In my continuing morbidly fascinated viewing of the Style channel, I find that I am variously moved to various emotions, from hearty laughter to sadness, outrage, and sometimes just plain old nostalgia for the days when the great couture houses while certainly not above reproach in the rigor of their dictates, and the resulting social impact, were at least at least to some degree, possessed of an interest in helping ladies who are not 100 lb six foot fashion models look their best.
There is no man or woman alive who can remember Worth and his mystical magical tiny pleatlets who will ever forget them, or how they flattered such a variety of feminine figures. And would still do so, had they not given way to the “tank top” and the “gaucho pant.”
Fashion today seems more intended to mock the ladies than to flatter them, and once the marketing goose has laid its egg, it will become, as a descendant remarked to me recently, actually difficult to locate “full length” trousers in the ladies’s department, the entire selection being given over to the “capri” and the previously-mentioned dreadful “gaucho.”
Perhaps this is due to purely commercial factors, perhaps social ones, or a combination, but it is difficult not to wonder what Mr. Balenciaga would say to some of the horrors that are paraded down the catwalk today under his name. And thus it is with all the great old houses. Their great old founders have departed to clothe the angels, and while it is unrealistic to expect a large percentage of geniuses to come out of the design schools, a Worth, after all, does come along only once in a lifetime, the utter trash that is now marked with the old names that used to denote elegance and quality to ladies from Paris to Calcutta to Tokyo and back to Madrid via Buenos Aires is enough to sadden the soul.
Not that fashion as a negative social phenomenon is a new thing, even in the relatively new society of the US, one has only to read the works of one of America’s first feminists, Miss Louisa May Alcott, to get a notion of just how insidious and enmical to civilization were the fashionistas of the era in which she set her simple, but heart-written stories, and the challenges faced by her Megs and Pollys and Roses have changed little for the Kristins and Caitlins and Tiffanys of today.
But if I were obliged to select the one most harmful fashion custom that has tragically survived from the days of Miss Alcott’s heroines to the present, I would without hesitation choose the high heeled shoe.
Every man believes his country has the most beautiful women, and his culture the most superior methods of oppressing them.
It has become popular in the west in recent years to be outraged at the dress requirements imposed upon women in some eastern nations.
Barbaric! Medieval! Cruel!
And indeed, as any lady who has travelled to some of the warm desert lands can attest, being obliged, whether by law or custom, to cover herself from head, or even neck, to toe in hot, suffocating cloth, the discomfort, especially for those unaccustomed to either climate or garment, easily rises to the level of cruel and barbaric within minutes of even the most leisurely-paced stroll in the desert sun.
To call it medieval would be inaccurate, however, since this custom predates the Middle Ages, predates Islam, on which it is frequently blamed, by several millennia.
While the Bible contains text pertaining to women covering their heads, as do the sayings of the Prophet Mohammed (the Koran merely says that both men and women should dress modestly), neither St. Paul nor the Prophet centuries later were announcing the launch of a new fashion craze, but rather acknowledging existing custom. And indeed, both men and women are well advised to cover their heads in the land of the Prophet, where sandstorms occur with frequency and seldom with warning. Which they do, as you will notice, not only in Arabia, but even in the deserts of Central and South Asia, in fact, in deserts anywhere, it’s a good idea 🙂
Head covering for women, and sometimes men, is not limited to deserts, however. Almost every culture in the world has a traditional everyday head covering, from the rebozos of Mexico to the beautiful folds of cloth worn on the heads of the Guatemalan indigenous people, to the elaborate wraps of Africa.
All that notwithstanding, any government that legislates what women (or men) must wear is certainly fair game for criticism, as is any culture that ostracizes women who do not conform to certain dress codes, even if these are not legislated.
