Disclaimer:
The following constitutes the personal opinion of a heterosexual male human past the age of consent. Please direct any complaints, concerns or compliments to appropriate parties. Thank you.

High heels on women are a particular pet peeve of mine for two reasons:

They're uncomfortable.

I've got simple tastes when it comes to women's attire (on women... I've got my own wardrobe, thank you very much). I like the women in my life to be comfortable in their clothes...a comfy woman is a beautiful and sexy woman. Jeans and an old sweatshirt stoke my libido much more than a garter belt because I know that the lovely creature within isn't being pinched, squeezed, or scratched by something made from a half-mile of lace and wire.

High heels must be the worst of the lot, though, because I've seen the look of relief and delight when women get to take their shoes off at the end of the day. There's a moment of transcendence that crosses their face...something conspicuously absent when they kick off their Nikes after a jog. These subtle hints tell me that high heels are not comfortable footwear.

The ludicrous number of high heel-wearing models dressed in swimsuits, underwear, and little more than a smile.

I'm not a foot fetishist, so there's probably a segment of the population which will disagree with me on this one, but if I'm looking at a woman in a state of undress, I want her to have taken her shoes off waaaaay beforehand.

Why does the archetype of a high-heeled and undressed woman persist? I know this is just my personal opinion, but anyone wearing shoes of any kind once their clothes have been discarded looks kinda sleazy. Moreover, when you're down to nekkid, but you've neglected to remove your high heels, what message is that trying to convey?

If you forget to take off your shoes, it suggests to me that you are so absent-minded as to be a serious hazard in the course of a relationship (impending relationships with the viewer(s) are an implied end result in even the most implausible photo shoot).

Please. IRL, if you are about to consummate a relationship, lose the shoes. They're nasty in bed. They rumple the sheets and poke your partner in agonizing spots.

And if anyone on e2 has influence over the porn industry, pass my sentiments along. If I can see body parts normally covered by a thong, I shouldn't be seeing heels. It's just plain wrong.

I need to quote my beloved Elizabeth Wurtzel when I see things like this..

"Heterosexual women live in a world of male pleasure, and despite our complaints, I must assume we like it like that. At the very least, I do. I like wearing high heels, and it's not because they make my feet feel good. When spring turns to summer and it's time to wear pumps without pantyhose and I get blisters on my toes and heels from friction and leather, I feel absurdly and obscenely delighted in the shackles of womanhood that cause this unnecessary pain, this silly Occidental version of foot-binding that is really just a variation on soul-bonding. I like being bound, amid all my radical feminism, to what boys want." - Elizabeth Wurtzel

Just because you don't like it, doesn't give us any reason to stop. I want a man who likes it when I wear heels. I want a man who finds me attractive in them. I want a man who likes me, when I feel sexy. I understand you find this unattractive, no need to rant, just find a girl who likes comfortable shoes.
For the purpose of this writeup, and my sanity, "men" means "men who like high heels", and "women" means "women who wear high heels." I'm well aware that males exist who do not like high heels, mostly because I'm one of them. Also, include standard disclaimers about heterosexual/homosexual/gender-bending alignments, and just flip appropriate pronouns. I can't spend all night fighting with the lack of gender neutral pronouns in English, can I? Now, with that out of the way...

What's a high heel?

...

A dog command in an airplane.

Seriously though, I've been considering the stereotypical male lust surrounding high heels; or rather, women wearing high heels. (The former being a whole different node.)

Reading through the high heel node, GeekGirl mentioned something that got me thinking. I quote:
High Heel Shoes - women wearing this kind of shoe cannot run, jump, carry much weight... in short they are physically hindered by them. Wearing them indicates that the wearer doesn't need to do any of those things.
This sounds like a reason similar to the one behind foot binding. The upper classes lived a more sedentary lifestyle, while the people of the lower classes couldn't sacrifice the agility and mobility that the foot binding caused to be lost. Similarly with high heels: a woman who can wear something that would cripple her to such an extent must be at least moderately well off. This effect doesn't seem as important/apparent in this day and age, but the subtext may still be there. Regardless, they are considered nice clothing, and people wearing the nice clothing of the period have always been held in higher esteem, consciously or subconsciously.

Another reason has to do directly with mens' libido. High heels say to a man that the woman wearing them either is submissive, or acknowledges that she might possibly be. This seems to draw parallels to BDSM, where the bottom is routinely humiliated, restrained, punished and otherwise used to gratify the top. (Ostensibly; I know in reality it's a consensual act that gratifies both parties, and no true harm is ever intended.) In BDSM, someone acts submissive by choice to satisfy a dominant; this includes discomfort and the like. Women wear uncomfortable shoes that serve no real purpose beyond "looking good".

Another theory, albeit slightly tenuous, is that of men wanting to feel needed. For years, men have been the stereotypical protector and provider (true or not, socially it's a common feeling) and women have been growing increasingly independent. A woman wearing high heels is simply not as physically mobile as a man wearing dress shoes, so through voluntary female helplessness men can feel a little bit better about their position in society.

Whether or not sex determined fashion, or vice versa, high heels are now inherently sexual. Be it due to foot fetishism, Submission-Domination, or good old fashioned "wimmin are purty", the stereotypical male probably likes high heels as more than an aesthetic preference.


Note: this is meant to merely propose several ideas as to why high heels are eroticized to the level they are. I tried to be careful not to prefer one idea over another, but I may have failed. Any (constructive) criticism?

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.