dr1819

Like this beauty!

May be that they are sending their high heeled male models only on the "catwalk" because of the rumor in TV and the international rainbow press. Provocation sells. Nevertheless every fashion show with male high heels wearing models says to publity: That's IN for guys!

They may also be doing it from feedback from the retailers, which do report sales trends. And one interesting trend being reported is that half of the larger sizes are being bought by guys.

It's an untapped market, and the designers are trying to tap it.

The problem is, I think you're right - they're designing feminine-looking heels for men, when feminine heels for men are already available. What they should do is design masculine heels for men, like those of the Harley-Davidson line, which I'd wear in a heartbeat anywhere, if they just came in my size!

I'd be up for any of them!

I recently got my new boots from New Rock.

If you go to the skirt section of my website, you can see me in them.

http://www.jonrowlinson.com

I must confess to like Barretts though. They must get loads of guys buying girls shoes from them and the staff are really clued up with them.

I'm a new member so my profile is not finished yet

By the way - welcome aboard! Always nice to have more members.

I think as long as male heel wearing is associated in any way with "gender," then it will never be seen as anything other than a way for some men to express their sexual confusion. As for the talk about platforms not being real heels, men wore cuban heels in the early 1960s and 1980s. Wayne Cochran wore 4 inch heels, electric blue suits, and a huge blonde pompadour in the early 1960s. My point is that heels for men will never be regular until those who wear them as a style separate themselves from the "genderly confused", who are the main ones promoting the idea that men wearing heels are wanting to be women.. Note the myspace page linked below:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=4100637

The page belongs to someone who admits to wearing skirts. He also admits to wearing heels. He is not "genderly confused," he even has a girlfriend who is a pin-up type model. Check some of his links on the friends list.

I'm not at all confused about my gender. I'm a man living in a man's body who nevertheless thinks (as identified on several different gender identity tests) more like a female than a male. And I like wearing skirts and heels, too, with the occasional dress. Right now I'm in a black polo shirt, jeans, and a pair of black two-strap RSVP wedges with male underwear. Oh, and two of my nails are painted with Revlon's Pure Pearl (020).

I found it interesting that the guy identifies as a glametalpunkdustrigoth. I wonder what the "dustri" means.

I have no desire to be a woman, nor do most men who wear heels. But some do, and that's ok, too, just as some women want to be guys.

Do Zappos post to the UK?

Chris

Strangely, no. I'm not sure why, as they'd enjoy a booming business.

Here's a quote from their website:

Q: Do you ship to addresses outside the United States?

A: We ship to all US States and Territories. Sorry, we do not ship internationally at this time.

However, there are drop shippers in the United States which will tranship the items for you. Essentially, they receive the item and will ship it to you for a shipping and handling fee.

I've never used any of them, so if someone knows of a good one, please chime in.

Another option is to just go with ankle boots and either long pants or tights underneath the shorts or skirt.

It did for me.

I'm surprised, as others reported having the same issue.

I'm not sure what you mean by "the layout is totally different," as it's almost identical to the old board. Same forums, same threads in those forums, etc. The top menu (Home, Discussion Forum, etc.) is slightly different, requiring you to go Home to access your private messages, but by and large, phpBB (the old software) and vBulletin are almost identical in design, especially compared with the layouts of other software found on other popular bulletin boards, such as The Fashion Spot. Those layouts are significantly different.

My two favorite boards for the last several years have been this one and another than runs vBulletin. I found this one first, and had absolutely no problem with the other one, which used to use phpBB, migrated to vBulletin due to it's significantly better featers.

I know that you'll quickly adjust, and hope you find your way around.

If you're frustrated because you can't do something you used to be able to do, please note that here and we'll help you find the solution!

Yeah - and the last pic is the most amazing, as I could swear his foot is about 8 inches below the surface of the street!

Heely, non-heely - who cares? We're talking HEINLEIN, here, the first gender-bending SF writer on the planet. He's welcome on all threads!

Gee, Fog, this thread is a sharp departure from previous posts. Nothing wrong with it - just wondering if everything is ok back on the home front?

To westerners who are, Asian culture is a real shock that may require many months to overcome.

Months? Try years, and I'm fairly open-minded.

By statistical analysis, Graham's lifestyle is not "unconventional" at all. Men have worn skirts for perhaps 50,000 to 200,000 years, and heels for the majority of the last 500 years (most of the time since heels were invented). A full two thirds of the men on this planet have worn unbifurcated garments on a regular basis in the last year.

