What about Donald.... T not D!

[Black_Boots]

Hi Guys,

Now the your new President was elected, and based on his orientation, I would like to know if you could feel a difference, for those who "Heel" outside or not.

Viewd from here (Europe), the situation changes on a daily basis.

All the best.

[Bigfoot15]

Sorry but this is the one forum that I like to visit and post and not have to give shit about political views. What difference does a new president have to do with the way I address my heeling.

[mlroseplant]

Yeah, I think maybe we should leave this alone. That's the least of our worries, heeling-wise. 

[SF]

Funny I don't give it a thought, never have.  i wear my high heels and could care less about who the president or prime minister or queen or whoever is......  This is a friendly high heel site, lets leave the politics elsewhere, it's just better that way....   Have fun heeling...   sf

[Thighbootguy]

38 minutes ago, mlroseplant said:

That's the least of our worries, heeling-wise. 

Well almost...  I posted my concerns about an embolden public back in November and I think things have cooled down a bit but it doesn't take much to start things up again.  My November Concerns

Edited February 1, 2017 by Thighbootguy

[Black_Boots]

Sorry, I did not want to bring any political discussion on the Forum, it was just to know if that had any influence on people's ability to feel free to tell bad comments...

May be due to my low level of English, I did not expressed myself correctly.

 

[Thighbootguy]

3 minutes ago, Black_Boots said:

May be due to my low level of English, I did not expressed myself correctly.

Your English is fine, and I agree with most of the posters that it is a relief to have a place where politics is not a major topic.

My concern last November was with the potential of embolden negative reaction to anyone doing anything out of the main-stream of what is considered "normal".  Fortunately I have not experienced an increase in negative reactions to my wearing OTK boots with 4" heels.

[Heelster]

5 hours ago, Thighbootguy said:

Your English is fine, and I agree with most of the posters that it is a relief to have a place where politics is not a major topic.

My concern last November was with the potential of embolden negative reaction to anyone doing anything out of the main-stream of what is considered "normal".  Fortunately I have not experienced an increase in negative reactions to my wearing OTK boots with 4" heels.

I haven't seen too much, but I will say the Neanderthal Neocons around these parts or much more vocal. 

[Jkrenzer]

Two things.

The majority of the people who did vote for him actually voted against the status quo in Washington. He is really not a Republican but rather a true outsider. He has a lot of liberal views, but for the most part he is all about himself. 

2nd, he did lose the popular vote so people didn't suddenly change. I agree some more vocal people.  Over Halloween I was at a party with my wife in very aggressive two toned black and white spectator heels. Most of the people there were big trump supporters and very vocal about him turning Washington upside down, yet all saw my heels and none cared less.

I voted for her, and she's the worst person I have ever voted for, but she wasn't him. All said, don't worry about your shoes, people really don't care.

[maninpumps]

I would have to agree about people are not worried about shoes ...unless we can't find the style in our size . So far as Trump or Hillary they both had some ugly shoes . The election is over , time to lick our wounds and move on . 

MIP

[Bigfoot15]

Sorry, I didn't mean to be so harsh in my post. I guess I am just sick of hearing about the election and it is everywhere. I don't like to get involved in political or religious discussions. Everybody has an opinion about everything and I like to keep those two to myself. I like heeling and discussing it on this forum because it is the way I relax.

[Thighbootguy]

2 hours ago, Bigfoot15 said:

I like heeling and discussing it on this forum because it is the way I relax.

Around here, elevating the level of the discussion of done by putting on higher heels.

[Pumped]

I get a kick out of all the people screaming about Trump taking g away thier rights, and he has not done much yet. This Muslim thing is Interesting, something needed to be done about imigration and watching out who are let into the USA, but not sure what.

[robbiehhw]

I don't see any changes where i live. A very liberal city in a very liberal state (Our Governor is LGTBQ) Will there be an attempt at cultural backlash toward LGTBQ people in some areas yeah sure there will be as well as more racism etc., but ultimately it will fail because public opinion is solidly shifted in favor of diversity and away from fundamentalist religion. I'm a trans woman and i feel safe. I also feel emboldened to be an activist and make those that would take rights of people away, pay for that attempt politically.

 

[Heelster]

6 hours ago, robbiehhw said:

but ultimately it will fail because public opinion is solidly shifted in favor of diversity and away from fundamentalist religion

I wish I wasn't saying this, but that's not what I'm seeing. Get out in the rural areas, and the shift you mentioned seems to heading the other way. 

[SF]

stallin, castro, mao, pol pot took rights away from their people, millions of innocents paid with their lives.....   Think about it.....   

Now can we just get back to discussing high heels??  All this "tolerance" is getting to be a bit much and frankly quite boring.....  

Edited February 3, 2017 by SF
typo

[mlroseplant]

1 hour ago, SF said:

Now can we just get back to discussing high heels?? 

