By Nancy Jane MooreNPR's Weekend Edition Sunday program let me rant on the radio this morning -- they aired my comment criticizing Isaac Mizrahi for advocating high-heeled shoes.
I notice that my comment was preceded by one from a doctor who treats women suffering from the damage inflicted by high heels. His instruction to avoid heels in any situation where you might need to walk or stand is great advice.
However, they left out one line of my commentary -- my observation that high-heeled shoes make women more vulnerable. That's at the heart of my rant. If your shoes put you off balance, and keep you from walking far or running at all, they keep you from taking care of yourself in a tight situation.
Wearing high heels makes a woman a little bit helpless, but the myth persists that women look "sexier" in heels. I've asked before and I'll ask again: Do you really want a lover who is attracted to you because you look helpless?
2 comments:
I won't attempt to answer to "do you want a lover who..." question. I will say, I take my wife to the train most mornings, and we sit and chat a few minutes before the train arrives...on the topic, among other things, of who's wearing the high heels and what in God's name are they doing it for? I guess it pumps up those calf muscles, if that's your idea of a good time. But I'm on Dr. House's side regarding the wearing of sensible shoes. "Only a masochist would wear those to try and get a job," he said of the applicant in stilettoes.
Oh, and Barbara, my wife, was thrown from a horse a month ago and is now limited to going around in a plexi torso shell. You want to look helpless, that's really the way to go. Skip the slow burn on the heels.
speaking to your question as to would I want a lover who thinks I'm attractive because I look helpless, as a woman who carries an oxygen tank, wheezes, and shakes like a leaf in certain weathers, I find I get asked out a lot more when my disability is more apparent, i.e, when I look really sickly and weak. From an evolutionary standpoint, this makes no sense at all. My illness is genetic, and so were I physically capable of bearing children, they wouldn't be healthy either, so I must conclude this attractiveness of me with a disability is cultural. It's also frightening. There's a reason I don't go out with those people
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