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cimoreneI am a shoe addict who's deeply ambivalent about gender-normative clothing (I get angry about pink items for little girls) and especially shoes. In many ways, the high heeled shoe is the strongest surviving relic of an age where all women's clothing was prescribed by men to impair their freedom of movement, and its reign in Western culture is practically uncontested at this point, even though practical shoes have infiltrated from the bottom up (I say 'reign' because at the upper end of social occasions, heels are still considered largely de rigeur). Stilettos and/or platforms for women survive in almost every subculture; the most-celebrated women's shoes in pop culture, Jimmy Choos and Louboutins, are primarily separated from the most misogynistically derided streetwalker shoes by the fact that you can tell by looking at them that they cost a lot more. This is the source of my sneaker of the day posts: I'm a sneaker advocate. I wear them almost every day myself, and I think women in general should expand the situations when we wear them. (KStew wore them on the red carpet. I'd like to see more of that.) (Although I'm also pro-boot and -ballet-flat.)
I had the horrible experience of seeing Tim Gunn pushing a pair of gold lamé platform stiletto sandals on Tim Gunn's Guide to Style for a 5'11" female veterinarian who wanted help to dress in a professional adult manner in clothes that actually fit her despite her height and Jack Skellington build. There was nothing professional or dignified about those shoes. Their fashion message was entirely confined to the realms of sex and conspicuous consumption ("I'm expensive! Fuck me!"). I find the silhouette of platform stilettos ugly anyway, and the idea of them being used to teach someone to "walk properly" and have better posture? I'm sorry, but the ways in which heels alter the posture - adding unnatural curvature to the spine (not to mention deforming the foot) - are well known to medicine. And that's the lower part of the spine, dude. They don't prevent you from hunching your shoulders, they just make your ass stick out.
And then Tim introduces a guest whom he's called to teach her to walk in them, and it's... Tyrese. A MALE supermodel. "Who better than a supermodel?" says Tim.
I DON'T KNOW, TIM. WHO BETTER THAN A MAN TO TEACH A WOMAN HOW TO WALK IN STILETTOS?
I mean, if we were talking Miss Jay from America's Next Top Model, I could go with it; he wears stilettos when giving lessons, at least, and there's no pretense on ANTM that the world of the supermodel is like "real life" for, oh, for example, a workaholic VETERINARIAN.
Note that I don't expect Tim to push flats. He, like so many gay men, is a devotee of women's fashion as an institution and of performative femininity, and in addition, he hates casual clothing. Obviously he's going to prefer heels, but the focus of his show is eminently practical and focused usually on the actual life circumstances of the professional urban women he makes over, so usually the shoes represented are the kind of thing that sophisticated professionals actually wear. And they usually have more class than gold lamé platform stilettos.
I had the horrible experience of seeing Tim Gunn pushing a pair of gold lamé platform stiletto sandals on Tim Gunn's Guide to Style for a 5'11" female veterinarian who wanted help to dress in a professional adult manner in clothes that actually fit her despite her height and Jack Skellington build. There was nothing professional or dignified about those shoes. Their fashion message was entirely confined to the realms of sex and conspicuous consumption ("I'm expensive! Fuck me!"). I find the silhouette of platform stilettos ugly anyway, and the idea of them being used to teach someone to "walk properly" and have better posture? I'm sorry, but the ways in which heels alter the posture - adding unnatural curvature to the spine (not to mention deforming the foot) - are well known to medicine. And that's the lower part of the spine, dude. They don't prevent you from hunching your shoulders, they just make your ass stick out.
And then Tim introduces a guest whom he's called to teach her to walk in them, and it's... Tyrese. A MALE supermodel. "Who better than a supermodel?" says Tim.
I DON'T KNOW, TIM. WHO BETTER THAN A MAN TO TEACH A WOMAN HOW TO WALK IN STILETTOS?
I mean, if we were talking Miss Jay from America's Next Top Model, I could go with it; he wears stilettos when giving lessons, at least, and there's no pretense on ANTM that the world of the supermodel is like "real life" for, oh, for example, a workaholic VETERINARIAN.