I see nothing unconventional about it, except within the context of very myopic fashion trends. Guys in skirts, heels, and both, is more than a growing trend. It's a norm exercised by men around the world for millenia, and is still being exercised today (heels being the more modern exception, but certainly being worn by men, as well).

Never invade. Do it with the childs consent. If the child is keeping something secret, it doesn't mean they're doing something wrong. Talk to the child. Don't go through their things. A child will respond better to questions than they would an invasion of privacy.

Respect and privacy are not earned. They should be given freely to all.

Wow. Beautiful! Clear, succinct... Wow! You do have a way with words, Lindsey.

Finally some intelligent design for men's high heels!

I wonder if Riu has been frequenting this website...

Here's some more information on Riu.

Thanks! I checked the members list and it shows 895. However, at one time, on the old site, I think I remember seeing more than 4,000. If so, with a 3 to 5 ratio of guests to members, that would make it between 12,000 and 20,000 people worldwide, mostly men, who've found this website.

Another thing I enjoy is the fact that when I log in, only those threads that have had posts since my last visit are highlighted. On the old board, if I visited, logged out, then logged back in, none of the threads/forums would be highlighted, whether I'd actually visited them or not.

1 SEK = 0,11 EUR, so the boots for 249 SEK is only 27,40 EUR. Like Payless I guess.

Hmm... Might be worth it to own a pair from a different country, especially if the prices are that low.

I don't know if "hoagland" could be a "hogie" or a sandwich like a "ruben", but sounds like an interesting costume. Sorry this outing was a disappointment especially after the effort you put in. Still, it's good to read the not-so-great reports as well, kind of puts things in perspective and makes one appreciate outings like your trip to Colorado even more. Again, enjoyable reading, please keep them coming.

Thank you for the encouragement, heelme. I do try and present life as realistic as it is, as in the long run, there's both more hope and less disappointment.

Reality wins.

Hey! That sounds like a new motto!

Another Air Fare adventure, by Dr1819!

Last week I flew to the states, to Colorado, landing smack between the two blizzards. On the way, I wore my black suede Vanelli booties with a 3-1/2" heel beneath my usual long jeans.

On the flight over, I sat next to a younger lady, in her early 30's. She was fairly progressive in her own apparel, including a skirt, flats, lip ring, ear tubes and rings, and an eyebrow stud. She spotted my boots the second time I returned from the bathroom, and said, "That's cool. I know a couple of guys who wear heels." Although it turned out both were goth, it started a conversation about fashion in general, and what's appropriate or not. Turns out she knew guys who wore skirts, too.

I had my ankle-length jeans skirt in my backback for the drive from the airport to my parents, and told her about it. She was daring, and challenged me to wear it on the plane. "No one will notice, and if they do, they won't care. Go on!"

So, I stepped into the bathroom and changed, returning in the skirt and heels. Of course it was the middle of the night, the interior lights were off, and most of the people were sleeping!

Still, I kept it on, and wore it while disembarking, going through customs (all they cared about was my passport and declaration card). I ducked into a bathroom and switched back to pants and hiking boots for the parents (Mom's ok, but Dad's not particularly keen with my choice of apparel).

On the way back, I sat next to an older woman, 52, who worked as a social clinition for the US Army. She helps soldiers returning from Iraq deal with the stress of war and their issues, which can be of considerable burden to young men and women.

As a lay counselor with a local church, I talked with her about some of the issues. The discussion was good for a while, then turned to "deviant behavior." At the time I was was wearing jeans and the Vanelli boots. Because they were hidden beneath my jeans, I'm not sure why she steered the conversation that way. I suspect it was because of the disproportionately high number of people she's seen (so she says) who have earring holes, and that, in her opinion, how non-conformist behavior can lead to isolation and increased stress.

So, I challenged her, asking her if she's seen this rise in earring holes only in the last ten years, and she confirmed it. Naturally, this matches the rise in earring wear by men in general, which I pointed out to her. She switched to tatoos as a form of aberrent behavior, to which I suggested she rent some war films from the 1930's through the 1950's, which clearly depict WWI and WWII soldiers and sailors wearing a plethora of tatoos. Then she mentioned necklaces and rings, to which I countered that both are worn by men throughout nearly all races, countries, and civilizations throughout the world. Before she mentioned heels, I said there's perhaps two items of appearal which are exclusive to women or men. When she said, "Ok, what?" I replied, "a bra, and a jock strap," adding, "everything else has been worn by both sexes on a regular basis throughout time.

