and specifically the stiletto, are the source of much debate. much and more studies... ...and Benstock write that there is ...satisfaction we take in having purchased a pair of shoes that is us, that represents us... The fashionable dress of the Western world is one means whereby an unceasingly fragmen tary self is glued together into a semblance of unified identity. Shoes serve as markers of gender, class, race, ethnicity, and even sexuality. (p4) The idea of piecing ourselves together with our things can be applied to any accessory or article of clothing, but I argue that shoes are more than that. Power, sexuality and sheer aesthetic cheer contribute to a love of shoes. Janet Lyon reflects upon the mystery of the love of shoes writing, How is one to account for this hypnotic allure, for so many generations of modernitys women, of the impractical, foot-deforming, outrageous shoe?....For fabulous shoes are indeed a joy. (Benstock & Ferriss p273)