I think we can do it! Nevertheless, I think this is a rather useful conversation, if we simply leave the elected politics out of it. Since the subject has already been brought up, and the thread is getting a lot of traffic, I would like to discuss something @Heelster often brings up, the "politics" of surviving as a heeler in the blue collar world. This sort of applies to everyone in a way, but especially to us sweat-of-the-brow types. Isn't @CAT a laborer or something like this? I have a story I would like to tell about something that happened a couple of weeks ago, right before I left for vacation.

I am working on a large construction project which employs several hundred workers of all trades and from all over the country (USA, of course). I have been there for more than two years, and I expect to be there for at least another year, who knows, maybe even longer. I am lucky to be a local and I get to sleep in my own bed every night. Each company has to employ a certain number of full-time safety people. I won't say the safety people never get dirty, but basically they don't. They walk around a lot and observe. There is this one safety guy from our company that showed up one day wearing some "fancy" jeans. I never actually saw them, I don't know if they just had some fancy stitching on the pockets, or rhinestones, or what, but I know a lot of the guys were giving him a hard time about wearing them, saying the usual things about questioning his masculinity, and so on and so forth. We never saw these jeans again, but the comments persisted for a few days afterwards.

OK, pretty normal behavior for a construction site, Heelster would back me up on this. But here's the thing: If it had been me wearing the jeans instead of the safety guy, I guarantee you I would have been given a pass on it, more or less. One of the guys giving this safety guy a hard time seems to have no problem going out to the bar with me when I'm wearing my high heels and skinny jeans. The other guy who was a main instigator has never actually seen me outside of work, but he knows about me. There would be no problem there, I am very confident. And yet, I have no idea why this should be so. It may be because I've been around for so long. It may be because I am well-liked and respected as both a foreman and a worker. It may be because I have been tireless in my advocacy for trying to improve working conditions and morale on the job site, both with my mighty fountain pen, and with a microphone (you would be surprised at how many waves a well-penned letter or a few well-spoken sentences creates, when delivered to the right people).

So my invitation is, I would like to hear your ideas about what really makes people tick. Is this a unique situation for me? I do not have a forceful personality by any stretch of the imagination. My point is, I appear to be able to express myself in my dress and my appearance, and I seem to be getting by with it, and I theoretically shouldn't be able to get by with it. Sometimes, it boggles the mind. When is the party going to end? Will I have to pay the Piper someday?

[robbiehhw]

15 hours ago, Heelster said:

I wish I wasn't saying this, but that's not what I'm seeing. Get out in the rural areas, and the shift you mentioned seems to heading the other way. 

Yes no argument that the rural urban divide is huge, but there are far far fewer people out there than in the cities and on the coasts. Electoral College notwithstanding, this bodes pretty well for the political future but also the acceptance of alternative identities and even things like non-mainstream dressing.

[robbiehhw]

12 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

 And yet, I have no idea why this should be so. It may be because I've been around for so long. It may be because I am well-liked and respected as both a foreman and a worker. It may be because I have been tireless in my advocacy for trying to improve working conditions and morale on the job site, both with my mighty fountain pen, and with a microphone (you would be surprised at how many waves a well-penned letter or a few well-spoken sentences creates, when delivered to the right people).

So my invitation is, I would like to hear your ideas about what really makes people tick. Is this a unique situation for me? I do not have a forceful personality by any stretch of the imagination. My point is, I appear to be able to express myself in my dress and my appearance, and I seem to be getting by with it, and I theoretically shouldn't be able to get by with it. Sometimes, it boggles the mind. When is the party going to end? Will I have to pay the Piper someday?

Long ago, this was probably about 1991 i was working a job that required me to visit residential construction sites pretty regularity. To protect myself from the mud, i did not want to wear my decent snow boots because and they were too hot anyways. I had no work boots even though some steel toe protection would have likely been wise. Instead, i found a pair of women's rain boots on sale, plain black but shiny and the lining was leopard skin if i am remembering correctly and i thought "oh bonus they are girl's too" . I would put on/remove the muddy boots will sitting on the back of my jeep at the time. 

Well i wore them for pretty much a year and nobody (to my face anyways, i don't care about anything else) ever negatively commented me on them. Curiously one man actually said " I had a pair like those but i burned through them pretty quickly, you should get these". I'm positive they were recognized as women's.

Edited February 3, 2017 by robbiehhw

[HappyinHeels]

BlackBoots,

Your ability to wear heels or not has little to do with election results and everything to do with confidence results inside your own mind. Just like closed-minded people who can't accept an election result and use it as a wedge tool to moving forward as a  person so too can a person who fails to clear their mind of mental obstructions create their own wall and then convince themselves the world hasn't changed the way they wanted. As Ghandi said "be the change you most want to see". Your mind is like a parachute. It only works when it is wide open. HappyinHeels

 

[Black_Boots]

On ‎05‎.‎02‎.‎2017 at 0:14 AM, HappyinHeels said:

 It only works when it is wide open. HappyinHeels

 

I like this one!