Note that I don't expect Tim to push flats. He, like so many gay men, is a devotee of women's fashion as an institution and of performative femininity, and in addition, he hates casual clothing. Obviously he's going to prefer heels, but the focus of his show is eminently practical and focused usually on the actual life circumstances of the professional urban women he makes over, so usually the shoes represented are the kind of thing that sophisticated professionals actually wear. And they usually have more class than gold lamé platform stilettos.
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Date: 14 Sep 2009 12:03 pm (UTC)(I hate heels and can't ever wear them; the salesreps where I work are forbidden from wearing them and still do it, even after being sent home because of it. And they complain like heels are somewhere in the Bill of Rights. And one of them buys the most uncomfortable cheap-looking flats, and then shows everybody her blisters, because as everyone knows, flat shoes give you blisters. Heels never ever do. I want to slap her. Today might be the day ....)
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Date: 14 Sep 2009 03:57 pm (UTC)And yet parents say there's no way they've been teaching their kids about gender since the first second out of the womb. *snerk*
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Date: 14 Sep 2009 04:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 14 Sep 2009 02:19 pm (UTC)THAT SAID, I can only wear them once a week or so, because of what they do to my knees, hips, and back. And I don't own anything higher than 3" chunky heels. And I would never DREAM of wearing them if I didn't have a job that had me sitting on my ass all day. I even kind of O.o at women who wear them in airports. Recommending them for a vet (totally aside from the styling, which, WHAT) is ridiculous.
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Date: 14 Sep 2009 02:53 pm (UTC)Lots of nostalgia, too - I used to have a pair of Nine West 3½" MJs, same shape as those above but in much less sexy black calf (bought at outlet prices, though). My first really good pair of heels back in 9th grade, 1998.
Or even these kitten heels although generally I don't like kitten heels; it's the sculpting of these that's just really pleasing:
To be fair, I doubt he intends her to wear them at work - they're probably supposed to be for her date outfits or special occasion outfits, and Tim does like to focus on the outfits for wearing in the off-hours even when the women's whole talk is about what she wears professionally! But when he handed them to her and she put them on with her jeans, I was just like
D:!!!
And there's nothing WRONG with wearing stilettos and a glitzy cocktail outfit "on a date with your husband", right? I mean, knock yourself out. But I know that I, personally, would feel silly wearing gold lamé dress sandals at a restaurant without a dress code! I doubt that the average workaholic vet takes most of her dates at Dinner-Jacket-Required spots, either.
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Date: 14 Sep 2009 02:39 pm (UTC)which is not a defense of stilettos. but if i had to choose between flats and, say, 2-inch heels to wear all day, i would totally pick the heels bc otherwise i would set off knee pain that would last weeks, while my sore feet would be better in a day.
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Date: 14 Sep 2009 03:04 pm (UTC)For most people, very high heels (not Nordic clog height like Danskos) will do more damage than plain flats, but it always depends on the heel and the flat. Some heels do offer support (while also putting too much weight on the ball of the foot and shortening the achilles tendon). And many shoes that are nominally sneakers due to their soft rubber soles are not actually designed for any kind of athletics; there are whole brands that make "fashion sneakers" designed to look like athletic shoes but not intended to be comfortable, let alone good for walking or running! But athletic brands, like Puma, Nike, Reebok, Adidas, etc, elevate the heel higher than the toe in their running and walking shoes. I've read that that slight incline is actually less stressful on joints. (My Pumas are definitely more comfortable than Wax's Converse, but I still wear them less.)
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Date: 14 Sep 2009 03:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 14 Sep 2009 04:54 pm (UTC)It was harder when I was trying to be an opera singer. Heels were pretty much required then. I bought 'character' shoes from a dance shop, on the basis that if you're meant to be able to dance in them, they should be steady enough to stand in them for a whole concert without pain.
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Date: 15 Sep 2009 10:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 14 Sep 2009 07:58 pm (UTC)Why does he get a pass on doing the same kind of shit to women that the world tries to do to gay men?
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Date: 15 Sep 2009 10:02 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 15 Sep 2009 02:38 pm (UTC)