Operation:" WALK THE WALK"

[HappyinHeels]

Hey All, (get cumfy in that chair and put your heels up)

Did some thinking about something HiStiletto and malinheels have said and then I did something different to back up their point. I recently posted a picture with the link for a wedge shoe called "MONA" I just had purchased from Bakers on Wednesday the 29th in Milwaukee from a sales girl named "Michelle". Today, after work, I put on that shoe and went into Bakers and Michelle absolutely beamed when she saw that I was wearing the shoes she had sold me just 48 hoursearlier. This smoking-hot girl asked to give me a hug and I gave her one. I think she was genuinely honored I did it. The store manager, Jen, later told me, also beaming, that she had never seen me actually wearing the many shoes I had bought over the past 2.5 years. While she is glad I help her bottom line she seemed quite impressed that I was not living in the shadows but walking the walk and enjoying the product she works hard to sell. My gesture had the desired effect. Imagine this gesture multiplied by hundreds in many places in many cities worldwide. I went there to purchase another shoe not currently on their website but which looks like this:

http://www.heels.com/womens-shoes/angel-lina-black-suede.html

I tried it on again and bought it. There were other women in the store and nothing but nirvana ruled the air. Malinheels wondered," how could we get the message out about men and heels and the desire to do our own thing?" I checked the number of views this thread and it was 454 as of 2200CDST or 0300 GMT 2 JUL 2011 when I wrote this piece. That's 454 people who viewed this all over the world. I passed half this number of people in just the 30 minutes it took for me to walk from my car into Mayfair Mall, past all the stores to the Bakers store, the customers in the store, and then the people I passed on the way out. One guy on one day for one transaction, over 200 people could have seen me. The shoes were not open-toe and were perhaps exposed for only the bottom inch or so as this is my home area. The point is I did it my way. I wore their product right into their store in order to buy another shoe. No problems, no drama.

As HiStiletto said, we ARE the worst defenders of what we most want to do. The mathematics are just not there if your only audience is this site. If everyone viewing this, or who goes on this site to read or contribute or both, gets off their duff and straps themselves into the heels of their choice and wears them into the shoe store of your choice then your fashion choice AS A HUMAN BEING has been beamed to many more people than would otherwise be possible. If everyone who wants to wear heels does it, guys and girls alike, then heels will be a normal part of the background all over the world. I realize we always hear about the limitations we must concern ourselves with but the stark truth is this; girls already know when they are hooked on shoes and it is about time we men who buy the same shoes realize we are also hooked on them and do not wish to change our ways. These feelings and desires to express ourselves through shoes will never leave us...it is our personal identity and it cannot be suppressed indefinitely. Look closely at the number of shoes you have and ask yourself how many days, or hours, of personal enjoyment have you had wearing those shoes outside the confines of your home? My message for you all who are thinking and pondering is that you will be forever frustrated and, are not helping the cause if we'll call it that, by sitting on the sidelines and in the shadows. My task for you is to grab a hold of your identity and demand to be counted. One who lives in the shadows cannot hope to achieve respect. I'm not saying we all put on cropped skinny jeans with brightly-colored toes in six-inch heels and strut our stuff but I am saying we had A L L better get out there and start "walking the walk". I have done a decent amount of winter heeling and wore open-toe sandals out West in May. The experience was great and nothing bad happened. Even if it did I have been known to drop an f-bomb in the blink of an eye. Many many of us live in countries with enormous amounts of personal freedom but we erect our own prisons inside our heads and then wonder what's wrong with the world. The world is too busy to notice one person unless that person exudes confidence or really catches their attention. Confidence comes from within either engendered through upbringing, religious beliefs, or the company we keep or all of these. To not pursue that which is of utmost importance in our own mind is sheer lunacy. To expect a different result after doing things the same way is insanity. A return to 1970's-inspired shoes and now heels here and there designed for men?? This is an amazing time to be alive. This is our time. Now go out there and take it!!!!!!!

I want to hear stories of those who have been afraid and what you did and what you learned from it. I also want to hear from the veterans like Jeff B., thighbootguy, roniheels and all the others. Every day is a learning experience. The biggest room in the house is always the room for improvement. This is a good website because it makes us think. Maybe now it will help all of us to grow.

