WedgesAreFun

7 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

I was more referring to the above picture that has the crocs with the nails sticking out the bottom, but since you brought it up, yeah, some of those pictures look ok. It kind of brings to mind the expression "She'd look great in a flour sack," but ok.

I think those ladies look great in those shoes, it's a cute look.

7 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

I am sure it is only a matter of time before somebody makes a comment that, in additional to being awful, those jellies are not high heels at all.. While this is true, it does not materially change the content or context of the discussion.

They are considered low block heels IIRC.

1 hour ago, Shyheels said:

I think a lot of this is conditioning - we’re, as in society at large, are not conditions to seeing men in heels and so when we do see it, it looks strange, unsettling. And we don’t like being unsettled. That very much colours our perceptions which are already burdened by the forbidden aspect of wearing heels.

I looked at myself in a full length mirror while wearing by stiletto boots, and if I looked objectively - setting aside all the issues associated with being a guy in heels, but just stuck to aesthetics - I couldn’t see a problem. I happen to be tall and with slender legs thanks to a lot of cycling, and if you were to take a photo of me from the waist down, in skinny jeans and in stiletto boots,  I would not raise an eyebrow. The assumption would be that this was a photo of a woman’s legs in stiletto boots. It’s only when we see that, no, it’s actually a guy that our censoriousness kicks in and says this shouldn’t be.

It’s the unease we don’t like, not the visuals

I hear this a lot being pushed in the new mainstream and it all seems rather forced and coerced. The mainstream now (media, colleges / universities etc) that this is all just a "social construct", but the reality is people are afraid to object publicly for fear of repercussions against them, they might lose their job, they might in some countries that don't have a first amendment protection get arrested (see how authoritarian the UK, Australia and New Zealand and some other parts of Europe are becoming).

The reality is that it isn't conditioning or cultural norms, if you look at ancient men wearing dresses and skirts you will see how different it is from men wearing womens clothes today. In ancient cultures where men wore such things it was made for them, it was cut for them, fabrics and materials for them, it was functional first and made for the male form, it wasn't trying to present an hourglass figure or be embellished with frills (except some strange period in Europe where mens shirts had lace trims which was short lived, but even still they were added to clothes cut for men) or really bold garish colours.

Womens clothes are designed to accentuate the qualities in women we like, such as the hour glass figure, the frills and lace exude a delicateness which pairs with the feminine ideal of lightness etc, but a man should not be delicate or light if he is to be attractive to women.

Clothing does exude certain properties that embody either the masculine or the feminine and when you mismatch it is visually apparent. Historical mens clothing that came in the form of dresses, skirts and such were made in a way to exude the properties of masculinity inline with the innovations of their time, mainly plain, bulky and kind of boxy in shape, and in no way trying to display an hourglass figure etc.

Same with heels, heels were originally invented for men for riding horseback to keep your feet in the stirrups, they were purely functional in nature. Over time some (definitely not all) men wore heels who were from upper class to signify that they are above the rest of society and their feet don't touch the mud but those men were generally regarded poorly by the rest of society, I cannot substantiate that but I do believe from what I read a while back they were a minority even amongst the upper class.

The thing is, they just don't make heels or dresses / skirts for men anymore (except for kilts) because they are not designed in a masculine way with the male figure in mind or are embelished in feminine ways. Getting society to make such things and go back to that way of doing things would be very difficult, you would have to basically dress in existing cultural attire to do this, such as the dresses worn by men in African or middle eastern countries or go back to dressing like a medieval age monk.

But if you take clothing and shoes designed for the female attributes, embelished with feminine attributes and wear it as a man it will always appear as contradictory to the norm in any society in any period of time throughout history.

On 5/19/2023 at 10:25 AM, mlroseplant said:

I sort of get it, but I must know, where on earth would you enjoy any of these? With what outfit would you ever wear them? And to what venue, other than possibly some sort of cosplay event?