The traveller to the Holy Land, for instance, will see women of all three Abrahamic faiths with heads covered, especially if one ventures out from the urban areas, and women who do not do so, though subject to no legal penalty, do pay a price. In addition to social opprobium, she may find her economic prospects impacted by fewer opportunities both career and education-wise, and even her marriage possibilities may be affected. A would-be suitor will have to sigh and contemplate his family’s reaction to bringing home a bare-headed lady, and the prospect may be so daunting that his potential courtship goes no further than a witsful glance!
In contrast, there are areas of Africa and South America where both ladies and gentlemen wear very little clothing, and one of the sights that has occasioned more than its share of the smiles of travellers are certain communities in Africa where Islam is the prevalent religion, and one can see ladies who take great pains to thoroughly cover their heads and hair in accordance with their interpretation of Koran and hadith, yet keep their upper bodies uncovered as has been their custom for thousands of years!
And any lady who insisted on maintaining her own blouse-wearing habits in such a community will also become the subject of smiles, if not outright laughter, and should she indicate any intention to remain in the community in any sort of non-colonial role, most likely some degree of ostracism.
In the east, a woman’s greatest value is seen as the producer of sons. In the west, it is as an object of sexual desire. If the east requires women to cover themselves with all manner of cloth, in the west, by contrast, she must maintain herself on display to the best advantage at all times.
Not only must the western woman forego the flexible privacy of the dupatta, or long scarf that can be worn about the neck, two ends hanging in front, over the shoulder, or over the head, where an end can be used to cover the face if the lady desires.
Her face and hair, bad hair day or not, must be visible to all who would gaze upon her, and if she wishes not to wear trousers, her legs also must be displayed. And to their best advantage, according to the standard of beauty in their culture, which means that on her feet she must wear painful, crippling high heeled shoes, usually also with toes so narrow and pointed that some women in the west actually go to surgeons to have toes removed so that they can squeeze their feet into an even more unnatural shape!
The abuse inflicted upon ladies’ feet by these shoes is rivalled only by the old Chinese custom, mercifully now defunct, of binding up the feet of little girls so that the toes break and the foot matures in a tiny unnatural shape, and the lady unable to walk more than a few mincing, hobbling steps, all for the purpose of appearing desirable to men.
So it is with the western high heeled shoe. It lengthens the leg, say the fashion mavens, and it does indeed give the illusion of a longer leg, a leg which will in most cases, available for public viewing at least up to the knee, and frequently above that!
Even trousers cannot save the lady from these torturous shoes, as they must in most cases also be worn with the western pants suits.
While these shoes are not required by law, a western woman who wishes to appear “professional” in the workplace has little alternative but to wear them, for advancement in her career, even obtaining employment in the first place, may depend on how attractive her displayed legs appear to the man who is interviewing her, or observing the candidates from his nearby office.
Even if she seeks to further her education, she must also, to increase her chances, or to have a chance at all, depending on the institution, project a certain image at her admissions interview, and that image will include the high heeled, pointed toed shoes.
Study after study has shown that women who are considered sexually attractive by the decision-maker will be more likely to be selected for jobs, for a place in an academic institution, a promotion or a raise in salary, than their sisters who may not, either by virtue of nature, or lack of tampering with it, are not viewed as desirable by the party making the selection. And this is true even if the decision maker is a lady herself!
A lady sales manager, after all, must be pragmatic, and keep her eye on the bottom line, and she knows that if she sends out a representative who is more likely to be considered physically attractive and desirable by her client, including form-fitting clothing to make visible the bosom and hips, with legs on display, balanced precariously on the tall spiky heel of the pointy shoe, that client is more likely to place an order, even if she too is a lady, because she will be aware of the positive impression the saleswoman will have made on her male colleagues and superiors who see the display, and they will thus consider her decision a good one!.
If it were not enough to condemn the ladies to a lifetime of foot pain, the shoes cause a host of medical problems. Obviously, the feet themselves, with the bones cramped, will develop ingrown nails, corns, calluses and bunions, as unsightly as they are painful, thus requiring the lady to incur expenditure of time and money, and the additional discomfort of having these blemishes removed, so that her feet will be more alluring in high heeled sandals!
