1. Keep your eyes up.
2. Suck in your stomach and butt so your weight doesn’t shift backwards.
3. Imagine there’s an orange between your thighs.
4. Imagine you’re wearing heels higher than the ones you have on.
5. Think confidence. Think glamour. Think red carpet.
6. And run like a Hollywood princess.
And that’s how you run in high heels? Good advice for all the Carrie Bradshaw wannabes and participants of those crazy High Heel Marathons.
I thought High Heel Marathons were nuts and then, I saw pics of Italian policewomen who wear high heels on the job.
I also thought the Italian govt was nuts and then, I read about Christian Louboutin’s creation: mainstream fashion’s first pair of 8-inch stilettos.
Now, let me first state that I personally love high heels. Can’t help it. Like I’ve confessed before, I’m a product of today’s society. I wear heels five days a week and I love the way they make me look and feel (or rather, the way I’ve been manipulated into believing how I should look and feel) … as much as I adore them, however, I’m not addicted. There are limits to my heel-wearing – for instance, I’d never wear them out on a five-hour shopping stint or anything. I’m all for fashion but hey, I’m not a fan of pain.
High heels have been linked to a form of masochism. They’re likened to torture devices such as so-tight-you-can’t-breathe corsets used back then as ways to subjugate women … kinda like the hundreds worn by this crazy woman, Cathie Jung, to achieve her freakishly tiny 15-inch waist …
… I know: yuck. Just like the corset, high heels torture and impair women. The argument is, anything that deforms your figure, cripples your movement or harms your health is a form of masochism. And high heels – I must admit – fit all three. Wear them long enough and you just may suffer from incontinence, stress fractures, back and hip problems, broken ankles, pain in the jaw, neck and head, menstrual dysfunction and fertility problems (!!!).
My initial reaction was a big scoff … until I read about women going under the knife for the perfect feet (read: high heel-friendly). They’re sawing off their toes to shorten them, snipping off the last few toes to create that desirable ‘cascading’ toes effect, draining the fat from the ankles, injecting Botox into the balls of the feet for more cushioning so they can wear heels for longer periods of time, subjecting the lower calves to lipo so that the calves are slim enough to fit into sexy knee-high heeled boots, shaving down the ankle bones and narrowing the feet so they can fit into European-style shoes like Manolos. I hope you’re horrified right now cos I sure was when I first found out about this!!
Even in today’s world where people are reconstructing their entire faces and bodies, there’s just something so horribly extreme about feet surgery. Just like Chinese women who smashed their bones to “reshape” their feet so they could fit into the tiny three-inch Golden Lotus shoes back in the 900s …
… women today smash up their feet so they can wear Manolos and Louboutins (today’s Golden Lotuses) for longer periods of time and look good doing it.
Esh, can you blame them when you see Hollywood princesses wearing blue-soled YSLs with a 1.5 inch platform and 5.5 inch heel? That’s a whopping 7 inches already. That woman needs a crutch.
I feel physical pain just thinking about the extent women will go to in order to teeter and totter in those 8-inch heels. And we think we’ve achieved equality???
The more things change, the more they stay the same. No matter how far we’ve come, the fact is undeniable: most of us are still slaves to beauty. Or at least, what certain people tell us beauty should be, a large number of whom are men who will happily design 8-inch heels they themselves will never have the misfortune of wearing.
23 Comments
July 15, 2009 at 2:52 AM
winnie dear,
Have u considered changing your job to a journalist for the newspaper instead? All this fashion in the magazine is getting to you….
July 15, 2009 at 4:52 AM
Trade the glitzy magazine world for the paper? No way hosea! besides, this isn’t just magazine stuff, high heels and the oppression of women are very relevant topics that go way beyond the glossy pages of a mag
July 15, 2009 at 4:29 AM
My wife wore heels to her OBGYN appointment and got a scolding from the doctor. “Young Lady, no heels till after the pregnancy”…hehe
July 15, 2009 at 2:06 PM
haha… looks like she’s gotta be high heel-less for 9 whole months. that can be a tough sacrifice for any woman!
July 15, 2009 at 10:02 AM
these are times when i’m glad i’m a guy !!!
July 15, 2009 at 2:00 PM
yeah, i know. the crazy uncomfortable things women do to look ‘beautiful’ and desirable …
July 15, 2009 at 10:03 AM
I would be very clumsy in these.
July 15, 2009 at 2:08 PM
the funny thing is, I’m so used to high heels, I seriously think I walk better and more confidently when I’m in them. Flats make me walk funny – hahah!!!
July 16, 2009 at 2:33 AM
I have tried high heels @ shop before…I felt like walking on a tight rope
. Feel more comfortable in 1-1.5″ heels. Moreover, i have big feet…most of the time, I can’t fit in those narrow shoes. :’-(
July 15, 2009 at 10:06 AM
Anyone wearing this pair of shoes will sure make heads turn. You need to hold onto a man or ouch!
July 15, 2009 at 2:09 PM
wow! my mom’s online and she’s commenting on my blog!!! somebody buy 4D now
July 15, 2009 at 12:44 PM
no pain no gain?
but this pain sure ain’t worth it!
count them sores…bunions…scars that come with high heels too!
July 15, 2009 at 2:11 PM
Yalor, in the long term, I know it’s gonna be hell. what i’m worried about is varicose veins!!! those are hideous. so how ah? give up the heels?
July 15, 2009 at 2:21 PM
plastic surgery on the feet??? that is the most disturbing thing in the world
July 15, 2009 at 4:25 PM
i know! makes you wonder what’s next. what will we do next in our never-ending quest for physical perfection? something even more horrible, i predict
July 27, 2009 at 3:54 AM
Oh eww…that plastic surgery thing is making me sick to my stomach! Oh God! The things women would do for perfection…n that’s just on the feet!
July 16, 2009 at 12:32 AM
Your mum very happening
July 16, 2009 at 2:34 AM
that’s why I say, must go buy 4D faster!
July 16, 2009 at 2:39 AM
Min Grace, it’s unfortunate but the universal standard for heel sex appeal is nothing less than 2.5 inches (anything less than 2.5 is a ‘pump’, not a ‘heel’) … so to be ahem, sexy, it’s at least 3 inches. i have friends who can’t fit into heels comfortably either due to feet size or arch issues, etc. Guess that’s why some crazy girls go for feet surgery, to fit into high fashion stilettos!
July 16, 2009 at 5:48 AM
while i am glad to be a guy, heels do make you walk and look way sexier…unless you are the exception, as those that can’t walk properly. Then, it’s pretty sad.
Something about the posture, how the butt and legs look very appealing. Guys are drawn to it like sotongs to spotlights!
Also, heels pointing up at the ceiling is pretty damm sexy….hehehehe… hmm, your mom still reading this?
July 16, 2009 at 2:40 PM
Yeah, so what choice do we really have now? Go flat, go frumpy. Go high, go sexy. I think – since I’m not 80 yet – I’ll be sticking with the 3.5 inchers for now. At least until I’m physically unable to wear them anymore and have to shuffle around in bedroom slippers – blech.
PS: heels pointing up at the ceiling? wah lau eh … censor censor censor!!!!
July 19, 2009 at 3:12 AM
I spent 9 blissful months in slippers and flats while pregnant…and I miss the torture! It’s how they make you feel. Wear them now, suffer later, I say. How about wedges? Height, lift, slightly less torture.
July 19, 2009 at 7:12 AM
Haha, yeah, it’s delightful torture. Like baggy tees – those are incredibly comfy but they’re nothing like a tight (somewhat uncomfortable) tube top!
And wedges? They’re okay la, but nothing beats stilettos!! *drool*