dr1819

A couple of people have snapped cellphone pics of me, usually when I was wearing my full-length ankle skirt, though, not heels.

It's a great skirt, by the way, found on eBay, black denim, 40", with the fly to the right, 5 pockets, and belt loops. From the crotch up it looks like a normal pair of jeans, and standing or sitting at the bar, most people never notice it at all. It's when I'm walking in, or going up/down stairs that most people notice.

On a completely different note, if your heels hurt your feet, this might help: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMzTtgZ7E5w&search=men%20heels

A fetish doesn' have to be sexual if you disregard the freudian sense of the word. Valerie Steele talks about marxist fetishes, meaning that you consume and invest alot of emotion in an object, but don't 'masturbate' to it.

Hi, Trolldeg - long time no see! Glad to see you again.

There's an interesting quote from the editorial review on Amazon: "Because this is Valerie Steele's second book on the topic of fetishistic clothing, her opening statements that she is an outsider to the paraphilias and perversions that she discusses seems a bit hollow."

A paraphilia is "a pattern of recurring sexually arousing mental imagery or behavior that involves unusual and especially socially unacceptable sexual practices." Two examples would be sadism and pedophilia.

One need not climax for something to be a fetish. Any level of sexual arousal associated with the object or behavior is considered a fetish, if that object/behavior is necessary for sexual gratification.

While I don't doubt that Valerie Steele has much more knowledge about fetishes than I do, I'm simply repeated the long-held definition of the word as defined in dictionaries and from medical (psychiatric) sources.

Rather stylish!

Your going to break your neck in those.

You think he might be more likely to break an ankle?

I agree with you about country roads. People can get out of hand when:

1. No one's around.

2. Other's are around who're also getting out of hand.

3. When they're drunk.

This is why I always felt safe wearing heels, or even a skirt, in a casino - the bodyguards wouldn't let a fight progress beyond the first shout, and there are cameras all over the place - sort of discourages unpleasant behavior.

Dr1819:-)

That's an amazing set of statistics if they are confirmed to be accurate. It appears that there are a lot of heel lurkers out there more than we think.

Cheers---

Dawn HH

I've done a good bit of second-hand research on the numbers over the last two years. The studies vary considerably in their stats, and it was a bit difficult digging through them all, as they often lump CD and TV together. Perhaps at one time they were synonomous, but they've come to mean two different things. For example, if I put on a dress, I'm a CD. If I add curves and accessories, I'm a TV, whether I'm trying to pass or not. However, if I were to wear just one piece of women's clothing, such as a pair of nylons, because I was aroused by doing so, then I'd be a TV fetishist, which, by the way, is the only category that the DSM-IV classifies as "abnormal." CD, TS, GLB are now all classified as normal.

As for lurkers, let's take a more popular thread, The Adventures of KneeHighs as an example: 116 posts, but 11,278 reads. That's 97 times as many reads as posts. Definately a lot of lurkers!

I think it's more about being yourself. If you identify as female, then follow your heart.

pbsmith, I think one of the reasons wedgies are back with a vengence is because the design has changed from the boring epedrilles to some sleek narrow heel wedgies like these.

What do you think, Dawn HH - would this be a pair you'd wear?

Can you go to 11 with a pair of socks? Doesn't work for sandals, but for shoes and boots it works nicely.

They are called Exclamation MARKS. Not POINTS.

Sadly, I should have known this...

You're right, Chris - it's not a good thing.

Heels AND a water-cooled processor. Cool.

Excellent coordination between clothing styles and colors - as always, very well done!

Definately - nice to see you around again.

...and then some of us don't like the clicking. I don't mind it at home, but not while out on the town (although in a noisy bar no one hears them, but to and from can be an issue, particularly since drunk people have little inhibition left, so if there were any animosity...). As for gay or TV, most men who wear heels as men are not gay. We just like heels. Very few people who're gay wear heels. The greatest percentage of men who wear heels and are gay are the full cross-dressers (they try to pass as women, also known as transvestites), but even then the percentage is surprisingly low - less than 30%. There's a third class, transexuals, but it's difficult to say they're "gay" because they actually identify as a woman. The forth category, drag queens, are indeed gay, but their motivation for cross-dressing is more of a parody of femininity than of identifying as a woman, and is complete with exaggerated movements, speech, makeup, clothing, etc.

I'm definately not into pain, either. Although I don't shop in the stores (few, except Nordstroms, ever carry my size), I enjoy Zappos, as they carry many shoes in larger sizes and have a one year return policy. What I would like to see is some standardization among clothing manufacturers, for they're still using their own proprietary sizes. For example, I have one skirt that's one size from one company. It's too small. I have another, nearly identical skirt from another company that's a size smaller, yet it's too big (I have to wear it with a belt, and even then it could lose 2 inches. Same thing's true for heels.

This whole scenario is about a driver who would willfuly violate existing laws, place herself and a restaurant full of people at risk by disregarding their safety - all because that cell phone was much too important to put down. What's wrong with this picture?

