Perceptions

[Shyheels]

One of the additional strings to my bow as a freelance writer and photographer is escorting tour groups - giving lectures etc. I don't do a lot of it, three or four times a year, but the gigs are always nice ones and takes me to interesting places. I used to go all over the world, as with my other assignments, but these days, having grown weary of flying and all the attendant hassles, I stick to Britain. At any rate, I am on such a trip now. Yesterday I was taking to my group about Charles II. In addition to talking about the politics of the Restoration I talked about his coronation portrait - now hanging in the throne room in Holyrood House in Edinburgh. Aside from his holding a sceptre and orb, as symbols of newly restored royal power, he's wearing four inch heels. I mentioned this fact to see the reaction. It was dispiriting, but not surprising. 

My group, 24 elderly Americans, smirked, sniggered, mocked, and cooed and ran through all the trite schoolground mockery. There was something so drearily predictable, unthinking and Pavlovian about it.

I explained the history of heels, how they'd been a masculine fashion and how the cultural shifts in the Age of Enlightenment, with his emphasis on science, philosophy, comics and political thought changed men's fashion forever, while women, seen as ineducable, were allowed to keep their pretty colours, laces, silks and heels. My group were quite interested, I could see that, but then, as though on replay came the same smirking, cooking and mocking yet again. It was like they were on a continuous loop, stuck in a rut.

  Part of me felt like telling them I had a pair of 12cm stilettos in my room I am practicing with, but I need this gig. 

[mlroseplant]

Not wholly surprising, especially for that age group (which is getting to be my own age group at an alarming clip). In my experience, which is admittedly limited, people tend to react better to the real thing than they do to the idea. When people actually meet me in person, I get the distinct impression that many of these chucklers and chortlers think to themselves, "OK, that's a little different, but we can go with that." Whereas the idea of a drag queen reading books to their grandchildren upsets them greatly. I know--apples and oranges--but you get the idea.

Not that I am suggesting you do so, discretion being the greater part of valor, but if you were to show up to your tour group, dressed as you normally do for such a gig, except wearing 4 inch block heeled boots, I bet the reaction would be generally much less than their reaction to Charles II.

[Shyheels]

I know what you mean. I could probably get away with knee boots with chunky heels - but I’ve also learned that elderly American tour group people are utterly unpredictable and can either like or hate you for the flimsiest and wackiest of reasons. 

[mlroseplant]

Fair enough assessment. I am totally biased, since I live in a small town, and people either know me personally, or know me by reputation. I am not aware of any haters. I'm sure they exist, but I don't wanna know.

[Shyheels]

Leading tour groups is a really fraught business. You simply never know which way they’ll turn. The only safe thing is utter neutrality in just about everything. From the outside it looks like really easy money but it really isn’t. 

[mlroseplant]

Haha, one of my favorite musings: "Ya know, it's not always just about doing it the easy way.  .  . [pregnant pause] Which is a good thing, because we're sure NOT doing it the easy way!" Usually said while lifting something really heavy, and probably unnecessarily.

[Shyheels]

Definitely doing very hard work this week. I can’t believe I still have another two days to go, and then a week later I comeback to do all this again …!

[higherheels]

Even though in Germany it's very uncommon (or even non-existent) for men to wear high heels, I believe that the reactions would have been different. Most people wouldn't know about this history and rather be interested in it.

[Shyheels]

7 minutes ago, higherheels said:

Even though in Germany it's very uncommon (or even non-existent) for men to wear high heels, I believe that the reactions would have been different. Most people wouldn't know about this history and rather be interested in it.

Yes the story of how heels came to Europe and became a masculine fashion, later to be repudiated during the Age of Enlightenment is fascinating. I’ve done a fair bit of reading and research on the subject since I first learned of it and when I tell people about it they are invariably interested, even if they scoff at the idea of men in heels.

Humans are a strange species 

[higherheels]

Yes, humans definitely are a strange species 😀

Many cultural norms are so manifested that people can't think outside of them.

I was also surprised that there are mostly men here on hhplace, like how could it be if I don't know of any man wearing high heels? But I'm open-minded and for sure learned a bit already 🙂

[Shyheels]

I suppose it is odd that there are so many men on a high heel forum. We’re we’d a pretty normal lot really, whatever our out of the ordinary fashion tastes.  I was always curious to try wearing heels - perhaps it’s the people-watching travel writer in me and my fascination with the foreign and exotic. Heels looked fun, stylish, a challenge and had the additional allure of the forbidden. I originally was just interested in trying 8-10cm chunky heel boots - a kind of edgier version of the hiking boots I’ve lived in for ages. I tried them and really liked them and was emboldened to push the envelope a bit further into the world of stilettos. And now trying 12cm stilettos- the black diamond slope of high heels!

[higherheels]

I can relate to what got you into high heels. It's actually not that different from myself.

And even though I'm a woman, I sometimes feel like an outlaw for wearing heels. In my youth it was totally normal for most girls to try high heels, and see how far we can go 😉

Nowadays I'm already an outlaw for wearing heels to the office, not even speaking of wearing anything more than a 10 cm heel.

[Shyheels]

Yes! That’s one of the things about heels that fascinates me. There is sort of this “official” view these days that they are tools of the patriarchy, designed to hobble and objectify women, and must therefore be discarded and abandoned.

on the other hand high heels are worn with panache by some of the most powerful women in the world who spend small fortunes on designer heels and speak of the sense of empowerment that comes with putting on a pair of lofty stilettos and striding into a meeting.

what’s the story? Nobody waxes lyrical about their hiking boots or a pair of loafers but you can fill a book with quotes about the transforming magic of high heels.

Heels are a fascinating cultural icon

Edited 1 hour ago by Shyheels

[higherheels]

33 minutes ago, Shyheels said:

what’s the story? Nobody waxes lyrical about their hiking boots or a pair of loafers but you can fill a book with quotes about the transforming magic of high heels.

Absolutely true. And heels don't get boring, even after decades. As it can be seen very well with our spontaneous height challenge 😉

[Shyheels]

Indeed not boring at all! So much more fun than flats - and quite liberating to step outside the pigeonholes.

it always strikes me as funny to think that if we were to read in National Geographic about a tribe of South Sea islanders who’d developed all these complex and contradictory taboos about a style feature on their footwear, we’d smile and find it quaint but amongst ourselves we take it so incredibly seriously, as though it were a natural law, something encoded in our chromosomes: women wear high heels, men do not.