dr1819

Heel-D Wow, red ballet shoes in public with strangers in the pics. Good for you! Great food for the freestyling soul.

This guy isn't one of us. This pic was pulled from http://www.stilinberlin.blogspot.com

I find his style simple, basic, and moderately feminine.

His style does however, in my humble opinion, lend itself to successful incorporation of heels (or boots) with the whole outfit.

Yeah, I'm not so sure, kneehighs. I've always seen male heelwear as a masculine thing, with a minority of feminine adventures.

Personally, as a blatent heterosexual, I see any feminization of the wear of heels by men as a threat to my masculinity.

Call me old-fashioned (like, by 400 years) but hey - that's where I'm at.

You bring the grappa, I'll bring the absinth!

Man, I love grappa! Only had it once, with an Italian, but I was sold. We split the bottle, and the rest of the night baby kittens kept trying to crawl all over me (and I'm allergic to cats). Ah, well, it was a great vacation anyway!

I tend to significantly reduce my expecations on the outside that I do while in house. 100' and a quarter mile are two different things. I'll not wear anything that I can't easily walk a mile in, as it's just insane to try and push the envelope that far.

Reminds me of one of those "Mars vs Venus" things. It went something like this:

Most men distinguish about thirty different colors, tops. It's more than the basic "crayola-8" set but definitely less than the big "64" set. To most men, "bone" and "taupe" are indistinguishable, "peach" is a fruit and "rust" is something we hate to see on our cars! Women, on the other hand, distinguish 14 different shades of white! To the technically-minded guy, white is not a color at all, rather it is the absence of color -- or it is all colors mixed together.

Hmmm... Perhaps that's what happened between myself and my wife. She wasn't technically colorblind (she could distinguish all the plates on the standard test), but she could never grasp the more subtle colors, and as her paintings were about the only thing at which she felt successful in life, she had a difficult time when I commented on her choice of colors. She would claim they were exact replicas, whereas I could see vast differences in color.

Over time I learned to simply complement on her work, and shut up about the colors...

Probably explains why I'm always re-calibrating my monitor using programs and equipment that cost me $173...

Wow! I couldn't help but notice the vast numbers of mothers covering their children's eyes, the men bolting away in homophobic terror, and the fashion police sirens in the background wailing in anticipation of your arrest! Not. Of course not. Just another day in heels...

Shafted Approaching women as a group of men in heels could be fun. We could always frame it as a challenge, "yep, I'm in heels, but would you believe me if I said I could show you more guys like myself? Great, I can, but there's a condition to showing you that....you have to do a shot with me and toast to the power of stilettos!"

Sounds great!

By the way, kudos del mundo to your ever-changing avatars, kneehighs.

Awesome!

And, as always, love the stories.

Here's one:

I visited our city's local festival, Saturday, with wonderful results. As you know, I'm biking 90% of the time, as I'm loosing weight and getting back in shape following a brief illness and my divorce (wham-bam - I was fat).

Now, I'm not, and loving it.

I rode downtown in biking gear, but carried jeans, heels, and a shirt in my backpack, then locked my bike, changed at a friend's place, and left my back. He was surprised to see the heels, and asked, "Why are you wearing those?" "Because they're comfortable" was my response. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "whatever floats your boat." I had a drink at his bar before I left, and just before, he said, "Hey, no hard feelings about what I said earlier, ok?" which told me he valued the friendship (or my continued patronage to his bar) more than his opinion about guys wearing heels, which in my case are my 4" tapered heeled black leather boots. Beneath a jean, they look like guy's shoes, but my friend caught sight of them when I adjusted my jeans and walked across the relatively quiet floor of his hotel's front entrance (the bar is attached).

I said, "no worries," and he responded by saying, "you know, doing something like that takes a lot of balls..." I grinned and said, "maybe," to which he replied, "I think there's more guys who'd do that if they were as gutsy as you," so I had to ask, "Ok. I have to ask - are you one of them?" He shrugged and with a half grin said, "maybe, but we won't go there." I said "fair enough," and finished my beer before walking around the festival, during which time I met a man from Bulgaria who spoke good, but slightly broken English. We talked of the cold war, the progress that's been made in the Eastern block countries, the challenges that remain, computers (he's a software engineer), the Internet, and a lot of other things. The whole time he looked at my boots three times, one of which he got a very clear and unobstructed view of the 4" tapered stacked leather heel, and he didn't skip a beat. He was married (his wife came around later, and she didn't blink at my heels, either), and off they went. I thoroughly enjoyed the festival, particularly the wonderful food (boy, was I stuffed!) before changing back into biking gear and riding home.