Well for me personally I never cross dress in public, so it is irrelevant to me how to best pair them, I just enjoy them in the privacy of my home.

However I seen women wear these out all the time pairing them with skinny jeans or hot pants or even a dress or skirt. Here are some examples I found on image search of how other women are pairing them:

These are just a few examples I found that show it is a really versatile shoe that fits with many outfits and colour schemes for all kinds of occasions. It can be your casual "just going shopping" type shoe or something for going out for a casual meal / going down the pub, a BBQ party at a friends / family place. Just hanging with friends in a public place. It's very versatile because it just pairs with so many outfits so well and it works so well in many different settings.

A bug in the forum software for some reason stretches those images out horizontally, but if you click them then they open up in an overlay and there they look normal.

6 minutes ago, ohnoberty said:

🤣, thank you.

 

You remember that we cannot unsee this. We are scarred for life, i'm going to go and lie down.

Not me, I'd enjoy the heck out of those hahahaha

2 hours ago, ohnoberty said:

As per Jkrenzer, absolutely not.

And if anyone brings up Crocs, i'm leaving! 😉

16 hours ago, 5150PLB1 said:

Cheap and easy to wash for the off brands. The kind of shoes that a county jail would use for its inmates. 

LOL no way a jail would use shoes as nice as these. They always have bland looking slides made of the worst quality plastic, no high quality material, no fancy straps and definitely no vibrant colours or block heel haha.

1 hour ago, Cali said:

@WedgesAreFunyour comments sadden me. One's life shouldn't be a struggle and suffering.

This is life sadly, I have come to terms with it and just try to do the best I can. Maybe the next one will be more fun and more body-appropriate for such simple joys, who knows? For now I have decided to accept things as they are and make do as best I can with what I have been given.

1 hour ago, Cali said:

I have found a way to live as a man, but with softer clothes, more colorful clothes.  Don't limit your enjoyment.

Thanks, I wish I could enjoy softer clothes and express myself in such colorful ways but I have to weigh the costs and benefits. The way I see it the costs greatly outweigh the benefits. So I have decided to live my life in this way as it just isn't worth it.

On 5/7/2018 at 7:32 PM, Thighmax said:

When I see myself in the mirror I feel sexy and powerful and I really like the end product.  I don't intend on passing as a woman, just wearing all the clothing.  

Unfortunately, I have found that when I see other men wearing the clothes I use (there are quite a few pictures on Pinterest), the thought in my mind is that it really doesn't look good and that maybe I shouldn't be doing it. 

I feel exactly the same way. To my own eyes and mind it does not look right when I see other men wearing such things, yet I practice the same closeted activity myself in the privacy of my own home.

I am a hypocrite in this regard.

On 5/7/2018 at 7:32 PM, Thighmax said:

I don't know if it is part of accepting myself, but every so often all this makes me doubt myself and really question if I should keep going or just stop and don't use this type of clothing.  

I feel really good wearing them, I have given it a lot of thought to actually start wearing my clothing outside, but as you can understand, there is something really powerful (in my mind) stoping me from actually doing it.

This is why I keep it to a being just a closeted activity, I do not wish to present myself to the outside world in a way wherein I will be judged harshly and destroy my social standing among my peers. If I presented myself in womens clothing to the outside world I don't believe my peers or family would be wrong for judging me harshly when upon seeing my own reflection in the mirror.

On 5/7/2018 at 7:32 PM, Thighmax said:

I have gone to therapists and they have told me there is nothing wrong with all of it. 

It is easier for them to virtue signal about a life they don't or will not live themselves.

Reality is that the world is a harsh place and I am a realist. Life as a man is brutal but we do what we must, so we press on. Hats off to those brave enough to go against the grain, living their life for themselves and their own enjoyment, they have my respect for living as they please but I do not encourage it nor do I have any illusions that the world will EVER truly accept it even if the laws make such discrimination's illegal.