When she said, "Oh, yeah? What about men who wear heels?" I knew I had her, and instead of arguing for high heels, I simply asked her why she though heels were restricted to wear by women. She gave me several reasons, none of which held water, so I asked her if she liked John Travolta as an actor. She said, "of course," so I asked if she knew the height of the heel Travolta wore during Saturday Night Fever. She said, "I know where you're going with this," and countered by saying, "Ok - where am I going with this?" She couldn't tell me, so I asked her, "Why did Travolta wear heels during that movie?"

She responded by saying that Hollywood is always out to set trends, to which I replied, "but Saturday Nigh Fever (SNF) came at the end of the age of disco, not at the beginning. Besides, take a look at this," and I handed her a copy of the LA Times article on men wearing heels, and pointed out the fact that it came out a few years before SNF.

She looked confused, so I pressed my advantage, and asked, "do you know who invented heels, and why," to which she replied she didn't, so I gave her a brief synopsis of heeling history from 1500 through the French Revolution.

She said she hadn't know all of that, but then reattacked with the comment, "but that was then. Today, when a man wears heels, it's a fetish!"

I asked her, "as in transvestic fetishism?"

"Exactly!" was her reply.

So I asked her, "Well how can it be a fetish if there's no paraphilia involved?"

"What do you mean?" she countered.

"The definition of fetish requires paraphilia. If there's no paraphilia, it's not a fetish. Do you disagree? This is straight out of the DSM-IV..."

She agreed that fetish requires paraphilia, so I asked her why she thought men wearing heels was travestic in nature when men had worn heels throughout 300 of the last 500 years, popularly in the 1970s, and to a lesser extent, continuing to this day?

She conceeded that if men wore heels regularly, then it wouldn't be transvetism, but argued that men don't wear heels as fashion these days.

"Oh, no?" I said, and pulled up my pant leg to show her my Vanelli boots.

Her jaw dropped, then she said, "Are you some kind of pervert?" to which I replied, "not in the least!" and added, "Are you narrow-minded?"

No one, of course, likes to think they're narrow-minded, so she immediately said "of course not!" to which I replied, "glad to hear it! It's nice to have these conversations with those who can be objective!"

Naturally, this set the tone for the remainder of the conversation.

"So let's get back to earrings on men. If male idols such as football, basketball, and musicians are wearing earrings, and men are responding by doing the same, what, if anything, makes their wearing earrings transvestic in nature?"

She couldn't think of anything other than the fact that men have not traditionally worn earrings, to which I replied, "rubbish! There are Bible verses which mention men wearing earrings.

She reiterated that there was something wrong with men who wore skirts or heels, though, as "these are reserved for women."

"Much as pants were reserved for men just 50 years ago?" I asked, begging the question.

"Fashion changes, and people respond in one of two ways. They either adopt/accept it, or they rail against it, abusing disciplines such as psychology as a means to denounce it by mislabeling it as "deviant behavior."

"I'm not saying it's deviant," she replied.

"Then you're saying it's normal?" I asked.

"Well, no," was her answer.

"Then you're saying it's deviant. Remember than 'normal' and 'deviant' are statistical terms. If a behavior falls within a certain arbitrary range around the mean, it's said to be "normal," while if it falls outside that range it's said to 'deviate from the norm.' The question isn't whether it falls into one category or the other, but rather, who defines the boundaries between the categories, and why."

She looked stunned, so I continued: "For me, wearing heels is not a fetish, as there's no paraphilia involved. Nor is it transvestic in nature, as I'm not attempting to dress as a woman, and certainly not attempting to pass as one. I simply enjoy wearing heels."

At this, she relapsed into her counselor mode, and asked, "And why is it you enjoy wearing heels?"

I replied, "Why is it both men and women enjoy watching a beautiful sunset or attending a fine ballet? Why was Cirque de Soleil one of Vegas' most profitable attractions? Why did men throughout the entire Earth wear skirted garments until the last 200 to 300 years? Why do a third of all men on the planet still wear skirted garments? Why do women wear pants and cut their hair short (while pointing to a woman four rows up with a buzz cut)? Why do men wear jewelry? Why does anyone wear anything?"

She didn't know what to say, so I added, "men who wear skirts, heels, earrings, etc., aren't doing so because they're transvestites, fetishists, or trying to attract attention. They do so because that's what they choose to wear. It's no different than your dicision to wear that bracelet, that ring, or those earrings. Are you trying to attract attention, or are you simply enjoying wearing that jewelry more than not wearing it?"