The fact that there's absolutely no proof whatsoever her actions were due to the fact she was talking on a cell phone. I've seen many vehicles parked in fire lanes and handicap spots where the users were not on cell phones. Association does not imply causality. This is a cardinal rule in statistics.

Ahem... They have (built displays up top). Since I'm not being paid to advertise brands, I'll not name any. But I have seen cars where the driver's console is essentially a LCD screen where everything - speedometer, gas gauge, oil pressure. etc. is displayed right in front of the driver. About the only thing missing was a HUD like a modern fighter aircraft. Since most cars now use on-board computers, there's no reason why they can't also have the video display instead of the 50 year old gauges.

I've seen that, too. And HUDs. But most manufacturers are still putting the GPS center console, about halfway from top to bottom. The only reason is because it's cheaper.

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2003/01/21/153043.html

However, as "custom" displays become common, there's no reason that it should cost more. In fact, it should cost less, particularly when you pair it with a good menuing system, inputs from outside temperature and altitude, a sound system display input, key driving information (velocity/rpm), vehicle systems diagnostics, etc.

Some functions, such as the last, should be inhibited (except for basic warning lights) unless one is stopped. Similarly, programming a route into the GPS should also be inhibited unless you're stopped.

I know what I've said about cell phones, but programming routes involves the same area of the brain as is required for driving, and it's an area which cannot multitask nearly as well as can the auditory and speech areas, which are not used for driving (this is why people have no problems listening to the radio and signing while driving).

As most of you know, I'm not a big fan of conspicuous heels. But there recently appeared three styles on Zappos whose design I found intriguing.

So, I bought them. Probably never wear them outside, though...

The first one is my favorite:

I like bare legs, but only if they are near flawless or better. Otherwise hosiery is the perfect way to make them flawless.

At least until they come up with leg replacement therapy...

Great! Thank you! You're always welcome to voice a dissenting opinion, my friend!

Well, it IS complicated! If people were born knowning how to walk in heels, we wouldn't need any advice. We probably wouldn't have all the controversy :argue: about men/women wearing heels either. Just think on it - if everyone knew how to walk in heels we could all just go down to the local shoe store and buy the heels that suit our fancy. No controversy about men wearing heels, no controversy about how high the heel or any of that rot. Men could greet each other politely in the street and say, "Nice pair of heels you have there, where did you get those?"

Personally, I'm thankful for the advice, and I think Jenny did a fine job.

A lot of this depends upon the availability of high heels in most men's sizes, which I've found to be sadly lacking by a factor of around 57 to 1.

Okay, this thread has been idle long enough. Today I go to the dentist to try and get what's left of my dental work repaired. (On my birthday anniversary, no less.)

When I was explaining to the boss why I would be in late, she said I didn't look like I was in pain. That's when I assured her that pain is my constant companion. It notifies me that it's still too early to call the undertaker.

Yeah, I'm getting my first cap. I hope it's my last. Great brushing, flossing, and waterpiking, but apparently I cracked a molar sometime during the last year, so I have to get a cap. Ugh.

It sucks.

In the meantime, I began biking to work about a month ago, and have been exerting an average of 1,500 extra calories a day doing so. The first week almost killed me, but now it's a breeze - the old cycling muscles I had as a pre-teen and teen are regrowing. I've got my wind back, and I'm feeling terrific. I'm at the point where after three more months of this, and when I've dropped to less than 10% body weight, I'm going to begin entering races. I'm fortunate in that I happened to buy a road-racing bike, even if it's six pounds heavier that their top model (which was $2,400 more than I was willing to pay...).

By the way, it's about 13 miles round trip, but I've been finding myself biking on the weekends for the sheer heck of it! I biked all over the place when I was a kid and this is like rejuvenation therapy for me.

I don't doubt that some are real wear, but it's extremely rare that I've ever seen a woman (or man) in plats outside the club scene, and I've spent quite a bit of time in many major metropolitan areas, including Washington DC, New Orleans, San Francisco, Vegas, LA, and recently, Dortmund and Frankfurt. This is over the last 17 years of my life, and virtually no plats. I'm not knocking plats, but let me put it this way - I've seen about ten times as many men wearing MUGs in public, both kilts as well as skirts, than I have seen women wearing plats.

Or, ramp it up, and instead of pushing her, let her go as high as she's comfortable going. You could start by asking, "honey, what's the highest heel you could comfortably wear for a night on the town." If she says "three inches," then simply say, "I love seeing you in heels so much - would you wear a pair of three inch heels for me if I bought you the shoes as a gift?" Just don't appear overly excited, as a guy's rapid interest in heels is a turn-off for most women.

Clean white pumps are best viewed with either shaven legs or opaque hosiery. Just a personal preference, as I'm not into heels and hairy legs.

Micha - can you put some breaks in the exclamation points? You're stretching the page way off to the right. Thanks.

Welcome aboard! Why'd you lurk so long?