It’s school holidays, so my blogging is light. Today’s post is entirely in pictures.
Shoes.
Not shoes.
Shoes.
Not shoes.
Shoes.
Not shoes.
Shoes.
Not shoes.
Shoes.
Any questions?
[h/t to huckle]
Categories: gender & feminism, health, Life
Today in ‘You can’t make this sh*t up’ because no one would believe you’ 
Today in someone is wrong on the internet 
DUFC #69 -
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Hoyden About Town 
Gosh I wish shoe manufacturers would expend a little less effort in trying to make us all taller and totter-ier, and a bit more on making something that actually fits us outliers.
A shop assistant at Campers actually joked that the solution to my inability to find shoes that fit would be to, wait for it, chop off my toes! Laughed all the way back to the Birkenstock shop…
Not shoes, fetishwear. Which is fine, consenting adults, etc. But it’s quite alarming in the ongoing fetishisation of the female body in public. Incapacitating yourself is fun and sexy!
What?? The first Mot-Shoes doesn’t even get your toes off the ground!
One wonders whether the show and the shoes were sponsored by a medical clinic that specialises in foot and ankle injuries. Or perhaps by one that deals in back injuries (longer term strategic approach to business obviously!)
Grendels last blog post..Showtime
Yes, I do have a question. What the hell are those not-shoes for? Who brought them into existence and why?
I find those new heel less shoes incredibly disturbing. To me they are nothing but a western version of foot binding. No one could escape an assault wearing those and they exist to hobble a womans mobility. We have got stop wearing things like this. These shoes are probably damaging to our backs, legs and feet as well. I don’t care what they say is fashionable if it somehow damages the body it is not a good idea.
Renees last blog post..Newborn Abandoned At A Church
Gah! My eyes! Those toes! See how the toes are squashed on the outside and misshapen the closer they get to the big toe? That’s what modern shoes, even flat pointy ones, do to feet. Oh, those poor white stress patches! And people wear that crap for fun. It makes no sense at all.
Isn’t there a whole fetish thing around ‘pony shoes’? I wonder if that’s where the idea came from? Can’t do any research now, suspect it wouldn’t be something I should be looking at at work.
Ah, uncomfortable unwearable incapacitating shoes, one of my ongoing fave love-to-hates. My current shoe rant runs thus: I am moving to a tropical developing country soon, and it will be wet season. All I freaking want is a pair of those comfy open walking sandals, preferably in leather. NOBODY MAKES THEM FOR WOMEN. NOBODY. All I can get are $250 plasticky things from Kathmandu (I’ve refrained). They make ‘em for kids, sometimes even female kids, they make ‘em for men, but apparently women prefer prettiness over practicality and wear mary janes and flip flops and high heels when they go trekking in the wet and mud. ARGH. It’s extra frustrating because I also wanted Crocs, but I have smallish feet and the size 6 ladies’ Crocs (the smallest ladies’ size) are bigger than a normal size 6 and thus are too big for my feet. I don’t mind buying kids’ shoes, but God, my feet really aren’t that small, and there are plenty of women out there with small feet.
Don’t get me started on fetish shoes and high heels, we’ll be here all day…
Wantss…. those lovely brown lace-ups with the small heel and open toe.
Deborahs last blog post..A beginner’s guide to MMP
I have a question too. How on earth do people stand on those not-shoes with their 75 degree slopes and not tumble face first into the ground?
I had a pair of leather Tevas I bought in Cairns – I think they were my most loved footwear ever.
They’ve been doing it all their lives. Many women who have worn high heels routinely develop such contracted Achilles tendons that they become unable to wear flat shoes without pain.
See, but to me, even from sheer aesthetics the Post-Shoes aren’t attractive. They aren’t part of the flow, they don’t accentuate anything like standard mid-heels do.* They’re just…not right in so many ways.
*Which is not to say that’s a good thing, but still.
Just looking at some of those shoes makes my developing bunion (family history, genetic, never, ever wore outrageous shoes, mostly wear flats or bare these days, love my purple Doc Martin Mary Janes) and my calf muscles ache. You know that instinctive wince / hands to breasts reaction you have when you see a sportswoman get an elbow or a ball to her breasts? I’m getting one of those looking at those shoes. Gonna have crampy feet tonight… despite spending my day idling at home with my girls.
Deborahs last blog post..Quotidian sexism
“Pony boots” have been part of fetish fashion for quite some time… they’re basically those heel-less shoes, but the base of the shoe is rounded out to look like a horse hoof. Some actually have a horse shoe on the bottom for a realistic “clop clop” noise.
They’re certainly impractical but, just like the red ballet shoes you posted, they’re costumes, not regular wear. Comparing fetish footwear to regular shoes is like comparing an elaborate carnival mask to a pair of sunglasses and exclaiming on how impractical and silly they are.
The drift of fetish fashion into something promoted as mainstream? I see that as an issue far more than people designing outlandish and fantastic costumes for the mutual pleasure of those into such things.
hexys last blog post..Links
Hendo, if your foot size is more or less in the normal range in the place you’re going, maybe you could get something when you get there? I have walked a lot in Asia and unattractive as it sounds, the plastic slip-on sandal with cotton socks under if necessary, is pretty practical, because you can wash your feet anywhere, shoes and all, and put your shoes on again almost instantly.
Definitely. The article that prompted this post was this one about the black heel-less boots, in which Victoria Beckham was spotted wearing them out and about, and the article’s author enthuses about how she can!walk!in!them!after!all!
So they’re definitely not being marketed as bedroomwear.
Jea, the red and black huge-angled ones aren’t meant for walking – they’re a costume prop, like Hexy eloquently said. The second ones there just look like haute-couture. Of course, all this means is that various subcultures just work in a slightly different wavelength of the cosmic background misogyny. I don’t see it as anything more than the extension of existing themes into new contexts.
I don’t know what it is with bdsm being mangled into the mainstream lately. Maybe it’s just an excuse to say “these aren’t the highly restrictive gender roles of old, This Is Special,” or the veneer of power plays to defend against actual accusations of power differences.
Article in Metro yesterday saying chiropody & other foot work as a result of wearing heels costs £29 million per year in the UK.
I’m going to have to remember that when some entitled sexist bigoted asshat starts whining about !fat!people!costing!taxpayers!money!, and suggest we could ban heels and all wear sensible shoes instead. Noes! wimmins need to be eye candy!
I – ah – don’t know what to say.
‘Completely and utterly wrong, not to mention wtf’ is my thought.
Oh yay. Now we *literally* can grind women under our heels.
I think that last shoe is actually a safety warning: this is what happens to the spines of women who wear stupid heels.
Is it wrong that I’m kind of excited that the woman on the shoes at least has a tummy and non-perky breasts?
Of course, she also has a squashed head longer than her thighs and shins combined…
It’s funny, I bit the bullet today and asked about a pair of old-stock Tevas (the plasticky ones). Sigh. But thanks for your suggestions.
I’m going to Timor and I’ve never been there before, so I have no idea what’s available… I like to plan ahead, but I will also be a volunteer over there and it’s got a reputation for being an expensive country. So I figured it would be less stress to find shoes in Australia… guess I was wrong on that one!