kikepa

Wow. I hope HIH's response is reposted for many years. It's one hell of well-written comment, perhaps of of the best I've ever seen here on this forum. I'm very appreciative of his comments, and am working on a response. He put a lot of thougut into it, in fact a very huge amount of thought, time and effort into his reply to my post.

Yes, sometimes. It has a lot to do with how I feel at the time.

It's nice to be able to come back to a place where I can say what's on my heart without others freaking out. Today, I've been in 4" heels since 6am. It's now 9:23pm. What I really like about this place is that no-one here would ever freak out about this! Or the fact that I'm wearing not-men's clothing. That's really not the major issue, though. I was ill over the last two weeks. Simple listeria, if I'm not mistaken. The symptoms fit. Meanwhile, Mom and Dad think I've been drinking again. If I were, however, I'd either be very much more ill than I was, or dead. On to better news... For the last couple of years I've tried to change the world. Unfortunately, the world has not embraced men wearing heels, nor have they pulled their heads out of their butts when it comes to politics. Back to high heels: Are we approaching this in the wrong way? Instead of trying to go over the top, perhaps fashion designers should stop trying so hard and should take a more palatable route. Not so much guys wearing 4" heels down fasion runways. Perhpas 2" heels.

hell, I've even come to like wearing flats because they're nice shoes to wear with a denim skirt as part of an overall casual weekend outfit. In the past, I thought first about the shoes and what clothes to wear with them, today, I think first about skirts and what shoes to wear with them, that's how much I've evolved, that the shoes come second.

I've occasionally gone hiking in my Utilikilt or Macabi skirt. Turns some heads, but who cares?

This raises an important question: Does my current philosophy as a fashion freestyler mean I've evolved beyond the tenets of high heel love as exposed here at HHPlace?

I think the tenets being espoused here run the gamut, and certainly seem to me to cover any and all reasons, including both the reasons you began heeling as well as why you're still heeling.

There are so many negative repercussions of violating societal norms that no, I would not encourage my children to do so. I would always, however, love them for who they are, and stand by their choices, within reason.

I'm glad that he used the word tolerate and not accept. For me, there is a huge difference, which most members of this forum probably fail to appreciate. Bear in mind that I write this as an outsider to the desires or beliefs of most members of this board, in that I have no interest in wearing heels myself or in seeing men in heels. When I joined, this was Jenny's site and the focus was on women wearing high heels, not men.

I agree, Richy. For me, the word "tolerate" means to put up with something undesirable. I'll tolerate a baby crying, for example, even if I find it incredibly annoying. Whether that child is mine or someone else's is immaterial, as baby's cannot help but cry.

Acceptance goes a step further. In my mind, the difference is one of affiliation, that one has crossed the line and bought into that which they only previously tolerated. I tolerate a great many things which I find undesirable, but I only accept those things which I believe are good, moral, just, right, or true.

It is generally regarded in this "enlightened" age, that even if you don't accept something, you do not speak out on it.

Hmm... More on this in a minute.

Given the chance to comment privately or anonomously however, such as in response to newspaper articles covering stories such as heels for men, the overwhelming reaction is negative, suggesting that while tolerance may be the norm, acceptance of the behaviour is in fact quite low.

I know it has been argued many times that history has shown that it is possible to change society attitudes and many refer to the acceptance of women wearing mens attire, such as trousers as being the prime example. The difference is, that in the case of women wearing trousers it took a world war and the fact that women were suddenly propelled into an abnormal working enviroment to replace the men, which brought about that change. It was for practical reasons, not any sort of fashion statement or self fulfillment.

This is why, from my own perspective, there will never be a general acceptance of the sort of fashion reversal that many members of this board wish for, or even perceive to be the case. By all means keep on doing what you are doing if it makes you feel happy, providing that it doesn't hurt or embarrass anyone else such as your partner, but don't set your sights on it becoming the norm.

I tend to agree, if for no other reason than the fake that most men don't want to wear heels. If they did, they would.

Back to your point:

It is generally regarded in this "enlightened" age, that even if you don't accept something, you do not speak out on it. Indeed, in the UK, you can be fined for doing so, if the words or actions used can be deemed "likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress". Society has been conditioned, often by legislation, to be tolerant of most things outside of the home. Therefore, when asked if the general public tolerate such behaviour as males wearing female attire of any description in public, the perception of those who do so is that the public couldn't care less.

Here in the US, you can be fined for trying to squash free speech. Just people have the right to wear what they want, so also do people have the right to speak their mind, even if others find it "offensive" or "alarming." Indeed, Wikipedia defines political correctness as "language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts, and, as purported by the term, doing so to an excessive extent."

