I admit it, I watch trashy TV shows...

[pebblesf]

I'm not afraid to admit it, I love watching mindless TV shows like "Vanderpump Rules".   Yeah, I know, it's phony stuff staged for ratings, but I watch this stuff just the same...

I have always admired "Tom Sandoval", he takes great pride in his appearance, and always puts pleny of effort into all his outfits.  I'm not crazy about Tom's drag outfit, he has done better, but he is killing it in those ankle boots!

vanderpump rules tom in drag boots - Google Search

[CrushedVamp]

I am a little more traditional, but some shows you can just count upon for some nice high heels. Kelly Bundy on Married with Children seems to always wear a pair of high heels at some point on the show, but even crime dramas like Rossetti and Isles gives a nod to the power of high heels on an actress with the coroner wearing them in almost every episode, and who can forget Leverage, who even made fun of themselves in one episode for always having high heels at play when  Sophie Devereaux mentions "having an emergency pair of high heels" with her at an airport.

There are a ton more, but really no matter what your visual interest might be, you can often find writers or directors who like the same thing as you, and see them subtly show up again and again in shows. 

[Shyheels]

Hollywood loves high  heels. They are a visual shorthand for establishing a female character -  stilettos are perfect for the worldly sophisticate, the empowered corporate high-flyer, the villainess, the bitch, the super-girly chick. Likewise they are perfect for delineating the ingenue - the sweet young thing who totters in heels as a way of establishing her unfamiliarity such big-city empowerment. Think of the Devi Wears Prade where innocent down-home Andie takes a job at that fashion magazine and finds herself overwhelmed  and surrounded by "the clackers", her derisive term for her stiletto-wearing colleagues and formidable boss. She's nice girl who shows up in flats and a jumper.

In a narrative arc that bears more than a passing resemblance to a morality play she becomes one of the clackers herself, her character changes and she's no longer so nice. This being Hollywood of course, she has a Damascene moment and redeems herself,. She quits her glamorous job at the fashion magazine, returned to her old true friends, gets a 'real' journalism job at a downbeat newspaper and in a final act of renunciation gives away all those freebie fashions she was given while at the fashion magazine.

All but one, that is. In the last scene we see her walking confidently through the city , on her way to her new job, the old Andie but now wiser for experience - and wearing a pair of stiletto boots. One aspect of her old jazzy life she decided to keep. Some kind of interesting message there ...  

[Cali]

You will see stilettos on a lot on women that 'host' talk shoes, news casters - especially 'weather girls', and politicians.

 

And me if I ever get on TV.

Edited Wednesday at 06:32 AM by Cali

[mlroseplant]

And then, there is social media. I am familiar with a certain gal who portrays herself as a young, self-made millionaire. She is always in high heels, except for sports activities. I do not know this young woman personally, but I know people who do. According to those in the know, it's all an act. She doesn't really dress like that every day.

For some reason, I seem to have attracted this young lady's attention, because she sent me a private message and requested that I send her some pictures of my shoe collection, as she likes my style. As long as the conversation never turns into me investing in Vietnamese stocks, I'm cool with that. My point is, for us, it's not an act. We really do dress like that every day. I think people appreciate that.

[Shyheels]

Indeed with rare exception I think more of the sleek posing on Instagram is fake. I do know and follow a couple of style influencers who are quite genuine, but they are not pretending to be millionaires either. One of them is always in heels, but there is no question that is her genuine style. She writes quite long and thoughtful posts.

Bit most of the others are just painful to see - trying hard to fake it until they make it

[CrushedVamp]

On 1/14/2025 at 10:48 PM, Shyheels said:

Hollywood loves high  heels. They are a visual shorthand for establishing a female character -  stilettos are perfect for the worldly sophisticate, the empowered corporate high-flyer, the villainess, the bitch, the super-girly chick.

And to be fair I have done this myself in a recent novel.

In my case an adult daughter of 24 years old with a self-sufficient homestead was trying to figure out where her place was in the world and yet it was NOTHING like her attorney mother. This bothered her mother to no end. It was not so much in showing that her mother wore high heels as much as her daughter would not be caught dead in them, even when she went to court. While it was not THE PREMISE of the novel, in the end her mother had learned to accept her daughter even if she was taking a much different path. And what the two wore for shoes was true symbolism of that... her mother struggling down a hiking path on her daughter's homestead wearing high heels was as telling about her personality as her daughter was in wearing Birkenstock's to a court hearing.

If this sounds like it was anti-high heels I assure you it was not. The novel was about self-sufficient farming with legal troubles. It was just how the story worked itself out. My wife and I adore high heels, and HATE the look of Birkenstock's but you can't always write about just the things you love when you are a writer. The story (novel) just has to work.

[Shyheels]

Not at all anti high heels - in these things the story is king and the characters do as they will. Thats just good writing.