Sorry I'm not hooking up with the ladies like kneehighs, but he's a macho latino, while I look like one of the locals, so...

But then again, that's what I try to do. Blend. Not nearly as progressive as kneehighs.

You can go from stopped to flat out in one jump, things need to accelerate at their own pace and all that happens is that people laugh at the designers work. If they would put their models down the catwalk wearing the boots of my first picture, then they would probably be taken up quite readily. Certainly does nothing for the cause that we hold so dear to our hearts.

Great pics and an excellent analysis!

I agree with you 100%. If the designers put their models in masculine-looking heels, it would take off. I think Harley Davidson's like of boots would be perfect for men beneath a pair of jeans. Now - if they would only make them in a size > 11...

Along with the flotsam and jetsam, we also have fish that occasionally just leap right out of the water and land on the boat. If we don't spot them and throw them back in good time, they start to smell...

I was ok until I got to the word paraphilia - It's not often you have to get the dictionary out - but it's not in my Oxford concise - a medium sized paperweight. Going back to the Greek para I believe means beside - or with, and philia love of. I'm confused, please explain.

I don't wear skirts, but I do love wearing women's clothes - so if I'm wearing a pair of girls' shorts, with tights and heels, I regard myself as wearing women's clothes. Great fun!

I don't understand the last sentence either.

Well, the last sentence was directed towards those who can't tell the difference between a personal fashion choice and a socially-unacceptable practice done for sexual reasons:

Main Entry: para·phil·ia

Pronunciation: "pa-r&-'fi-lE-&

Function: noun

Etymology: New Latin

: a pattern of recurring sexually arousing mental imagery or behavior that involves unusual and especially socially unacceptable sexual practices (as sadism or pedophilia)

Neither transvestism, cross-dressing, or heel-wearing by guys are paraphilias in and of themselves.

The automatic, and wrongful, impuning towards this by many in the mental health community simply underscores their ignorance.

Interestingly enough, I've just checked 2 of my dictionaries and have been unable to find homophobic in either one. Is this a word that has recently been coined by the rabbid homosexual community?

Try Merriam Webster

From what I've seen on this board so far, I find no compelling evidence that this board harbors anti-gay prejudice.

Me neither.

I believe that there is a distinct difference between people who are seeking to address fashion issues and those who prefer a distinctly different sexual orientation.

I agree 100%. The two have nothing to do with one another.

For the record, I wear high heels and skirts; my ears have been pierced for many years; and I have even worn makeup, wigs, and dresses in public. Yet I am totally revolted by homosexual advances or solicitations.

Although my ear piercings have healed over due to years of non-use, I still wear skirts, heels, and occasional eye makeup and hair stuff (temp colors). I've been solicited on several occasions. It doesn't turn my stomach, but I've absolutely no inclination in that direction.

I have noticed, however, that all the incidences where I was approached happened when I was wearing either heels or a skirt, and most of the time was when I was wearing eye makeup, so I do think there's a connection.

On the other hand, most of the time I've been solicited by a girl was when I was wearing heels and eye makeup, so there's probably a connection there, too.

I think the connection is that they see someone who's different, standing out from the crowd, not afraid to be themself, and yet who's still obviously masculine. I think they see it as a turn-on.

Ditto. Here's hoping there are other people in this world who're able to differentiate between a choice in fashion and a paraphilia. Men have been wearing heels fo 300 of the last 500 years, and skirts for the last 100,000 years if not more. Grow up, and stop impuning wrong motives because of simple choices of fashion.

There are about three shots of men donning either women's shoes or women's accessories.

Other than the flats, didn't see any shots of men in women's shoes, but at 1:41, there was a guy wearing plaid skirt (can't call it a kilt as it doesn't meet the technical definition).

Boy Meets Girl

Couldn't pull up the news link without registering, but I think the most interesting thing is that in the succeeding pictures, the guy is wearing a different pair of heels every time, and one of the girls is wearing his flats!

Just be yourself and be comfortable with that. Your confidence will get you past any comments (actually, if your confident you probably won't get many negative comments). It's when you try to be someone you aren't that you become less confident and it draws attention.

Scotty

Couldn't have said it better myself!