And it does not stop there. The very reason the high heeled shoe is so favored, remember is because of that leg-lengthening effect, and the resulting jaunty, suggestive angle of the derriere, usually displayed in a tight-fitting skirt or trouser. This forces not only the legs, but the entire spine into an unnatural position, and as a result of years of tottering around in this fashion, back problems ensue, requiring even more expenditure of time and money, often in vain, as any doctor or patient with experience in this area will tell you, back problems are “hard to treat.”
There are some ladies, however, who may tell you that mere heel spurs and bunions and dislocated vertebrae are nothing compared to the injuries suffered by those who fall while attempting to walk at as normal and reasonable a pace and manner as is permitted by the harmful shoes. The forced misalignment of the spine as well as the forward tilted body, against the center of gravity, not to mention the foot itself forced into such an unnatural and cramped position, could not be a more efficient device for tumbling the wearer onto her head if it had been designed for that purpose!
The more fortunate may get away with only a sprained ankle or twisted knee.
Perhaps the most inexplicable and absurd use of these shoes is at dances or elaborate functions, where the ladies usually wear long gowns, so long, some even with trains, so that not only are the legs are not visible, neither are the feet, so the whole reason for the use of the shoe is obviated. And when dancing begins, almost every lady will remove the shoes, and wisely too, since if walking is rendered nearly impossible in the things, one can only imagine the orthopedic peril of dancing in them, not to mention the danger to her partner, should the stiletto heel, true to its name, come down hard on his instep!
At one awards show a few years ago, Sophia Coppola, daughter of the famous director, won an Oscar award. It gave me great pleasure to see her walk up to the steps of the podium with a normal, healthy gate, wearing very pretty flat heeled pumps. And quite visible, too, as her skirt was short. I considered her the most tastefully dressed lady there.
I am aware that she is not alone. There are some sensible and iconoclasic women who refuse to hobble about on painful heel-stilts in the hope that a man will find their legs so sexually desirable that he will give them the job, promotion, or salary that they have earned and deserve by reason of their abilities and accomplishments. Yes, most of them will go without their due, and while it is unlikely that they will face the same fate, suitor-wise, as their sister in the east who dares to bare her head when she feels like it, she will nevertheless be the subject of whispers, she would look so much better, be able to go so far, and even well-meant offers from friends to “help” her with a fashion “makeover” that will of course include forcing her healthy, sound feet into the torment of a pair of crippling high-heeled shoes.
For the benefit of ladies who if I may dare to hope, have read this far and may be toying with the idea of renouncing these vile shoes, you may be interested to know that in the east, where this cruel, barbaric custom has thankfully, never taken root, the art of crafting beautiful footwear for ladies has thrived for thousands of years, and there is nothing in all of Mr. Blahnik’s collection that can compare to some of the exquisitely embroidered and embellished sandals and slippers created by the artists of Asia – and all with elegantly rounded toes, that follow the natural contours of the foot, and blessedly flat heels!
As a man, though blissfully married for more years than most peoples’ lives last, I can attest that today as in my youth, there are few sights more pleasant to the eye than to see a young lady, dressed in loose, comfortable clothing that give her freedom of movement, striding along on healthy feet whose heels, as nature intended, touch the ground with every graceful step. The pleasure of seeing such a picture is neither lewd nor prurient, but a grateful appreciation of the beauty God made, as one takes in the breathtaking loveliness of a rose in full bloom, a stream kissed by moonlight; one is grateful for eyes with which to see these things.
NOTE: In the interest of full disclosure, some material in this piece was previously published on another forum.
I am also aware that this article does not address other forms of self-harm currently popular in western culture, most notably the prevalence of “eating disorders,” affecting even little girls who have not yet reached puberty, in an impossible attempt to starve their bodies to match the proportions of the fashion models and other “celebrities” whom they are taught exemplify the standard of sexual allure and beauty that they must attain if they are to have value.
