CrushedVamp

I am just not a barefoot guy. A few years ago I was on a hike and my hiking boots were really giving me blisters, enough so I wanted to take them off. We were on a hike where the trail wound through the woods, but a slight walk away and you could take a paved road. I took off my boots and socks and started to hike barefoot down the paved roadway... on a day that it was not hot out and overcast, and even with cool pavement it was too rough for me to do barefoot. It was bad enough that I put my boots and socks back on and that was with blisters. My ex-wife, she would go barefoot anywhere and everywhere. I remember once on a New Years Eve night, her heels hurting her feet so much that she went barefoot. That included the walk to the car. I remember it well because there was snow on the ground and -20 below zero (F). Yes... THAT cold and she only had pantyhose on as she walked out to the car. Another time we were pouring concrete, and yep; off come her shoes and barefoot she went right into the concrete. A feat considering the caustic nature of concrete.

Okay, so walking on grating can be difficult, as could walking across a lawn after a four-inch rain, a sandy beach in high heels would be tough, but what about 4000 feet above a valley while walking across a slackline? 🙂 I realize this is an old video, but I did numerous searches on this site for "slacklining" and was surprised it had not been discussed before. I routinely work at height, but not at 4000 feet, nor are we allowed to walk the transmission lines, at best a ride in a helicopter, but most days just on aierial lifts. I cannot fathom walking the high-tension lines at all, much less in high heels.

The problem here in the United States would be, not so much a police officer as it would be an opposing attorney. For just driving barefoot or in high heels... no, nothing would ever be said about it, or a fine levied. However, if you were to be in an auto accident and say someone was killed. If you were to be driving without shoes, or wearing high heels, there is a greater likelihood that the victim's family would use that as a determining factor at making you culpable. Especially if they had nothing else to pin their death on you for. Here we call it "leverage". The opposing attorney finds you did something outside the norm for driving, then would use that in a court of law to sway the jury. Most likely it would never get that far. It would be leverage used in mediation, but ultimately the car insurance carrier would cave and pay out the settlement.

I first ran into it when I was talking with a truck driver and he said he was pulled over by the Weigh Wagons (police for trucks) and was told to get out of the truck. He said he went scrambling for his shoes because it was against the law to drive without shoes on. It was the first I had ever heard of a law prohibiting it. Later, as I researched the validity of what he said, I realized that it was untrue, but a VERY common thought. In the United States anyway, the Supreme Court has ruled that your vehicle gives you the same rights as your home. There are a lot of rights that are bundled with that, but one surprising one is that it is perfectly legal to be naked inside your car. Yep, no joke. Castle Doctrine also applies.

Oh so much fun. The novel I am working on now is also from the 1920's. The second of a trilogy but about an aviatrix of that era. She is not a flapper herself, but there are many in the novel... much to my main character's dismay. But like all of my novels, it is an allegory. I have written a few historical fiction novels and find them enjoyable to write. Challenging, but enjoyable in their own right.

Just as a follow-up, I did finish that novel and was able to rework some of the high-heel elements to it. It was not that hard. Having written 18 novels, one thing I do in all of them is have easter eggs. That is a literary term where a writer plants obscure hidden elements in a novel for readers to discover. All my novels have five easter eggs in them with one being a cheesy line. This harkens to the 1980’s where all movies had one, like: “don’t bring a knife to a gun fight”, “I’ll be back”. “Go ahead, make my day”. For this novel, being a real estate novel, it was, “hey, I close deals in heels”. Ultimately the story between the real estate agent and the code enforcement officer ended up being a convoluted one where the two had a relationship seven years prior. The result of that was a child together that was killed with the novel actually dealing with how the two dealt so differently from the grief of that loss. High heels did not play a huge role in this novel, but it had its place. A hobby aviator as well as a real estate agent, the main character’s brand… her way of differentiating herself from other realtors was in always wearing high heels and a fascinator, gleaning the look from her great-grandmother, and aviatrix from the 1920’s. A few times, because she always wore high heels things did not go smoothly for her, but then a few times, wearing them certainly did. Currently on this site there is a discussion about driving in high heels, well in this novel she was flying a helicopter in them!! Focusing here on the high heels aspect of it, it may not sound like it, but it is one of my best novels. Out of 18 novels written so far, I would put it at number four. Thanks for everyone's help on this site in letting me achieve that!!