Kneehighs, your story reminds me of the third time I ever ventured out in heels. I'd been to one bar twice, but wanted to do something more fun, so I ventured to one of the trendier clubs in Vegas wearing a pair of 3-1/2 black leather sandals with black socks and low black slacks. Loose charcoal rayon shirt. I was incredibly self-conscious as I walked to the door. The bouncer noticed right away, but just grinned and said, "you get in free." That was nice.

I walked in, nervous as could be, and ordered a drink. As I was standing at the bar, I noticed two very nice girls looking at me, about ten years younger. After a couple of minutes, one of them came over and said, "Nice heels. That's different." I was at a loss for words, so I simply said, "Nice skirt - it suits you well." She then asked if she could ask me a question. I said "sure," and she queried, "why are you wearing heels?" My answer was simple, as I'd thought of it earlier: "Because I enjoy wearing them." "Oh," was the only response, after which we talked about other things for a few minutes before she asked me to dance.

"You don't mind being seen with a guy in heels?" I asked as she lead me by the hand to the dance floor. "Are you kidding? I think it's sexy."

After a few more dances and some talking, I discovered that what she really thought was sexy was the fact that I, as a guy, had enough confidence to wear whatever I wanted to wear. All in all, it was a fairly progressive and large place. It was the only time I went, but I saw two celebrities and a lot of people who looked like they could be celebrities. A little grinding going on, and not always between those of opposing sexes (mostly F-F stuff). So a man in heels probably wasn't all that novel a thing to most of them. It was also the first time I saw a man wearing a skirt in the US (men wear skirts all the time in many countries overseas).

Sweet boots, fogborkenvv. Very stylish with the white shirt and red tie!

Nice! I spent most of yesterday at Trier. Typical outfit, short-sleeved shirt, with a light rain jacket tied around my waist, jeans, and 4" heeled boots. Got a few stares, as Trier is touristy, and the heels are loud, but nothing else.

The link appears to be down.

I found a similar program that allows the users of X-Plane, combining both detailed, accurate scenary in the best resolution available with one of the most detailed, accurate flight simulators on the market. Real-time, real-world weather, too, so you too can fly in a hurricane!

Here's some screen shots: http://www.global-scenery.org/index2.html

Try that in Flight Simulator!

There's also a way to plot your location in Google Earth, which supports UDM packet transfers in X-Flight, but I haven't cracked that nut, yet. Would be great for a moving map display, if I ever do!

He's just relaxing after work, kicking his heels up. Says so right there in the post subject...

This guy's pretty laid back, too:

http://www.hel-looks.com/?p=image/archives/36/20050717_04/

Thanks. It is raining like mad here today. We are under a flood watch (nothing serious, just rain soaked streets) so had to run up early to get the kids from school. The boots are coming in real nice in keeping my feet nice and dry:)

Scotty

I've been watching it on the news. My girlfriend lives on the East coast, and their neighborhood was under 18 inches of water. Fortunately, most houses sit on about 2 feet of stilts, so they were dry inside.

I really liked the feeling of the skirt, it's fresh and way more comfortable then pants. Hey... wearing a skirt with my boots was OUTSTANDING. Now I know what dr1819 says about skirts.

Why we ever let the women talk us out of them, I have no idea.

Same goes for hose. I'm not big into crossdressing at all, but when I ride (bicycle), I usually wear a pair of polyester tights when it's cold or raining, as they're great for keeping my legs warm. Last year I began wearing them beneath my pants while doing field work, and sometimes wear them beneath a skirt at home on colder days.

I don't know why we let the women talk us out of hosiery, either.

Comfy!

The results are now, statistically speaking, bimodally equivalent between 3" and 4". The geometric mean is now 3.48". Call it three and a half. We have a winner at 3.5" for a high heel!

While at an office party yesterday afternoon, I noticed one gal dressed in a white blouse, jeans, and heels that had to have been at least 4-1/2. Although she was fairly short at around 5'5", she had rather large feet - her heels looked huge on her, like a size 10.

Nice wedges, Scotty!

I worked up to 5-1/2 two summers ago, but my current comfort level is 4", max. I like 3-1/2" to 3-3/4" better.

Hang on a minute ... Weren't you the same dr1819 that thinks using a cell phone whilst driving a car is ok providing you can multi-task?

I can understand the title of this topic now. This is truly the point of stupidity.

Cell phones used for exploding remote devices are one thing.

Cell phones used for communicating with loved ones are another.

Are you a terrorist?

Sounds like it. ATTENTION ALL: Be on the lookout for a terrrorist masquerading as as man with a mission!

I'm done, tired, need sleep, good night