Another thoughtful pause...

"It's the same with my wearing heels," I continued, briefly showing her my heels. "If I were trying to attract attention, I'd be wearing glitter boots beneath a miniskirt. As it is, I'm wearing black suede heels beneath very long pants. If the discussion hadn't veered towards this topic, you'd never have known I was wearing heels, would you?"

"Probably not," was her only reply.

I asked her, "Would you agree that stereotypes about politics, religion, and race abound throughout society, and that these stereotypes are responsible for much of the conflict among today's society?"

When she gave her emphatic "yes!," I appealed to her sense of reason, asking, "Then would you agree that none of us are without any such bias, or that certain disciplines are immune to such bias?"

"I think everyone and everything is subject to some bias," she said.

"Then it's conceivable that the psychological community also has biases?"

"Oh, I wouldn't go that far," she replied. "We do all kinds of double-blind testing to remove such bias."

"Then why would you automatically label a guy wearing heels as a transvestic fetishist?" I countered. "Since when did one's choice of fashion automatically translate into their trying to pass as a member of the opposite sex or have anything to do, at all, with fetishism?"

I'll give her this: She was open-minded enough to realize that her thoughts on the issue were little more than pre-conceived opinions commonly shared by those within the psychological community. While she wouldn't budge on the "earrings are a guy's way of attracting attention" issue, she and I spoke at length throughout the remainder of the flight about DSM issues relating to gender.

Interestingly, both of us were surprised that as a PhD of the community, she was unaware of the role played by environmental toxins in a person's gender identity, and fortunately, an article in the in-flight magazine mentioned this very thing, which, when I pointed it out a couple hours later, gave me some substantial credibility in her eyes.

All in all, it was a good flight, but it underscored the fact that even the mentally adept, those who can make the transition from psychology's equivalent of old wive's tales to reality are often hampered by their lack of exposure to various routine and common behaviors practiced by society, or the fact that societal "norms" are constantly changing, and have been throughout history.

When I got off the plane in Denver, the temp was well below zero and the wind was whipping (around 20 to 30 mph).

I had a long walk to my car, so I put on my hat, gloves, and jacket, and began the hike. A few minutes later, my legs were freezing, so I pulled my skirt out of my luggage and put it on over my pants to keep my legs warm. I passed by several people, but received only one notice, as the rest were too busy keeping warm.

Having travelled for nearly 20 hours, I spent the night at a hotel before heading home, going out for a couple drinks before bedtime. Without thinking, I pulled up, locked my car door, and was walking into the bar/restuarant before I realized I still had my jeans skirt on over my pants. I turned back to the car before muttering, "whatever," and moved on, settling into a seat at the bar.

By the time my dinner arrived the place was quite full, and a decent looking woman and her friend sat next to me at the bar. Surprisingly, despite the darkened conditions, she noticed my skirt and heels right off and asked me about them. "I put on the skirt because of the wind - I had a long walk from the airport to my car and my legs were freezing. As for the heels, well, I just enjoy wearing heels."

"I do too, " she said, showing me her pointy-toe stiletto boots. "But why're you still wearing the skirt?"

"Well, I like wearing skirts around the house - they're comfortable - and I just forgot to take it off!" We laughed and she mentioned that her boyfriend wore her skirts on occasion before changing the subject. She and her friend soon moved to a recently vacated table, so I finished my drink and headed to the hotel for a hot-tub and a couple hours reading the latests Clive Cussler novel.

Heck, its only clothing!

david

Absolutely. And clothing does NOT define the man or woman beneath it!

It might not be Dr Shoe coming as Tara thinks it's high time she got out again and we only have the one pair of shoes between us!

You? One? I find that difficult to believe!

I'm still not sure if it was the best decision to cancel my participation at the NYC heel meeting. Jan and me had planned to combine our participation at the meeting with a common indian summer holyday in the environment of New York. Jan was one of my best friends and he died some weeks ago unexpected by a brain infarct I thought that my job could be the problem but then I lost suddenly my travel companion.

Nevertheless life must go on. I was curious on your report from NYC. You all have sent a lot of interesting reports and pictures. Encourageing to contribute again at the next meeting!

nice greetings

micha

I'm so sorry to hear of your loss, Micha. Please accept my warmest regards.