I realize some of your notations and questions quoted are rhetorical in nature, and rightfully so. I am just not convinced there is an exact fit for all people and all types of feet. I am in no way being argumentative with you here as it seems for me harder insoles… whether added or are part of the original shoe itself, works better for me too. It’s counterintuitive I know, but harder insoles are more comfortable for many of us it seems. That is why it is frustrating to see the latest insole mindset by shoe manufacturers to be in having built-in pillows on everything. Well... maybe for some types of people and types of feet, but certainly not all. Being an online chatroom where we talk about shoes, I am probably not alone in this, but I am just NOT a barefoot guy, at least not outside. My ex-wife would and could work in a broken glass factory barefoot all day and not be uncomfortable, and was forever barefoot, while I could not walk across a mattress warehouse without wincing. But nonetheless my house is a shoeless house. There are other reasons for that, but my podiatrist said it is best to have proper foot support even at home and to wear supportive slippers, so I bought some but can’t seem to get used to wearing them in the house. I am not sure if that is detrimental to me or not, but at our house shoes come off at the door and its either socks or bare feet after that.

My story with pedicure’s began similar to @Logjam with the exception that my ingrown toenail was caught early enough so no surgery was needed, just needed to be dealt with properly. Her prescription was literally to go to a nail salon and have them take care of the issue. As a convincer for me she told me that her boyfriend went with her every six weeks and that she thought all men should have it done. So I went, because I literally had too, but found other benefits while there. I found out I had been cutting my toenails all wrong like for all of my life which prevents another ingrown toenail, but the nail salon where my wife and I now go does a hot rock calf massage with hot towel wrap along with the pedicure. This really helps with the problems in my right achilles tenon, but certainly that helps my left one too. For us, it is now a six-week husband and wife thing that has massage built in along with other practical benefits. I just don’t have color applied as she does, but maybe the next time I will.

I am not a fan of the look, but I am a person that tends to like contrast, but not just in dress, but on many fronts. When my wife wears a black skirt with white top as the saying says, "Black and White is always right". Red boots merging into red pants or leggings of some sort? Why? If you are going to wear red boots, why make them disappear? Be proud of what you are wearing. Make a statement, but again, that is just me. As for the main premise of the article? I am not sure. There seems to be a lot of marketing here in the USA anyway about sweating lately. Many companies now make whole body deodorant. The body wash I have used for years suddenly says it has five functions with whole body deodorizing being just one of the benefits. Whether they changed the product or not, I am not sure, but I never smelled before, so I am not concerned with it now. I do have to wonder if all the antibacterial soap is setting society up for a really bad back-bite though??? As for celebrities being more open about sweating issues? I don't know. I live a boring life and do not get up on stage before 10,000 animated fans and try to entertain while enough lights are shining on me as I dance or act that is more powerful than the sun. If they are trying to think saying so brings them down to my level... which, by the way, is so low I have to reach up to touch whale turds... they are wrong. I sweat, but they would not do what I do as I am, that is for sure.

That is not so surprising to me. As a hobby woodworker I once read an article about a man who married a woman from the Netherlands, and he researched and got into making wooden shoes like from her home country, and said they were extremely comfortable to wear. I think my insoles are comfortable because they are so supportive. They are made of hard plastic but really support my high arches. My Sketchers have ads on TV about stepping in pillows because of the memory foam they are made of, but I wholeheartedly disagree. One of my bucket list items is to make a homemade pair of high heels for my wife, but I have yet to do it.

One thing crazy thing that persists here in the United States anyway, is that is that it is against the law to drive barefoot… or at least without shoes, and that is actually false. None of the fifty states have such a law so I guess driving in heels or taking them off really does not matter here. Now, it is possible that if you are in an accident and driving barefoot you could be cited for “driving to endanger”, but with a pair of high heels kicked off there is no culpability since it could be said driving with them on would have been just as bad, or worse I would think??? But what NO ONE should ever do is put their feet up on the dash while riding in a moving vehicle… especially barefoot. Take a look at some pictures of people who have done that, and it is clear they will never walk again.