HappyinHeels

[mtnsofheels]

Greetings HappyinHeels, I agree on your point of view and fully support your interest in seeing more stories about the process of fear and healing. I too have suffered from the fear of heeling in public which has pushed me to the point decision "heel or not to heel" It took me many years and much consultation with self to finally to just do it. It took death of close ones to realize that life is way to short to worry about what may happen or not. So I just put the boots on and went out the door. I have been wearing what I like in heels for years now and plan to wear them as much as I can. With practical things in life, most people wear shoes with heels when it is appropriate just not every breathing moment.( I would like to but winter and what I do for work it does not work) But the tipping point with self and finally doing what we want to is huge, just do it! This website has helped gain the confidence to do so-believe in it! Now in life we can only gain from anything we do, we do it for ourselves not for others, I have been so happy to finally wear the boots I want to in public and be myself, comments have come and mostly postive. Negative comments come in all parts of life, like driving on the freeway/hwy everyday but we still continue to drive don't we. Negative comments should not stop us from being who we are. New motto should be "Panic, Fear and Heeling" a path to Self Fulfillment! I look forward to seeing stories from many of us here, as we are doing and dealing with what is comparable to LGBT movement of years ago. Good job in stimulating this frame of thought, look forward to more stories. Mtnsofheels

[StormClaw]

I agree HappyinHeels.If we want society to be more accepting we need to be more open.Society will get used to seeing men in heels,at this point it is unusaul to see a man in heels. This site gave me a lot of courage to heel in public.But unfortunately sometimes my courage fails me.And the fact,theres a lot of people that knows my parents,and my parents doesnt know about my love of heels.Although I susspect they might,they havent said anything yet.So that keeps me back a bit. But do know this,when I wear my boots in public,I enjoy every damn minute

[roniheels]

HappyinHeels,

Congratulations on your recent venture. I definitely relate to how you feel. Your reactions are similar to every single man who proudly wears high heels in public. You are so right, it isn't a matter of "flaunting" it, it is a matter of wearing high heels and outfits that you are comfortable wearing in public or just wearing everyday. The more times out you experience and share those experiences with the community, the initial feeling is exhilarating, then it is simply a feeling of satisfaction. When you make contact with a sales person as you did and continue purchase from that same person, only positive things can occur in the future. And, as I have said in several posts, I enjoy every single reaction I receive from everyone who views me in high heels. The more we all get out and enjoy the freedom of dressing as prefer, including high heels, the more we spread the word to be yourself, express yourself, and enjoy each moment. Thank you for sharing this with us.

[Steve63130]

HappyinHeels, Good post, and I agree with your viewpoint 100%. However, you should be aware that there are a lot of people on here who may disagree with your post (but may be too polite to protest). Many guys are into high heels only for the fetish or arousal aspect, and they view hh just as a turn-on. Not only do they not want to wear heels in public, they fear that if it ever becomes common to see guys in heels in public, the taboo by definition will disappear, and with it the source of their arousal. Those here who used to wear for fetish reasons and now wear often in public have attested to the fact that the arousal does disappear with frequent wearing. I'm just saying that there may be quite a few guys who don't want this to happen, and who would therefore disagree with your philosophy. Steve

[SleekHeels]

That last part really sums it all up for me:

This is a good website because it makes us think. Maybe now it will help all of us to grow.

Reading peoples opinions and experiences on this forum has really helped me think about why I'd fear wearing heels in public and why I'd want to overcome that fear. For me it was a fear of being misunderstood and a desire to challenge the prejudice behind that. Unfortunately many people would see guys (and maybe also girls) in heels as a sign of moral decline in society without questioning some of the social conditioning that defines and constrains our lives. That makes me not only want to wear my heels but wear them positively so that rather than just question my unusual fashion choices an observer might question their own preconceptions too. Of the 200 people in HappyinHeels example, even if we only make a couple of them think outside their box each time then that's progress and not decline.

[Shafted]

Happyinheels, You have exactly the attitude that is required to show others that if acceptance can had it is through wearing our heels in public. That is how society's attitude's is changed, bottom line.

[Histiletto]

Thanks HappyinHeels for mentioning that I had a part in your posting of this thread, but the credit really belongs to a great number of other men and women for sharing their opinions, passions and experiences about high heels. To think there are such intense feelings for these items of footwear that we are willing to risk time, money, stability, status, associations, and internet space just to deal with and fill our desire to have and wear them, or in some cases, enjoying the presence of others, such as friends, a spouse, or complete strangers as they wear heels. Women even view heels in a kind of ownership and they view men wanting the same footwear choices as threatening to their identity. Yet women have incorporated lines of menswear and they still appeal to the male drive. It seems social stereotyping has replaced getting to know the real person and caring for them as they are, instead of comparing them to social idols that usually reflect images that most people are not like and would only loose their identity trying to portray such expectations. Examples of these personas are: the Barbie and Ken features, the comic heroes and heroins, the exceptional athletes, the celebrities, or anyone that has been acclaimed for the realms of mortal Godhood because they fit the ideals of the social stereotypes as long as their flaws are ignored, hidden, or incorporated into their characteristic identity. For the years I grew up thinking I was the only male in existence that had the same desire that females are perceived to have for heels. This prompted a self-image of a human that had his personality wiring unusually connected, since every male around me didn't exhibit any tendencies for the same desire and a few of them could have been classified as effeminate personalities. In having such desires, I got the message that should I reveal such yearnings publicly, I would be viewed as a mentally deranged individual and exiled to the status of not being able to fit in. To a child, such public sentencing is devastating. At home though, my parents and siblings didn't know how to deal with my desire, so it was kind of swept under the rug and never discussed, except for the times of disciplining upon being discovered for my desire to heel, which resulted in the barrowing, without permission, of my sister's patent leather shoes for a number of nightly romps through dreamland or the occasions of wearings them when I was left alone at home. I probably would have barrowed mom's heels, but she seem to quit wearing them after her child bearing years took their toll on her health. Besides, up until my latter teen years, my feet were close enough to the same size as my sister's, so her patent leathers were the logical choice under such circumstances. I know this account sounds like nothing else was important to me, but this is a channeled and very skimpy description of my life as a child to give you an idea of the mindset I have to overcome each time I publicly heel now, even though the public perception has eased concerning male heeling.

