Shyheels

You walked 8000 steps in a broken toe?

Well done. I’d say your record is well within grasp with a full week left to go. We’re having an unseasonably warm Christmas here in Britain as well

I’m a big fan of chunky heeled ankle boots. Love them

Well done! What kind of heels? Boots? I should think it would be a little nippy for sandals.

Enjoy NY! It’s been many years since I was there. Thirty? More? How time flies

I should think having a legal. Background would see you bounced pretty swiftly anyway 

I was considerably older at the time than you would have been in the 1980s and, I suppose, the added maturity in years - to say nothing of the very different world of the 2010s - allowed me to take a more dispassionate look and more calculated appraisal, although, as I say, it was still unsettling to see myself in stiletto knee boots and skinny jeans. 

Yes, imagine being called as a potential juror for a case involving a fashion designer and in you stroll in some five inch Louboutins. I can’t imagine the prosecution being happy with that

Nearest I ever came was reading I, The Jury by Mickey Spillane 

It was a special delivery 

I remember the first time I forgot to hide my heels and answered the door to our post lady while wearing my stiletto knee boots. 

On 12/22/2023 at 11:16 AM, mlroseplant said:

I did realize from a very early age, say, younger than 6, that the white go-go boots were for girls only. Or the black, as the case may be. And somewhere, in my own interpretation later on, I decided that I liked wearing such "forbidden" items, but that I had to have a certain presence with them that was more on the feminine side. I can remember the first time I saw myself in the mirror with high heels on, I was horrified. I looked absolutely terrible! I vowed never to wear them again, they just weren't for me. And, for the following 15 years, I did little to nothing with it.

As life became more stable and more comfortable, I took it up again, this time for real. And I tried to address my concerns about looking terrible, which had mainly to do with posture and gait, and a little bit to do with how the rest of me was dressed. I never entertained any serious thoughts of trying to change my gender or my gender appearance, I just wanted to be cool and graceful.

Interesting! The first time I saw myself in heels - in my case chocolate brown knee boots with five inch stiletto heels worn over skinny jeans - I was unsettled. Not horrified, but definitely unsettled. It felt very strange to see myself in stilettos. Rather than get all self conscious about it, as I might usually have done, I studied what I saw and I realised that was unsettling about it was not that I looked bad in heels but the unexpectedness of it, the femininity of them as counterpoint to the rest of me.

Considered dispassionately I did not look bad in stilettos. My legs are slender from being generally fit, and if one was to see an image of just my legs, from the thighs down, one would have made an assumption that it was a picture of a woman’s legs in high heels. It is only when one sees the male top half that the unsettling bit comes in.

My conclusion is that men do not intrinsically look bad in heels - it’s just that it is unexpected, contrary to the norms and therefor unsettling. The more it is seen, the less unsettling. And perhaps the more minds open to the idea that men can look good in heels.

Well done! And that’s a pretty brisk speed you maintain. Average walking pace is considered to be three miles per hour, and that’s with average footwear not four-inch heels. So well done you!

Yes, the world is blinkered. We are also our own worst enemies in being so fearful of stepping out of line and jeopardising our masculinity. Women will adopt a masculine fashion without a second thought and make it their own. Men would never dare to do the reverse.

Like you I fancied a particular style of feminine footwear as a child. In my case I really liked white go-go boots. Oddly enough it didn’t even occur to me, at first, that these were only for girls and I nearly blurted out a desire to have a pair for myself. I don’t recall what alerted me but I was mortified to find I had been hankering for a pair of girls boots.

it scared me off for many years

Yes, God forbid we inject humour into the discussion

2 hours ago, Histiletto said:

Thanks for emphasizing the non-issue!

My! Rather touchy, aren't we? The historical link with men and heels is rather well known, as are the 17th century paintings you posted. If you like I can give you chapter and verse on the introduction of heels into Europe - the envoy sent by the Shah of Persia to the court of France in 1599, and the racy footwear worn by their cavalry officers, and how they cut a dash with their exoticism and swagger and made high heels a hot fashion at court for the next century; I can tell you about Louis XIV and his love of heels and England's King Charles II who, at 6'2" hardly needed the extra height yet wore four-inch heels to his coronation (as seen in his official painting); I can tell you about the daring coterie of high-born women in the early years of the 18th century who began wearing men's fashions until heels and bright colours began to be seen as something feminine; I could tell you about what sociologists call the "Great Male Renunciation" in the mid 18th century, the Age of Enlightenment, when gentlemen wanted to appear scholarly and intellectual, rather than preen around like peacocks at court, and forswore adornment in favour of sombre shades and practicality - an imprisonment of thought we've never really moved on from. 

So there we are. Happy now?

Women don’t need swords - they have stilettos! 

It's one to see your new thread launched! I shall certainly be following! I must admit I'd like to do something of the sort myself, but struggle to think of things to sat or write that might be of interest.

I totally agree. Everyone should be free to be themselves but don’t expect the entire world to be focussed on your latest form of self-expression. A lot of people seem to be very precious about themselves these days, quick - even eager - to take offence and claim for themselves some new form of victimhood.

The guy taking off his clothes is just weird and any good he might have accomplished in normalising a guy in heels just vanishes. He becomes just another weirdo and only reinforces the stereotype that a guy in heels is weird 

That’s a very good point! The NIMBY version of fashion. Also, while the author tries to make a point about feminism and men in heels, it is the feminist women who are most likely to be scornful of men in heels.

Interesting article. It could have used a tighter edit. Some if it was quite repetitive. It didn’t say anything totally surprising, but the fact that it’s being said at all us encouraging

I don’t dispute they are nice looking sandals, or that the back of the hell may be as narrow as some varieties of stiletto, but the stiletto is tapered, pouty and calls to mind the lethal blade of a dagger. These would be more like a cleaver.

That is what I’d call the thinned of the wedge, but not a stiletto. A stiletto gets its name from the Italian dagger. I defy anyone to stab somebody with the heel on those wedges, or any wedges.

Stiletto wedges? Is that not a contradiction in terms?

They do! It’s the leather soles, even with standard men’s  heels 

I agree with you on the noise. I'm not about attracting attention either.

The acoustics seems to depend on the design of the boot rather than specifically a high heel, although of course heels will accentuate it.