I kind of have a thing for statistics and I am finding out slowly that there are a lot of men doing things you would never guess that they would be doing, like getting manicures. As far as I can tell that statistic is around 5%. To put that another way, for every hundred men you meet on a giving day, five… unbeknownst to anyone… statistically has had a professional pedicure. Which I find interesting. I hesitate to share this because it is personal and weird I know, but because my wife and I like to swim competitively, I dislike body hair and so I shave… like from the neck down and have for years, but I know that is weird. Well, I recently found out… maybe not so much. About 15% of men do. 66% of men shave one particular area that I won’t describe in detail obviously, but the rest of their bodies, fifteen men out of a hundred fully shave. Not a huge amount granted, but who knows, maybe the trend will become mainstream? I do know this, seeing the numbers helps. Since the average urbanite sees about 360 people day, you can quantify the numbers. Assuming a 50% gender split, that means out of 180 men seen per day, 9 of those have had pedicures, and a whopping 27 fully shave. Suddenly I don’t seem so weird.

11 CM is still a lot of heel! We switch who drives quite often, but when she is in heels I just tend to be the one who drives. Not to sound sexist in any way, but on dinner dates and in going to church, I will be chivalrous and go around and get the door for her. I know Prince Philp once said, "When a man opens a car door for his wife, it's either a new car or a new wife." But that does not work so well for me. We dress up because we like how it makes us feel, and making her feel special by opening her car door when she is dressed up is not an afront to me. I do not have any sons, my only son passed away, but all five of my daughters can curtsey. THAT is something that is VERY rare on this side of the pond, but we have tried to instill a little class in our daughters. Had I had a son, I would do the same... well... maybe not having him give curtseys, but by opening his girlfriend's car door and other chivalrous behavior. :-)

I am never a person to pry into anyone's past but I would like to hear how you got started, even if it is a rather long explanation. I have been ahead of the curve on a few male trends, doing some things for a long time long before it was widely accepted that men do them. But on some other things I admit I am timid. The atypical male I guess who wishes things would change like men’s attire that is completely boring, but yet hoping others pave the way to make it mainstream. The problem with that fear of course, is that with so many people like me holding back; nothing changes, or at the very least… changes very slowly. I remember on a episode of Dirty Jobs where they were pouring concrete and the big burly foreman of the crew had to change from his rubber boots to his leather boots and when he did, his sock stayed inside the boot and the man had bright red painted toes. He was called out on it, but the guy did not care and owned up to it even if it was going to be on national TV.

My wife can drive in her everyday heels, and by that, I mean the ones that are 3-1/2 inch or so in height. I have seen her do it a few times when going to church or special functions but it is a pretty rare occasion. Most of the time it’s a place we are going together like church, a dinner-date, or some outing and it’s just more common for me to drive. If she does drive in heels, it is because for some reason we had to take two vehicles. I am not sure with her taller heels if she could safely drive, or more to the point, she would FEEL as though she could safely drive. She would probably just take them off. I do not wear high heels so I am not sure if I could or not. I would test my ability but while I do not have big feet per se, I can’t wear her shoes. But everything we have for vehicles has automatic transmissions of some kind even the skidders, bulldozer, tractors… yep, everything we have.

I remember once she bought a pair of high heels she liked so much, that even though they were not in her size, she bought the closest ones to fit, a full-size more than she normally wore. To make them fit she put some heel-pads on the back of her pumps and had to have 2 of them stacked up to make the shoes fit. But that's my wife: she loves high heels!

My wife can drive in heels, but I am not sure that I could. Here in the United States it is rare now to see a manual transmission car, and even for big trucks, a manual transmission is getting harder to find. I grew up on trucks with two shifters, (Mack's suicide shift) up to 18 gears, and deep reduction and split rear-ends, but now if a company wants to get a truckdriver, since about half cannot drive manual a transmission trucks, they buy automatics so half the truckdriver applicants won't leave for a different company. Many truckdrivers just refuse to drive manual transmission trucks now. Sad!

Or what you are passionate about. I am struggling with writers block now but its because I am in just a stressful place in my life. Not altogether angering; it is of my own choosing as we switch from life on a river to island life full-time. We shall see what new employment brings for me at our new location. My wife has a new job but not so much for me.

This may, or may not apply to you because you seem to see a connection in wearing high heels and calf pain exclusively, but earlier someone mentioned magnesium. Well... Totally unrelated, but I was talking with my nutritionist and as she was going over my diet she just asked a simple question, "you must get calf cramps a lot?" I was like, "Oh my gosh, all the time and debilitating ones too". She shrugged it off as if it was nothing and explained why she knew. "You have zero potassium in your diet". She was not wrong. I am not a huge fan of V-8 Juice, but it is loaded with potassium so now I drink half a bottle a day of it and my debilitating calf pain is completely gone. So for whatever it is worth, for you or others, potassium intake is something to look into.