We have no problem with laws which support a polite society, providing they stop short of infringing upon our rights as a free people. Given enough people, there will be one or more who find all sorts of things offensive or alarming. Just because one or more people find something offensive or alarming does not give them the right to infringe upon the rights of the individual who they believe is behaving in an offensive or alarming manner.

Take firearms, for example. It's legal to own a firearm in all 50 of our United States. It's legal to openly carry a firearm in 44 of states, and only 15 states require a permit for open carry.

Do some people find it offensive? Yes. Are some people alarmed at the sight of a firearm? Absolutely. Does the fact that some people are offended or alarmed give them any right to tread on the rights of those who carry a firearm? No!

Now, there are some things you cannot do with a firearm. For example, you cannot brandish it, which means carrying it in your hand in a threatening manner. That's illegal. You cannot discharge it in most municipalities, with the sole exceptions of firing it at a shooting range or using it in self-defense.

No, we do not make things illegal simply because they're "alarming" or "offensive," and that includes free speech. I'm aware of several popular message forums that'll ban you outright for violating the unwritten rules of political correctness. Fortunately for us, their microcosms aren't the norm.

I think it looks ridiculous. I've made some of my own furniture, but I'd never make it out of cardboard. Wouldn't wear heels of cardboard, either.

I could run for a short distance, but it's more like a fast shuffle than a run.

indeed,pickings have been sparse there lately indeed.

That's because some knucklehead, er, "entrepreneur" keeps buying up their size 12 and 13 stock and selling it on eBay for 30% more.

That ok, but Payless is too stupid to make more in the larger sizes to keep up with the demand. Their production numbers are generated by the dispersion of female foot sizes, not demand.

The answer to this question is "absolutely."

There are a myriad of problems associated with wearing high heels, including hammertoes, bunions, neuromas, corns, calluses, tight heel cords, metartarsalgia, stress fractures.

But the problems caused by high heels doesn't stop there. When your foot is put in an unnatural position, somewhat to slightly different ares of your knees, hips, and even your backs are put into slightly different positions, and areas of the bones, cartilage, and tendons which never evolved to take that stress are now thrust into the limelight, resulting in conditions which, left untreated, will only worsen, often to the point of permanency, and sometimes to the point of permanent disability.

Does this mean this will happen to all of us if we keep wearing heels? Not necessarily. Some of us would develop feet problems if we did nothing but walk barefoot on the sand and through grassy fields. Others of us will be able to wear heels until we're in our 90s.

Many of you will respond to this saying, "I've been wearing 4", 5", and even 6" heels for years and my feet are just fine!" The only thing that proves is that you're either an exception to the norm, so pat yourself on the back and consider yourself lucky, if not abnormal, or that you're fibbing to yourself and the rest of us.

Eventually, however, all of us will suffer at least some consequences of our heel-wearing.

Don't count on the docs to patch you up, either. Most of the consequences involve various forms of bone and tissue growth abnormalities. While reconstructive surgery is an option, it's expensive and never as "good as new" as avoiding the injury or condition in the first place.

The best defense is a good offense, and the best way to avoid these problems is to avoid wearing heels. Obviously, those of us here aren't going to do that, but we can do the next best thing: Limit our wear of heels to less than 1/3rd of our time on our feet, and get plenty of exercise and sound nutrition while flat-footed.

Exercise: Get your heart rate up to around 85% of your max (220-age) for half an hour at a time, three times per week. Walking while wearing a properly fit and flat athletic shoe will do wonders. I live in Colorado, so hike one trail or another at least once a week for an hour or two.

Nutrition: Skip processed foods and stick to fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, some dairy, and a moderate amount of lean meats, and make sure you eat one or more helpings of all of the following foods each week, as they're well-known among nutritionists for their ability to fight a wide range of diseases and conditions: carrots, beans (red/kidney/pinto), broccoli, dandelion, spinach, red cabbage, kale, kiwi, cherries, guavas, watercress, onions (shallots / yellow).

Supplements: Most herbal supplements are bunk, but taking a well-known, peer-reviewed vitamin, such as GNC's Men's Mega once a day will help round out those nutritional deficiencies all of us are missing in our diets. It won't correct crappy nutrition, though, so please pay attention to that!

I alternate heels and flats, and the heels I wear aren't higher than 3 to 3.5 inches, so my lower leg and foot muscles and tendons don't seem to be any the worse for wear.

