p1ng74

Iteration

Isn’t it amazing how adults can be so childish? On the school playground boys loved jeering things to each other like “you throw the ball like a girl”. How is that any different from the jeer, “you wear shoes like a girl”. You don’t even have to wear heels to get this - I get those comments just by tucking my pants into my boots. “Only women wear boots that way,” as if that is some sort of insult. What are these guys saying about women, is their fashion so horrible that men can’t learn or adapt anything from them?

So many guys I have talked to about my heels will make a comment about how uncomfortable it must be, or that I am about to break my ankles. It makes me think, how do they think women wear them? Have men really become such weenies that they can't wear heels?

I compare the way my feet feel after 14 hours of 4"+ heels to the kind of satisfaction I get after exercising or other deliberate physical movement. Moving the body is healthy, and movement promotes more of a loose, relaxed state rather than a stiff, sedentary state. Wearing heels kind of forces you stand, walk, and even sit in a healthier manner. Wearing tennis shoes, you can get away with shuffling your feet along in a lazy, slouchy, drunken manner. With heels, you have to move your body when you walk and think that you want to go somewhere. I am with you on this, at 4" and beyond something magical happens, and the sensation is quite unlike even 3.5". In 3-3.5" I am so comfortable I wouldn't even think twice about sprinting or jumping anywhere. Yeah for me anything under 2.5" pretty much makes me want to take the shoes off and throw them across the room in frustration!

Now I'm contemplating having a cobbler resole and reheel a pair of heels with felt and use them for my "organ shoes".

LOL I've spent most of my life being called weird for all sorts of reasons, so I'm definitely not opposed to that. I actually like the satisfaction of figuring weird things out. Wearing heels is not EASY, so surely there must be some reward from it to make it worth the effort people take to go out of their way to wear them. People who don't try things just because they think it is weird are missing out!

Dissonance

LOL if the right pair of shoes come along, maybe. I don’t pursue stilettos, as I think I’m content with the effect of the heels that I have for now.

Sometimes I wonder which is harder to manage, crisis, or panic. It happened to be a good time for us to do the full garden this year too. I changed the carburetor on the tractor and tilled it... wearing elephant boots with 2” heels of course:

I don’t wear any true stilettos, but I wear a couple pairs over 4” that are thin enough to be blatantly flexing the high heel look:

Vomiting

Warning: Long story, which is why I am only getting around to responding to it now, but I feel like this is the only way to fully describe the emotions. For most of my life I had no interest in footwear, and pretty much just picked a color and something comfortable and went on with my life. After we moved to Texas, we wandered into a cowboy boot store, and my wife convinced me that it was worth the investment to get a nice pair of cowboy boots, now that we lived in Texas. I started wearing them in place of dress shoes, into the office and what not, and grew quite fond of the look and feel. One winter, I took a few weeks of vacation, and after spending several days at home (similar to the current shelter-in-place situation) I realized that the thing I missed most was that I didn't get to wear my boots every day. So I went out and bought a couple pairs that were more suitable for casual wear that I liked, and though I didn't pursue it, one of them happened to have 2 3/8" heels. I didn't think much of the heel height until my wife complimented how they made my feet look smaller and more elegant. That night, I "woke up" and starting really looking at footwear, and how details like sole design and heel height can really change the presentation of the entire person. Contrary to popular belief, heels do not just help short people be taller. I am 6 feet and don't have any particular need to be taller. Heels change your overall proportions and posture, adding elegance. As with any new found interest, I hopped on the internet to find a forum in hopes of learn more about high heels, as I knew nothing - none of the women in my life (mother, former girlfriends, wife) have worn heels of any significant height. But I knew there are a lot of women out there who love shoes, have huge collections, and would be a wealth of knowledge. HHPlace came up first, and it seemed to be what I was looking for - clean and fun discussion about high heels. I wasn't surprised to find a very active "For the guys" section, as I imagined there are probably many guys who admired girls wearing heels. Imagine my slow and steady awe as I browsed deeper and discovered that "For the guys" didn't just have mostly guys that admired girls in heels... they were mostly guys WEARING heels. Honestly, my first reaction was, you guys are weird! I closed my browser, shoved it into the back of my mind, and moved on with life. I may have come back to lurk occasionally, but I never thought I'd be crazy enough to wear 4" stilettos. But my overall interest in footwear continued, and shopping for cowboy boots became my new hobby. The taller the boots, the higher the heel, the more awesome. My cowboy boots started getting wilder, and I embraced what they can do to the overall presentation of a person and outfit. But I was still envious of the many more options women had in their footwear, to really capitalize on the effect shoes can have on how they present themselves. The pinnacle of this jealousy may have occurred when I was at an event and 4 ladies in an electric string quartet strut up to the stage in 4" stilettos and rocked out with their heels pumping the wah-wah pedal the whole time. The heels were the linchpin of their style and stage presence. Shoes matter. Fast forward about 20 months, and my latest pair of custom cowboy boots finally arrive in the mail with 18" shafts and 3" heels. I excitingly posted a picture of the boots on Reddit, and someone responded "I'm confused. These are men's or women's boots?" despite the fact that this is one the standard heel styles in the catalog worn by men all the time. Then, I suddenly remembered HHPlace... I have become one of the guys who wear heels. The rest of the world thinks that I've gone off the cliff, but here I find a community of people who enjoy the liberation of having taken that plunge. I immediately created an HHP account, and here I am...

I would say 2" block heels are within norms for male fashion - keep rocking them. Glad you were able get a chance to walk around.

These times have been a sharp reminder to me to live our lives to the fullest, and seize every opportunity as if it will be your last. Covid-19 has probably changed my life forever. I used to travel every week for work, and walk through hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, and airports. Today, my job had changed and it is likely months, maybe years before I will be able to do that again, and it will never be at the level of frequency as before. In my travels, I have even had the pleasure of meeting some of the people on this forum! Life is too short not to wear heels, seize the chance to while you still can.

Sometimes the angle created by the high heel changes the feeling of the whole experience. When I drive manual transmission, 3” heels make it so much easier to heel-toe shift. Over 4”, my left calf starts to get a real workout from the hyper-extension! I searched for more organ playing by Pascale Melis and in this one they are playing a Fandango. Organists can have great showmanship too - she is playing with bright pink stilettos!