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Dangerous Elegance: A History of High-Heeled Shoes
Random History ^ | April 9, 2008 | Random History and Word origins for the Curious Mind

Posted on 09/21/2014 4:50:52 PM PDT by WhiskeyX

The high-heeled shoe, or a shoe whose heel is higher than the toe, is a matter of contentious and heated discussion. Shoes in general have typically served as markers of gender, class, race, and ethnicity--and both the foot and the shoe have been imbued with powerful phallic and fertility symbols as evidenced in the contemporary practice of tying shoes to a newlywed couple’s car. No other shoe, however, has gestured toward leisure, sexuality, and sophistication as much as the high-heeled shoe. Fraught with contradiction, heels paradoxically inhibit movement in order to increase it, at least in appearance. Standing in heels, a woman presents herself already half-walking while at the same time reducing the length of her step, fostering the illusion of speed while suggesting the promise of an imminent fall. The higher and more unstable the heel, the more clearly these contradictions are expressed (Kunzle 2004). Doctors and scholars alike have argued about the physical and cultural effect, both positive and negative, that heels have had not only on women, but on society as a whole.

(Excerpt) Read more at randomhistory.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; History; Society
KEYWORDS: fashion; shoes
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1 posted on 09/21/2014 4:50:52 PM PDT by WhiskeyX
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To: WhiskeyX

My 88 year old aunt wore high heel shoes to church the day before she died.


2 posted on 09/21/2014 4:54:28 PM PDT by yarddog (G)
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To: WhiskeyX

Not only that but articles about High Heeled Shoes don’t use paragraphs (I checked the OP).

Can’t blame this one on the poster...


3 posted on 09/21/2014 4:55:37 PM PDT by freedumb2003 (AGW "Scientific method:" Draw your lines first, then plot your points)
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To: WhiskeyX

I only wear high heels on special occasions and church. When I worked, a ‘kitten heel’. I still have pretty feet with no bunions.


4 posted on 09/21/2014 4:56:38 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear
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To: WhiskeyX
Offbeat, but entertaining.


5 posted on 09/21/2014 4:58:17 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s ((If you can remember the 60s.....you weren't really there)
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To: WhiskeyX
I broke my leg. Got a heel caught in a slate walkway.

And then there was the day I walked out onto a wood deck. The heels got caught and I walked right out of the shoes.

Now (age 70), I wear moccasins, walk flat footed and hold onto railings for dear life.

6 posted on 09/21/2014 5:07:41 PM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: WhiskeyX
/


7 posted on 09/21/2014 5:08:49 PM PDT by Brother Cracker (You are more likely to find krugerrands in a Cracker Jack box than 22 ammo at Wal-Mart)
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To: Sacajaweau

High heels are overrated.

Achy feet are not sexy !


8 posted on 09/21/2014 5:09:32 PM PDT by Califreak (Hope and Che'nge is killing U.S.)
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To: WhiskeyX

They are hard on women, generally when I see a woman wearing them, the first thing on my mind is how to get her off her feet.


9 posted on 09/21/2014 5:13:27 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: Califreak
But if we say (instead) that our back hurts....they run for the oil.

It's complicated!

10 posted on 09/21/2014 5:13:28 PM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: WhiskeyX
Jimmy Choo

11 posted on 09/21/2014 5:17:09 PM PDT by Bobalu (Hashem Yerachem (May God Have Mercy)
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To: WhiskeyX
why do the words high maintenance flash before my eyes when i see women with these things on????

12 posted on 09/21/2014 5:21:06 PM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -vvv- NO Pity for the LAZY - 86-44)
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To: Chode
why do the words high maintenance flash before my eyes when i see women with these things on????

Because the podiatry bills will be astronomical?

13 posted on 09/21/2014 5:27:54 PM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
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To: Sacajaweau

LOL, I didn’t realize that we were that obvious but yep, we do like to give those back massages.


14 posted on 09/21/2014 5:31:02 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: WhiskeyX



15 posted on 09/21/2014 5:34:42 PM PDT by Bratch
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To: ansel12

I used to date a girl who was 6 foot 1 inch tall and liked to wear 4 inch heels. made kissing her kind of interesting.

(I am 5 foot 11)


16 posted on 09/21/2014 5:35:15 PM PDT by Fai Mao (Genius at Large)
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To: WhiskeyX

bookmark


17 posted on 09/21/2014 5:36:10 PM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: 17th Miss Regt
yeah... that too! feet start lookin more like hoofs

18 posted on 09/21/2014 5:36:12 PM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -vvv- NO Pity for the LAZY - 86-44)
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To: Fai Mao

I have noticed that actress Kristin Kreuk just about always wears boots with around 4 inch heels. They do not look like high heels because the heels are very thick.

I suspect she is not really as tall as she looks.


19 posted on 09/21/2014 5:40:09 PM PDT by yarddog (G)
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To: Fai Mao
Here is our Secretary of State in 2005.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

20 posted on 09/21/2014 5:53:21 PM PDT by ansel12
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