Smart man! The rest of us should follow his lead.

And mine. If you don't think this works, think again -- I hike 14ers, for fun!

It works.

Would you cats still buy womens shoes if they made guys heels that were sexy?

Probably not, although if that were the case, who'd know the difference?

Note to mods: All the previous links point to Flickr photos, but the service says the pics aren't available. As for me, last night I purchased some heeled boots from Payless, same ones as in my avatar.

I spent over two thousand dollars on heels in the last 3 months.

Yes, you do need a budget - it took me thirty years to spend $2,000 on heels, so slow down!

As for storage, how I store them depends on who I expect to have over. When it's just myself, they come out and I store them in hanging cloth shoe racks, attached to my clothes hanger bar. When I've guests, who might see that, I sometimes hang a sheet over them, but when nosy relatives come to visit, I put them away in a duffle bag.

It doesn't matter whether one is a guy or a girl. I don't think it's visually appealing to see pants tucked into boots, and it doesn't matter whether the boots are ankle, calf, knee, or thigh high. Now a lass wearing calf/knee or thigh-high boots in a skirt is cute! I think what makes that work is when the skirt is about two inches higher than the top of the boot. When it gets down to ankle boots, though, skirts don't seem to work any more, and a return to a long pair of jeans is best.

Do you find them easier to walk in than thick chunky heels?

Yes. Thick heels never seem to hit the floor right. They're always trying to rock my ankle further in or out than where it wants to be. That's not a problem with stilettos.

When men bare areas of their bodies (chests, arms, and legs), hair is there. When women began baring areas of their bodies, it began with their upper chests, where there's no hair. The discongruity of spotting a rug around the female ankle was...

Wow, hope the horse is okay. lol

Yikes, Dr. Shoe! Lol, shafted...

When I read the title of this thread, I thought there was a place or type of supermarket called a "Hypermarket" where we heelers were going on a regular basis. I was looking forward to it!

What is your opinion?

Steve

My opinion is that when you said, " I am a male, happily married, dress in male mode, and I have a narrow foot, so women's shoes fit me better than men's. My wife is fine with it and says guys can look good in the right shoes, even if they're intended for women. Thank you Aerosoles!", your review departed boundaries most people expect from a review, and the negative votes were all "Eww!" - factor.

As your review was quite precise, those people who don't care one way or another were able to objectively give you a thumbs up.

My family simply doesn't know. When I shared my heeling with my ex, she flipped out, couldn't disassociate the concepts of transvestism from homosexuality, and we had a few rocky years before it ended in divorce. In the last few years she's come to a better understanding, but still can't bring herself to pick up where we left off. Too much baggage, and she's one of those who drags bagged with her throughout life.

As I re-read the OP title, I thought this could be taken two ways. The first time I wore heels was before K, but the first time I wore my heels, i.e. heels which I owned, bought and paid for with my own dollars, was in college. I was deathly afraid my roommate would find them and what trouble that might cause. I later found out he was gay, but I still didn't share with him my preference for heels.

They're good people, but I haven't had much luck with quality shoes which properly fit my feet. Their Fioni line is the exception, and I have half a doze Fioni heels I've purchased from them over the last several years. All of them fit well.

I got two pairs which are (in my opinion) more girly looking than others.

They are both girly but I think the wedge sandals are more feminine looking.

I agree. The stilletos are still feminine, but there's a lot of "power" designed into those. I have a similar pair of stilettos, low platform on a peep toe bootie.

I went through the password reset utility and received a failure message, but I received an e-mail anyway, which allowed me to reset my password, so here I am!

Two other errors worth noting:

1. My avatar fails to show. I've gone through the crop adjustment, and it still fails. Could be it's set to something less than 100x100 pixels. If so, that's an easy change.

2. I can't find the feature which allows me to view pages in reverse chrono order. Having the oldest post pop up isn't fun, and not being able to reset the order is a huge turn-off.

ETA: The inability to display threads in RCO is particularly problematic for longer threads, such as the 960+ post threads like the one kneehighs did.

Round Toe, small platform, 4in high block heel up to a size 13US. quite like these.

What do you think, would like good under jeans.

http://www.payless.c...playName=Womens

Just bought a pair of these yesterday!

Until I can fix my old avatar, these are now my new avatar. I might just wait until they arrive, snap another picture in front of my guitar, at which point I'll have another avatar.

I have at least twice as many pairs of women's shoes as men's shoes, yet I've worn through several pairs of men's shoes. I've yet to wear out a pair of women's shoes. That's sort of difficult when I stay on the carpet.