She did teach me a very important lesson though because in the past 47 years I have never once poked a birthday cake to see if it was hot! And I am not scared of rats and know the right way to use garden hoses. 🙂 But all kidding aside, having been in a foster home I know of foster siblings who put up with a whole lot worse than me. I won't go into details, but many would turn your stomach. As a writer, many of my mainstream novels include foster or adopted children. Not for added drama for plot purposes but because its a situation near and dear to my heart.

This is not a great photo as I cropped it out to just a pair of my wife in high heels, but one of her "everyday" high heels. This is typical of her preferred style and taken when we were in the kitchen of our church one day. What I have noticed though is that unlike some peep-toed shoe designs, it seems she likes a peep-toe that is much smaller than some. For instance, hers typically show only 2-1/2 toes whereas some peep-toe designs expose 3-4 toes. I wonder if this causes the toe box to close in squeezing the sides of her feet more??? Keds, by their very design are just super thin and always have been and wearing them my wife always wears arch supports in them. But the trend I am noting now with other sneakers is, a huge push for memory foam for insole construction. I am not sure that is a good trend though. I have had huge problems with my feet and was surprised that having a hard plastic ach support ended up being the answer for me and not super-soft, ineffectual add-in insoles. I use Super-Feet insoles for instance and have used them for 15 years or more. The ones I use cannot be worn with most high heels granted, but I think they have a style that is specifically for high heels if I remember correctly. Either way, I just found out for me stepping on a softer pillow like memory foam does not work better for me.

I second NOT waiting for knee surgery. I limped on mine for a year and a half, never really it being a good time for me, and that did a lot more damage. It also prolonged my recovery, which as I said earlier was six months. I was 42 years old when they said I was too young for a knee replacement. I was told it is how they cut off your femur to pin in the replacement knee, but it would wear out, and I would need another one. They can do that operation twice, but the knee wears out in 20 years. They cannot do it three times because the femur would then be too short. I have had severe plantar fasciitis in the past, but my current job keeps me in a chair more, but I am so afraid it will crop up again. That is because this is my last week at my current job so what I do next is anyone's guess, so being on my feet more concerns me. It was really painful in the past.

I was mostly concerned with coworkers seeing my colorized toes, but your poignant point was not lost on me either. What is the chances of that really happening, and if my wife wants something so simple, why not appease her? Without question it is an excuse of MINE that I fully own. You are right, I should call her bluff.

This is not surprising as my wife says something similar. It is almost ironic but the Keds she wears often, (picture several posts ago in this very thread) and keeps as backup shoes, hurt her feet if she does not wear arch supports in those kinds of shoes. The flatness of them is almost worse than some of her high heels. Most of the time with her high heels, her foot pain comes from the vamp pressing on the sides of her toes in being pitched forward. When standing for long bouts of time, heel pain comes from the ball of her foot.

Not sure why I missed this thread until now, but I did. In any case I am empathetic on this as I have Achilles Tennon issues myself. For me... and I wonder if this may be part of your issue... it has to do with my knees. Yes, no joke! I need a knee replacement on my right knee but I am too young for it yet. So, I had minor surgery done to it in 2017, but after 6 months I was not recovering from the surgery. Then an occupational therapist decided to try something, she did massage therapy on my Archilles Tennon and it helped alleviate the issue and I could go back to work. I guess the tenons stretch from your ankle and then go around each side of the knees. For me anyway, with no ligaments in the knee to hold my foot in alignment, it strains my Archilles Tennon. Then, and now even, if I massage that tenon it helps with my foot/knee pain. For me I need this about once a week, something I can do, but my wife also helps massage too. Learning this has helped me a lot, but it also comes with a truth. With medical stuff people will often think that what is wrong with THEM automatically equates to YOU, and I am in NO WAY saying that. For me anyway, just the way my Archilles Tennon plays out, affects my feet and knee. You actually see it in my foot prints. On sand or snow, my left foot is straight ahead, but with my right, since I have no ligaments in my knee, it cannot hold my foot straight so it pulls to the right. Literally, my right foot walks duck-footed, or my footprint on my right side is splayed out at a 45 degree.