[HappyinHeels]

Steve63130 makes a good point about those that wear high heels for the arousal factor and choose to live in the shadows but that isn't the audience the thread was intended for. I want to reach the multitudes who just want to go out into the world dressed the way they want with all the confidence that this website can give them. The importance of the confidence gained through sharing and learning on this website cannot be emphasized enough as we all tend to go about our lives and look to wear our shoes within the zones of comfort we create for ourselves. We'll do it on a certain day after work, or on a business trip, or on vacation out-of-town, or perhaps even with our girlfriend or spouse. But most of us, I suspect, deal with these issues ALONE which makes the prospect of a biological man stepping into the public world with heels on a frightening idea with preconceived ideas of a bogeyman that rarely if ever shows his face in public, only in own minds. This is where this site, and all the named and unnamed supportive souls that are its core, play their most crucial role. Every time one of our members decides to be the next one that first step is taken and the thought of "I wonder where HiStiletto or roniheels or Bubba136 might be at this very moment?" The list of all that contribute is very long for sure. And for all the potential threat to a woman's identity by a man wearing heels it is from women that many of us have gotten the lion's share of public support so they should not be overlooked either. I like my shoes and I love living but it would be so much more fun if many of us could find each other and experience it together. In the meantime we all meet here. I took a break from holiday weekend projects to share some thoughts. Hope everyone has a pleasant weekend. HappyinHeels:wave:

[StormClaw]

One Word in your post grabbed my attention...Alone.Many of us that start of heeling do it alone,not sure how to tell the people close to you and how theyll react.My one friend for example,totally accepting about my love for heels.The other one not,He'd die if he saw me in heels again,heels is an uncomfortable subject that we dont even discuss about women wearing heels. So for beginners,me included, it is difficult to have the full courage as when you heel with someone.But thanks to your(HappyinHeels) and all of the other big heelers' posts we get the courage.I for one would like heels to be a part of my everyday life and not just a fetish.

[ChipsHH]

As a pic collector (don't judge me!), I believe I can help [Happyinheels] on the picture crisis....maybe...

[ChipsHH]

For the years I grew up thinking I was the only male in existence that had the same desire that females are perceived to have for heels. This prompted a self-image of a human that had his personality wiring unusually connected, since every male around me didn't exhibit any tendencies for the same desire and a few of them could have been classified as effeminate personalities. In having such desires, I got the message that should I reveal such yearnings publicly, I would be viewed as a mentally deranged individual and exiled to the status of not being able to fit in. To a child, such public sentencing is devastating.

I can't believe you described me all in this one paragraph. I was young when I started growing curious about women's shoes. Then the curiosity blew into a flaming arousal every time I'd seen a pair that caught my fancy. It wasn't until the start of adolescence that I started experimenting with my mom's own shoes, since were the same size that year. Of course, I didn't have any way to publicly "show-off" that I was different. But, as a child, I felt even more different and weird than I had already been (and lemme just say, the years before didn't exactly improve my reputation). So I kept it on the "down-low" for the time being.

I believe a year or two later, I started to browse the web for any leads towards why I could like heels to this extent, and why me, because I felt extremely isolated from every kid my age. And I needed an answer immediately to satisfy my growing intellect of interest.

I guess you can say that this was my Origins of finding the site. And I have Google to thank for it It wasn't even a simple search of "High Heel Place". I believe I was doing my timely Google search on high heel pictures, which them blossomed to people in high heels and then went to ballet heels (I still remember the first video I ever watched on that topic). And, of course, here I am now.

I know it's completely off-topic, but I felt like I should post that little inquiry to take it off my mind and share it with those I know and relate to best.