Once admirer5577 gets back to Sweden he'll have some more pics of us at New York City's Annual Halloween Parade. admirer5577, ramon020, HellOnHeels, me (kneehighs), and Pam all showed up for a spectacular evening.

admirer5577 dressed as a pirate in his knee high boots, with the shafted folded down.

ramon020 wore his kitten heels with a cape and some makeup...Eddie Izzard style.

HellOnHeels wore 4" or 5" stilettos with a solid leather heel...he looked like a she-devil?

pam changed into 4" stiletto pumps

and I wore my 4" Nine West knee boots...

Dude! I'm so freakin' envious! Must have been an absolute blast! I'm wondering what my cousin, who's nine years older than me, would have thought about my dressing up as a lady pirate...

Once my camera batteries are re-charged, I'll post a few pics later so everyone can see the great fun we had. The parade lasted at least 2 hours...

And, um, it being two days since Halloween, I have to ask - just how long does it take your camera batteries to recharge...

Yes, I'm impatient to see the pictoral results of what I really wanted to attend but missed because of a STUPID inspection at work!

I feel a sense of comfort and belonging. It just fits who I am as a person. Weird, I know, but I just feel more at home in a pair of heels than a boring pair of flats.

Nobody NEEDS heels. It's more a case of WANTING to wear them.

Some girls are so short that, even with 4" or 5" heels, are still shorter than everyone else.

Well, there's always stilts, but I don't think they'll become a fashion statement anytime soon, at least not outside of the bigtop...

Jeez! I gotta get the dictionary out again!

Here, lemme help, honeychile...

modality

One entry found for modality.

Main Entry: mo·dal·i·ty

Pronunciation: mO-'da-l&-tE

Function: noun

Inflected Form(s): plural -ties

1 a : the quality or state of being modal b : a modal quality or attribute : FORM

2 : the classification of logical propositions according to their asserting or denying the possibility, impossibility, contingency, or necessity of their content

3 : one of the main avenues of sensation (as vision)

4 : a usually physical therapeutic agency

But I was using it in the statistical sense, namely, that of the most common response. It's similar to the geometric mean, but think of it as a response to the question, "what color shirt do you wear most often?" If "red" is the most common response, then "red" is the modality of the answer to that question.

Mind you Barratts must be used to guys asking to try on their boots / shoes... No thnaks I don't need boot trees, or polish, wax, insoles, anglefeet...

It's been my experience that a LOT of shoe stores which carry larger sizes, and most which carry through size 10 US, have been seeing a lot of male customers in the last few years. I think there's a reason we have more than 4,000 members yet at any given time the ratio of guests to members is something between 3 and 5 to 1.

There's a lot more guys out there who're interested in heeling than are registering on this board.

Come on, guys (and gals) sign up!

Men's shoes, even really good ones, start feeling like concrete blocks on my feet by the end of the day. Most men's styles are just too heavy and inflexible.

You said it! Even my knee-high, four-inch heeled boots with a 1/2 inch platform weigh less than a comparable pair of ankle boots for men!

I have already decided -- the Clarks are going to work today.

Way cool. If I could get away with wearing a woman's shoe at work, I'd do it. But the dress code rules are fairly strict.

Doesn't stop me from heeling around town, though...

"Pass" is an ideal name for the Clarks boots, they could easily pass as men's. I've always regarded trainers as unisex anyway unless they're pink or something, and would wear those "Dancesneakers" anywhere. In fact I'm quite tempted by a pair myself as black trainers aren't always easy to find.

I like the wedge shoes, but they'd be indoor wear for me too.

Chris

Perhaps that's what they had in mind.

I've been writing the major non-fetish shoe companies that carry larger sizes (11 and up) on a regular basis, trying to get them to carry their lines in the next larger size. Since I began this in 2002, aproximately half of those I've been writing have indeed upped the largest sizes of some shoes in their lines by at least one size. About 15% have upped it two sizes.

Clarks is one of the companies I've petitioned. Interestingly, I called them this summer, spoke with a director of marketing about shoe sizes, and provided him with some information as to just how much larger women's feet have grown in the last thirty years. He was surprised, but I provided him with the links and he said he'd look into it. Clarks, surprisingly, isn't one of the firms that's upped it's sizes in recent years, but he did relate that he's seen a sharp increase in the online sales of their size 11 and 12 lots since the beginning of this century compared to your average women's size (8-1/2), and that he's curious as to why, but hadn't been able to pin it down...

I didn't so much as come out and tell him it's probably do to a combination of larger women's feet (slight effect) and men buying their shoes (more predominant effect for those sizes), but I did encourage him to consider to revamp the product lines to meet the market demands!