[geot]

Funny thing is some people, especially those on the left of the political spectrum, automatically assume Trump and Republicans are anti LGBTQ, but the only place I received a worrying reaction from someone for wearing heels was thoroughly liberal Portland Oregon, and that was from a couple of bearded plaid-wearing hipster dudes. No issues in the UK, many different places in Georgia and Florida and even Kansas City and surrounding areas, which is pretty rural bible-belt. Although I was cautioned against wearing heels outside in Paris (France) some years ago. Never was able to go to the Netherlands, so no idea what kind of reaction it would get out there. I guess my point is that the resident of whatever seat of national power (The White House, 10 Downing Street, etc.) only really matters to a small section of society, usually the most vocal, but everyone else just gets on with living their lives how best suits them. Politicians come, politicians go, life goes on regardless.

[SF]

Get....  Great observation and comment.  Thank you.....  sf

[robbiehhw]

13 hours ago, geot said:

Funny thing is some people, especially those on the left of the political spectrum, automatically assume Trump and Republicans are anti LGBTQ, but the only place I received a worrying reaction from someone for wearing heels was thoroughly liberal Portland Oregon, and that was from a couple of bearded plaid-wearing hipster dudes. No issues in the UK, many different places in Georgia and Florida and even Kansas City and surrounding areas, which is pretty rural bible-belt. Although I was cautioned against wearing heels outside in Paris (France) some years ago. Never was able to go to the Netherlands, so no idea what kind of reaction it would get out there. I guess my point is that the resident of whatever seat of national power (The White House, 10 Downing Street, etc.) only really matters to a small section of society, usually the most vocal, but everyone else just gets on with living their lives how best suits them. Politicians come, politicians go, life goes on regardless.

The assumption made about the right is correct based on the massive weight of evidence and their track record of opposing equality legislation, silly bathroom bills and talk of "religious liberty" to name just a few and there are many more.  Their record on opposing our rights goes way back. Your experiences in "liberal" areas are certainly valid, but i will say much different than mine. I live in Oregon, except for the rural east part of the state, intolerance is pretty rare. I've traveled in many areas the UK, France, Russia, Japan and many more and i invariably urban areas to be pretty accepting. The exceptions to this were where you would expect, Africa and the middle east.

Despite the bump in the road of the current admin, i suspect a lot of good will come from this as well. Organizations, activism etc Gender Variance, being outside of the norm in many ways including dress has a bright cultural future.

[Thighbootguy]

35 minutes ago, robbiehhw said:

Organizations, activism etc Gender Variance, being outside of the norm in many ways including dress has a bright cultural future.

I really hope so.

[SF]

Intolerance from people on the left is very sickening......    And hypocritical too, a real shame in this modern world.....  

Escape the darkness, there is a bright light shining out there, relax, smile and go find it.....   

Now back to the subject of enjoying high heels.....  Please.....   Peace, love, and old volkswagens......   Smile,  sf

[mlroseplant]

On 2/8/2017 at 11:29 AM, SF said:

  Now back to the subject of enjoying high heels.....  Please.....   Peace, love, and old volkswagens......   Smile,  sf

I did try to redirect. Evidently, it didn't work. Sorry man, I tried!

[blueparrot]

I got a LOT more crap in Phoenix than the Dallas Metroplex.  They LOVE boots here and I get compliments all the time.  The worst people I've ever been harassed by were college students near ASU in Tempe. 

[mlroseplant]

1 hour ago, blueparrot said:

I got a LOT more crap in Phoenix than the Dallas Metroplex.  They LOVE boots here and I get compliments all the time.  The worst people I've ever been harassed by were college students near ASU in Tempe. 

College students can be the most open minded, wonderful people. After all, they are generally young and experiencing new ideas, meeting people from many different backgrounds, and they generally have sufficient free time to be happy and experience life. On the other hand, they can also be real jerks, especially when drinking. And sometimes it swings the other way, even without alcohol. One of my "negative" experiences (I use quotes because nothing ever came of it) was when I was at community orchestra rehearsal, and one of the college student wind players asked a friend of mine (he didn't realize she was my friend) something to the effect of, "How come that guy always wears high heels? That's just kind of weird." She told me she kind of looked at him incredulously and said, "I don't know. Why don't you simply ask him? He probably just likes them." The young man never did approach or interact with me in any way. Oh, well.

[Thighbootguy]

10 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

College students can be the most open minded, wonderful people. After all, they are generally young and experiencing new ideas, meeting people from many different backgrounds, and they generally have sufficient free time to be happy and experience life. On the other hand, they can also be real jerks, especially when drinking. And sometimes it swings the other way, even without alcohol

My experience with collage students is as with most groups,"There's strength in numbers",and "Follow the leader".  As many here have noted, most individuals are too wrapped up in their own world to notice anything else, but when you gather those individuals into a herd a leader can take over sometimes with disastrous results.