As a man life is a real struggle for me, it is suffering in silence, complaining does nothing but make others lose respect. The joys of being a man are few for me, but I will try to do my best to live my life as best as I can as man and get what enjoyment I can from my closeted activities within the sanctity of my home.

3 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

They are certainly not for me, as my feet started sweating just looking at the image of them.

Haha I find if you are freshly washed and you wear some light socks with them then they don't make your feet sweat at all, though if the climate is just right I can enjoy the heck out of them without socks and not really sweat (much) in them and really enjoy the sensation of the material on bare skin. I have a thing for rubber / latex / PVC etc anyway.

3 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

sandals with a lucite block heel, and usually a clear PVC upper strap. However, I've had no luck at finding just the right combination of heel shape and upper, and even if I did, I am sure that my feet would not like them.

Nice! Shoes with a PVC upper strap sound right up my alley.

One of the things I really love about womens shoes is the sensory aspect of the different materials wrapping my feet that you just cannot get in mens shoes except for maybe leather but in most cases mens shoes with leather souls are not intended to be worn without socks. Even then most mens shoes do not have leather materials on the inside (that are not the soul of the shoe). So for that reason I love womens shoes that I can wear bare foot with various inner materials, leather, latex, rubber, PVC, vinyl and various other plastic like / second-skin like materials.

I just absolutely adore jelly sandals, especially the JuJu jelly, block heels.

When I was a kid I really wanted to wear jelly sandals, many other kids my age were enjoying them and I could not stop thinking about how amazing they would feel on my feet. At those younger ages boys can wear jelly sandals so it would have been totally normal for me to be able to wear them. I often asked my mum to get me some but she would refuse saying how they will give my feet blisters. Now that I am a man in his thirties I cannot enjoy them out in public because jellies aren't socially acceptable for men sadly. Only children and adult women can enjoy jellies. The window of opportunity closed when I got into my teens  to enjoy them outdoors and I resent that my mother would not let me have that experience while I was at an age where it was socially acceptable to wear them.

These days I just enjoy them in the privacy of my own home.

I noticed a few years ago jellies came back into fashion big time with JuJu (the original jelly shoes company) setting a trend for those low block heel jelly sandals and I saw so many women enjoying them and I was so envious that I just had to get some for at home enjoyment. Since then I have bought many pairs in different colours, they are just so much fun.

Some awesome pictures of jellies

Don't these pink top ones just look totally awesome?

Things I really love about jellies is how the material feels on my bare feet, the creeky sounds of the jelly material as I wriggle my feet inside of them, their amazing colour choices. What is not to love about them?

Today I noticed that Primark has some new jellies that were on the mannequins in the display window, sadly they don't have a heel and I could not go into the store to look at them more closely, but the mannequin looked like an adult woman though sadly when I checked on the Primark website they are only listed in junior shoe sizes. Such a shame as they look super cute and I would love to add a pair to my shoe collection.

Any other fans of jellies here? Anyone ever find any more exotic takes on this particularly iconic shoe?

Show your jellies here if you have them!

IMHO, I believe they just really wanted to wear heels and try it in public but don't want to ever admit it to anyone so they hide behind the veil of "journalism" and "hating it". As long as they can say negative things about the experience they can hide their true feelings and avoid any accusations. They can always write it off as just doing "journalism" or a "social experiment".

Hi.

I am an enjoyer of wearing heels and have been since my teens, I am in my mid 30's now and still get the occasional joy out of wearing them. My heel enjoying activities are by and large a closeted at home activity only, though I have on only one occassion worn a pair of those ever so popular JuJu jelly block heels out and about for a walk with shoe covers over them late at night so no one would even know that I was wearing them (a lot of fun).

My favorite heels are wedges and shoes made of exotic materials like rubber, PVC, latex etc. I really enjoy the sensory nature of those more exotic materials. I also really enjoy strappy sandals and wedges made with cork as the base and lastly shiny platform boots are a must.

For me, shoes made with more exotic materials sensory thing and heels are just very comfortable. Such a nice way to spend a relaxing evening or weekend.